Unit name | Ethics and Literature |
---|---|
Unit code | PHIL30094 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Everett |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
none |
School/department | Department of Philosophy |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit brings together philosophy and literature to explore some of the things that matter most for how well human lives go. This year will we will explore key concepts, texts and thinkers from the canon of black philosophical thought and literature. We give particular attention to the intersection between philosophy and the arts, exploring links between black social and political thought, and black expressive cultures and aesthetics. We will draw on a variety of sources, including academic philosophy, philosophical essays, music, arts, and literature. Black philosophical thought is diverse, but has been unified in the emancipatory aim of seeking to communicate freedom within the constraints of a racist society (Lewis Gordon), and to transform the symbolic, epistemological and material dimensions of racial injustice (Paul Taylor). Issues to be covered include the work of W E.B. Du Bois, the concept of race, the phenomenon of racialization and its connections with Empire, Black Feminist thought, Intersectionality, and the political potential of popular culture.
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:
1. articulate, compare and critique alternative theoretical accounts of moral responsibility, retribution, and forgiveness
2. articulate competing approaches to thinking about happiness and its relationship to the good life, as proposed in several classic works of literature and philosophy
3. present critical discussion of some of the ways that social circumstances either promote or discourage human flourishing;
4. analyse both literary and philosophical pieces through close attention to text, compositional structure and rhetoric.
11 2-hour lectures and 11 1-hour seminars