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Contemporary Ethics

Code: 100283 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500246 Philosophy OB 3

Contact

Name:
Jordi Riba Miralles
Email:
jordi.riba@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

No requirement

Objectives and Contextualisation

- Discover the main tendencies and authors of moral thinking in the 19th and 20th centuries.

- Play an active role in developing the content through oral interventions from students.


Competences

  • Analysing and summarising the main arguments of fundamental texts of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Applying the knowledge of ethics to the moral problems of society, and assessing the implications about the human condition of changes in the world of contemporary techniques.
  • Recognising and interpreting topics and problems of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Recognising the philosophical implications of the scientific knowledge.
  • 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 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.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Ability to maintain an appropriate conversation.
  2. Accurately drawing up normative texts.
  3. Accurately using the specific lexicon of the history of philosophy.
  4. Analysing the main ethical concepts in the current moral dilemmas.
  5. Assessing a concrete ethical position, in the context of the current world's problems.
  6. Assessing the legitimacy of the thesis defended by participants of the most important contemporary controversies.
  7. Assessing the philosophical importance of several factors of current social conflicts.
  8. Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network.
  9. Carrying out oral presentations using an appropriate academic vocabulary and style.
  10. Effectively communicating and applying the argumentative and textual processes to formal and scientific texts.
  11. Establishing relationships between science, philosophy, art, religion, politics, etc.
  12. Explaining the philosophical importance of contemporary science and its implementation area.
  13. Judging the moral impact of new technological developments on humans.
  14. Reading basic philosophical text thoroughly.
  15. Relating the characteristic elements and factors of the philosophical tradition.
  16. Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  17. Summarising the main arguments of the great contemporary texts of ethics and political philosophy.
  18. Summarising the topics and arguments exposed in a classical philosophical debate.
  19. Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.

Content

1. The philosophical crisis of the nineteenth century and its effect on practical philosophy 

2. The construction of moral individuality: Schleiermacher, Stirner, Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard. 

3. Criticism of the Kantian moral imperative: Nietzsche, Guyau, Durkheim and Simmel 

4. From the morals of duty to the morals of responsibility: Guyau, Simmel, Weber 

5. The sociologization of morality: Durkheim, Levy-Bruhl 

6. Ethics amb Fenomenology: Scheller, Sartre and Levinas

7. From ethics to politics: Arendt, Rancière, Badiou


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Comment, expose texts 45 1.8 8, 2, 11, 12, 10, 9, 19, 14, 1, 15, 18, 3
Type: Supervised      
Readings of texts and other writings 20 0.8 4, 12, 5, 13, 7, 18
Type: Autonomous      
Classes, explanation of texts 70 2.8 10, 9, 13, 14, 1, 3

The course methodology will based strictly on continuous and joint assessment of the subject:

1) Students will undertake comprehensive readings of seminal texts on topics related to the subject as preparation for participation in formal discussion sessions. These texts will be made available to students via the virtual campus one week before the joint discussion class.

2) The teacher will provide theoretical explanations about key points of the subject syllabus.

3) Under the teacher's supervision, the students will choose one topic from the syllabus and give a group oral presentation about it.

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.

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.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Oral presentation in group 40% 6 0.24 4, 12, 10, 9, 19, 5, 6, 13, 14, 1, 7, 17, 18, 3
Text comment1 20% 2 0.08 4, 8, 2, 11, 10, 9, 19, 5, 6, 14, 1, 7, 16, 15, 17, 18, 3
Text comment2 40% 7 0.28 4, 8, 2, 11, 12, 19, 5, 6, 13, 14, 7, 16, 15, 17, 18, 3

- The assessment process comprises three activities spread across the year: Text comment1 (20%), text coment2 (40%), Oral presentation in group(40%).

 

The single assessment will be a written test consisting of three parts:

-Short questions to be developed from the first part of the subject (40%)

-Short questions to be developed from the second part of the subject (40%)

-text comment (20%)

The recovery of the single evaluation will be of the same characteristics.

 


Bibliography

 

Bergson, H. Las dos fuentes de la moral , Madrid, Tecnos, 

Feuerbach, L. Manifestos Antropológicos,

Guyau, J-M. Esbozo de una moral sin obligación ni sanción, ed. Descontrol, Barcelona, 2015.

Guyau, J-M. Esquisse d'une morale sans obligation ni sanction, Payot, Paris, 2012..

Kierkegaard, S. Las obras del amor, Sígueme, Salamanca, 2006.

Kropotkin, P. Ètica, Júcar, Avilés, 1976.

NietzscheF. Genealogia de la moral , Madrid, Alianza, 

Schleiermacher, Monólogos, Barcelona, Anthropos, 

Schopenhauer, A. Los dos problemas fundamentales de la ética, Madrid, SigloXXI, 2002.

Simmel, G. La ley individual, Paidós, Barcelona, 2005.

Stirner, El único y su propiedad.

 

Bibliografía complementaria

 

Andolfi, F. La ética de Schleiermacher, 

Brentano, F, Las razones del desaliento en la filosofía, Madrid, Encuentro, 2010.

Brentano, F. El porvenir de la filosofía, Salamanca, Encuentro, …

Freuler, L, La crise de la philosophie au XIX siècle, Vrin, Paris, 1997.

Lipovetski, G. El ocaso del deber, Barcelona, Anagrama, 

Löwith, K. de Hegel a Nietzsche

Riba, J. “Hijos de Kant” Intrducción a Simmel, G. La Ley individual, Barcelona, Paidós, 2005.

Simmel, G. Las dos formas del individualismo, en Simmel, G. La Ley individual, Barcelona, Paidós, 2005.

 


Software

no program required


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed