Ethics, Globalization and Sustainability

Course goals

• Students will gain basic knowledge of the philosophical perspectives of influential political thinkers.
• Students will learn to employ (aspects of) different theoretical models in thinking about the way in which political institutions are organised.
• Students will develop and strengthen their abilities to critically and constructively read and discuss different kinds of philosophical texts.
• Students will develop and strengthen their abilities in developing systematic normative analyses in writing.

Content

On a global scale, wealth, health and life opportunities are unfairly distributed. Several philosophers have emphasised that this unfairness gives the affluent a moral duty to help the worst-off, others have tried to formulate basic principles for a fair society. Whereas political philosophers of the past mainly focused on these issues through the lens of the nation state, contemporary thinkers argue that globalisation processes force us to approach themes like sustainability, justice and equality on an international level, for example by constructing international institutions or by rethinking ideas about national sovereignty.

In this course, we will discuss a wide range of analyses of these issues by visiting core political theories of past and present and coupling these with debates on specific (applied) questions. We will focus on values as diverse as liberty, equality, (international) justice, sovereignty, sustainability and more, and critically discuss issues arising from phenomena like migration, climate change and poverty.

LAS and TCS students who follow this course as part of the core curriculum of their major, need to complete a compulsory preparation course/assignment. See for more information: https://tcs.sites.uu.nl/
 

Additional information