Modern and Contemporary Ethics (20134)
Degree/study: Degree in Humanities
Year: 3rd - 4th
Term: 2nd
Number of ECTS credits: 5 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 125 hours
Teaching language or languages: spanish
Teaching Staff: Jordi Mir
1. Presentation of the subject
Study and interpretation of the historical periods, main movements and outstanding authors of philosophical reflection about moral issues in the modern and contemporary world. The subject will offer an outlook of modern and postmodern ethics as well as paying attention to central topics, movements and thinkers of the 20th century.
2. Competences to be attained
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General competences |
Specific competences |
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• Knowing and interpreting academic essays in a correct and reasonable way. • Being able to justify opinions with proper arguments and to defend them publicly. • Having an independent reasoning and an analytical distance when dealing with controversial topics. • Knowing that the diversity of viewpoints is essential for academic life and consubstantial to contemporary society. Being able to give opinions respecting differing opinions. • Being curious and wishing to know what is unknown, which is essential to study and work. • Knowing that knowledge is transverse and that it is convenient to combine different academic fields. It is especially important to overcome the division between the so-called two cultures: humanistic and scientific.
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• Being able to know, locate and interpret the main texts about moral philosophy in the modern and contemporary world. • Getting the basic information about what has been known as ethical argumentation in the 20th century. • Being able to easily distinguish between ethics and politics. • Getting precise information to connect ethical problems which have been recurrent during the 20th century to the ones from the 21st century. • Knowing and using the essential case studies and bibliography in order to deal with reasoned interpretations of contemporary moral texts. • Being able to interpret written texts and other documents in a reasonable and proficient way, in order to elaborate a justified opinion.
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3. Contents
Unit 1. What were we talking about when we talked about ethics in the 20th century? Analytical approach to ethics.
Unit 2. Ethics of conviction and ethics of responsibility. Weber's approach to the connection between ethics and politics.
Unit 3. Marxist theory of value and the ethics of compassion. Antonio Gramsci and Simone Weil: a comparison.
Unit 4. Ethics of ambiguity and ethics of existential rebellion: J-P Sartre, De Beauvoir and A. Camus.
Unit 5. Radical evil and the banality of evil. Ethics during and after the Holocaust: K. Jaspers, H. Arendt, P. Levi.
Unit 6. Responsibility principle for future ethics. Ethics to face the ecological crisis: H. Jonas.
Unit 7. What are we talking about when we talk about ethics in the 21st century? Poliethical approach to the postmodern viewpoint.
*The full version with the sections 4. Assessment, 5. Bibliography and teaching resources, 6. Methodology and 7. Planning of activities is available in the original version.
4. Assessment
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5. Bibliography and teaching resources
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5.1. Basic bibliography
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5.2. Complementary bibliography
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5.3. Teaching resources
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6. Metodology
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7. Planning of activities
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