Practical Philosophy
Code: 100291 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2500246 Philosophy | FB | 1 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Daniel Gamper Sachse
- Email:
- daniel.gamper@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.
Prerequisites
It is recommended that students have knowledge of English and French to access directly to some of the bibliographic sources that will be analysed throughout the course.
Objectives and Contextualisation
Practical philosophy is the philosophical study of politics and ethics. Broadly speaking, it focuses on values, norms, the behaviors of individuals, and the role of institutions in social and political communities.
The specific objective of the course is to provide students with the analytical tools and basic knowledge of different theoretical frameworks, so that they can respond with depth and critical spirit to some elementary questions of practical thinking. The fields in which we will situate ourselves are political philosophy and ethics.
From the reading and analysis of classical and contemporary texts, students will become familiar with the central problems and questions of practical philosophy from its origins. Concrete cases and ethical dilemmas will also be treated to illustrate the contents and strengthen critical examination. The course enables students to orient themselves in the history of political philosophy and ethics so that they can analyze classical texts autonomously.
Competences
- Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic valurs.
- Act within one's own area of knowledge, evaluating sex/gender-based inequalities.
- Recognising and interpreting topics and problems of philosophy in its various disciplines.
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
- Thinking in a critical and independent manner on the basis of the specific topics, debates and problems of philosophy, both historically and conceptually.
Learning Outcomes
- Arguing about several issues and philosophical problems for the purpose of different works and the assessment of the results.
- Assess the impact of the difficulties, prejudices and discriminations that actions or projects may involve, in the short or long term, in relation to certain persons or groups.
- Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network.
- Correctly drawing up a previously analysed non-regulatory text.
- Critically analyse the principles, values and procedures the govern professional practice.
- Demonstrating a personal stance over a problem or controversy of philosophical nature, or a work of philosophical research.
- Distinguishing and analysing representative texts of the main genres of the philosophical literature.
- Distinguishing the topics of philosophical relevance in current debates.
- Establishing relationships between science, philosophy, art, religion, politics, etc.
- Explain the code of practice, whether explicit or implicit, in one's own area of knowledge.
- Expressing both orally and in written form, the issues and basic problems of the philosophical tradition.
- Identify the principal sex-/gender-based inequalities and discriminations present in society.
- Organizing their own time and work resources: designing plans with priorities of objectives, calendars and action commitments.
- Relating several ideas of the current philosophical debates.
- Submitting works in accordance with both individual and small group demands and personal styles.
- Summarizing the main arguments of the analysed philosophical texts.
- Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.
Content
-
Justice: Plato - The Republic
2. Citizenship: Aristotle -: Polítics
3. Politics: Machiavelli - The Prince
4. State: Hobbes: Leviathan
5. Soverignty: Rousseau - Social contract
6. Freedom: Mill - On Freedom
7. Introduction to contemporary political philosophy: John Rawls and his critics
Methodology
It is mandatory that students come to class with the texts, which will be indicated throughout the course, read, given that the lectures in class presuppose knowledge of them. However, some of the texts will be worked on directly in class. On this way, the lecture sessions will be combined with a seminar-type part and an argued debate in class.
We will use moodle to share materials and post grades.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lectures and orientation in reading texts | 46.5 | 1.86 | 5, 1, 6, 8, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 2 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Office tutoring | 22.5 | 0.9 | 5, 1, 3, 6, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Reading and elaboration of the evaluation assignments | 75 | 3 | 5, 1, 3, 6, 8, 11, 17, 13, 15, 4, 16 |
Assessment
The evaluation of the course will consist of 3 face-to-face tests (each of which constitutes 1/3 of the final grade) that will take place during class time.
1. Exam. In the exam it will be necessary to demonstrate a sufficient knowledge of the contents worked in the classes and of the obligatory readings, as well as capacity of analysis and critical reflection (Topics 1-2).
2. Exam. In the exam it will be necessary to demonstrate a sufficient knowledge of the contents worked in the classes and of the obligatory readings, as well as capacity of analysis and critical reflection (Topics 3-5).
3. Text commentary. In-person test in which the students will have to make a text commentary (Topics 6-7).
Single evaluation: It will consist of an exam (Topics 1-5) (66%) and a text commentary (Topics 6-7) (33%).
The dates of the tests will be published on moodle. There will be an individual revision of each test if the student requests it.
The correctness of the exposition, the quality of the writing, the argumentation, the solidity of the thesis defended and the knowledge of the evaluated contents will be assessed. The contents of the lectures and the readings of the texts carried out in the classroom and independently will be assessed.
The final mark will take into consideration the student's improvement throughout the course.
Enrolled students will be able to recover, on the date established by the Faculty, the tests that they have either failed or have not taken.
In the case of those who opt for the single evaluation, the same assessment method as continuous assessment will be used.
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the
procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a
review will take place.
Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted
more than 1/3 of the assessment items.
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation
in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this
activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several
irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as
the final grade for this subject.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Exam | 33,3% | 2 | 0.08 | 5, 1, 6, 8, 11, 17, 14 |
| 2. Exam | 33,3% | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 3, 6, 9, 11, 17, 13, 15, 4, 16 |
| 3. Text comentary | 33,3% | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 6, 8, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 14, 16, 2 |
Bibliography
Plato, Republic
Aristotle, Politics
Machiavelli, The Prince
Hobbes, Leviathan
Rousseau, The Social Contract
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice - Political Liberalism
Other:
Victòria Camps, Breve historia de la ética (RBA)
Victòria Camps (ed.), Historia de la ética (Crítica)
Fernando Vallespín, Historia de la Teoría Política (Alianza)
Software
No specific software required.