The course will be divided into three parts. (1) The first part will present a value-based conception of social ethics. With reference to virtue ethics' founding father, Plato and Aristotle, it will explore how these ancient thinkers delas with the question of how to live a good life with others. In these perspectives, happiness (eudaimonia) is understood as the highest aim of ethics and virtues are seen as rational, emotional, and social skills, needed to achieve it. The course will deal here with the issues of the just city-state (polis) and the forms of government (politeiai). (2) The second part will discuss social ethics in terms of (a) an agreement between a society and its participants and (b) in terms of the search for the greatest good for the highest number of people. By drawing on some of the major social contract theorists, e.g., Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant, the course will explain why for these thinkers ethics can be seen as a boundary established by the negotiation of a social contract. Their works are crucial to the modern understandings of democracy, legitimacy, citizenship, and public reason. Then, the course will consider the utilitarian theory to maximize the overall good as the overriding parameter for social happiness. In doing so, it will focus on Mill's theory of liberty and on his understanding of the social feelings of mankind. (3) The third part will be directed towards the problems of the foundation and the maintenance of social bonds in the context of the contemporary deontological and teleological theories. Specifically, it will refer to Rawl's deontological conception of justice as a dimension having a social character and to MacIntyre's socio-teleological account of the common good. Course Outline Part 1 (Week 1 - Week 4) - City-State and Virtues: Ancient Perspectives about the Social Order 1 Introduction: the scope and the issues of social ethics 2 Plato and the problem of the just city-state (Republic, book II) 3 Aristotle on happiness and good life (Nicomachean Ethics, book I) 4 Plato's and Aristotle's approaches to the forms of government (Plato: Republic, book VIII, Aristotle: Politics, book IV, chapters 1-13) Part 2 (Week 5 - Week 10) - The Social Contract Theory and Utilitarian Social Ethics: Modern Approaches to Social Life 5 The conception of the social contract: laws and social order as human creations 6 Hobbes and the invention of society (Leviathan, chapters XIII, XIV, XV) 7 Locke on pre-social rights, liberty, and property (Second Treatise of Government, chapters II, III, V, VIII, IX, X) 8 Rousseau on self-love and human society (On the Social Contract, books I, II) 9 Kant and the universal principle of right (Doctrine of Right) 10 Mill on liberty and individuality (On Liberty) Part 3 (Week 11 - Week 14) - The Social Bond: Imperativeness of Ethics and the Contemporary Virtue Ethics 11 Moral Theory, Values, and Virtues 12 Rawls's theory of social justice (A Theory of Justice, chapters I, VII, ) 13 MacIntyre on tradition and justice (After Virtue, chapters V, XV, XVII) 14 Recapitulation and conclusion
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How should we live together? Why ethical virtues (justice, courage, temperance, etc.) can be considered as social skills? Which is the connection between human beings' desire for society and the development of particular forms of association? What is the role of institutions in society? Why and when is anyone entitled to exercise power? What does it mean that a state must be virtuous and conform to the pursuit of individual and social happiness? In what sense states have both power and moral authority over their citizens? What is the difference between equality, equity, and justice? This course aims at providing answers to these key questions with reference to the major ancient, modern, and contemporary social ethical theories in Western philosophy. Specifically, it will deal with the social ethical perspectives developed in the fields of eudaimonism (Plato, Aristotle), contractualism (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant), utilitarianism (Mill), deontological theory of justice (Rawls) and virtue ethics (MacIntyre). From the consideration of these core views, the course will acquaint students with concepts and methods useful for a critical understanding of the social dimension of human life. In doing so, students will develop their capacity to pursue ethical inquiry about sharing understandings, rules, and principles, at play in the social sphere. They will be provided with the necessary skills to evaluate selected texts and passages of Western thinkers concerned with the problem of social cohesion.
Communication, dialogical skills, ability to read and discuss in English, adaptability to different methodologies and perspectives
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