Global Ethics: The Current Debates

GLOBAL ETHICS: THE CURRENT DEBATES - JPB167

ETCS: 6 credits

Prerequisites: None

Taught in WINTER Semester

 

Lecturer: Dr Janusz Salamon

 

Time: TUESDAY, 15.30-16.50

 

PLACE: Jinonice, classroom C123

 

CONTACTS:

Email: janusz.salamon at fsv.cuni.cz

Office hours: Monday, 12.30-14.00 & Tuesday, 14:00-15:30 (3 Tuesdays per month) at office 514 (Floor 5) in Jinonice

also at other times ONLINE after appointment at https://cuni-cz.zoom.us/j/4572739330

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

The course being an introduction to the dynamically growing scholarly fields of "global ethics" which is primarily a sub-discipline of political philosophy, since it deals with the issues related to global justice and injustice and with the question of the very possibility of a meaningful cross-cultural ethical and political conversation leading to consensus, political decisions and action making an impact in the real world in which well over a third of the global population lives below the poverty line. The course is thus designed primarily for students of political science, international relations, economics and other social sciences and humanities (including philosophy), whose future work will require an ability to analyze ethical challenges of the increasingly pluralistic world under the conditions of political, economic and cultural globalization. The course will include only as much ethical theory as is necessary to grasp the basic differences between world's main ethical traditions, while most of the classes will be devoted to discussion of real-life ethical challenges faced at present by humanity in the areas of global politics and economy, as well as in individual lives marked by injustice, unfreedom and destitution. While avoiding the reductionist temptation to play down inter-cultural differences in order to bring out cross-cultural commonalities in various ethical traditions, the course will explore possibilities of a genuinely global consensus with regard to the ethical questions that must be addressed by humankind as a whole.

 

 

COURSE OUTLINE:

Class 01. Introducing Global Ethics

Class 02. John Rawls' "Law of Peoples" - A Limited Contractarian Basis for Global Ethics

Class 03. The Ethics of Migration and International Hospitality

Class 04. Thomas Pogge on Negative Duties Towards the Global Poor - An Expanded Contractarian Basis for Global Ethics

Class 05. The Obligation of Charity in the Face of the World Poverty and the Injustice of the WTO Trade Regime - Peter Singer's Utilitarian (Non-Contractarian) Approach to Moral Duties Beyond Borders

Class 06. Environmental Protection and the Global Poor

Class 07. Martha Nussbaum on Capabilities Approach to Global Justice - A Non-Contractarian (Aristotelian) Basis for Global Ethics

Class 08. Global Justice for Women: Universal or Local?

Class 09. Amartya Sen's Non-Contractarian Theory of Justice Across Borders (Multiple Identities and Impartial Spectator)

Class 10. Varieties of Anticosmopolitanism

Class 11. Ethics of War and Violent Struggle

Class 12. Nationality, Sovereignty and the Right to Secession

 


CLASS READINGS:

All readings will be available in electronic format available for download from the course website (in the SIS).

Principal readings will be drawn from the following books:

Thomas Pogge, Keith Horton, Global Ethics: Seminal Essays, Paragon House, 2008.

Thomas Pogge, Darrel Moellendorf, Global Justice: Seminal Essays, Paragon House, 2008.

Kimberly Hutchings, Global Ethics, Polity, 2010.

Mervin Frost, Global Ethics, Routledge, 2009.

D. Bonevac, S. Phillips, Introduction to World Philosophy: A Multicultural Reader, OUP 2009.

Eliot Deutsch, Introduction to World Philosophies, Pearson, 1996.

Eliot Deutsch and Ron Bontekoe (eds), A Companion to World Philosophies, Blackwell, 1999.

H.G. Blocker, World Philosophy: An East-West Comparative Introduction to Philosophy, Prentice Hall, 1999.

Robert Solomon, Kathleen Higgins, World Philosophy: A Text with Readings, McGraw-Hill, 1994.

David E. Cooper, World Philosophies: A Historical Introduction, Wiley-Blackwell, 2002.

M.R. Amstutz, International Ethics: Concepts, Theories, and Cases in Global Politics, Rowman and Littlefield, 2008

 


COURSE GRADING:

Final Essay                                40%

Final Exam                                60%

Total                                         100%

 

 

GRADING SCALE:

  • A = 91-100 % – excellent
  • B = 81-90 % – very good
  • C = 71-80 % – good
  • D = 61-70 % – satisfactory
  • E = 51-60 % – minimal pass
  • F = 0-50 % – fail