Social philosophy

obowiązkowe

studia drugiego stopnia

Master of Liberal Arts

semestr 1

studia stacjonarne

profil akademicki

obowiązkowe

Realizowany w sali

ECTS points in relation to student’s duties

Total number of ECTS: 3

1 ECTS = 30 hours of classes

0,5 ECTS = 15 hours direct contact with the instructor

1,5 ECTS = 45 hrs of home-study, preparation for classes, preparation of presentation

Course description

The course in Social philosophy is a practical introduction to the relations within and between social groups, institutions, and organizations from the point of view of values, justice, liberty, identity, self-development, and the good life of the members of these and other groups. The course has predominately a conversational character so that the students are invited to discuss issues and exchange opinions, according to the educational model of liberal arts.

Course objectives

- familiarising with relationship dynamics in viarious social groups through a philosophical perspective

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Course content

1. What is Social Philosophy?

Social philosophy focuses on social groups rather than individuals; it frequently assumes that individuals are shaped by social relations in such contexts as freedom, values, religion, politics, language, and others.

2. Positive Freedom and Negative Freedom

Positive Freedom or Positive Liberty is the possibility of acting in such a way as to take control of one's life and realize one's fundamental purposes within a given society. For example, freedom to learn, to travel, to realize happiness in different ways. Negative Freedom or Negative Liberty is the possibility of refusing to do something that is done or suggested by others.

3. Social Conflicts

Most frequent areas of social conflicts: religious, political (dominating group vs. dominated), economic (rich vs. poor), cultural (e.g. Western-Muslim), sexual/gender (e.g. males vs. females), generational (older vs. younger), class, ethnic, identity, many others.

4. What is Society (Society as a whole vs. society as a set of social groups)?

Is society something like an organism whose parts (e.g. ethnic groups and minorities) are its specific and necessary parts, or rather society is a set or a collection of ethnic groups, religious denominations, subcultures, and minorities, each having its specific interests?

5. Social Justice

If we want to know what is just and fair, first we have to know the laws (human, moral, legal, religious) according to which we measure social justice. An important part of the story is to know WHO is responsible for shaping the laws: people? God? Nature? If People, who are these people? International community? National parliaments? Presidents? The Police? Representatives of small communities? The upper classes?

6. Human Rights (and their universality)

The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (1990)

In the UN Human Rights' Declaration we read that "Everyone has duties to the community (Chapter 29)"; however, The duty for securing human rights typically falls upon national governments and international, inter-governmental bodies because they are best placed and most able to effectively perform the task. So, what's the role of the individuals? of each of us?

7. Power Structure

Any society (e.g. democratic, totalitarian, religious, non-religious, etc) and any collection of social groups (e.g. state, international organization) is organized according to some power structure, with some specific group of people at the top of this communal hierarchy. Social philosophy studies the anatomy (often hidden and unclear) of the relations of power within these groups.

8. The Internet and Social Conflicts

The role of social media in evoking narratives about social conflicts

9. Recognition, Misrecognition, Non-recognition

Charles Taylor's "The Politics of Recognition" is the basic material here: the text of this Canadian philosopher is available on the Internet.

10. Identity

What is identity and what is the relation between social identity and individual identity? Is 'identity' something given or rather it is a task to perform for each of us, for example, by means of 'self-identity' process (cultural auto-creation)?

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Methods of instruction/ forms of classroom activity

multimedia presentation, group discussion, ICT tools/MSTeams, extensive reading, writing

Reading list:

Obligatory reading:

UN Human Rights Declaration

Cairo Human Rights Declaration

Supplementary reading:

Charles Taylor, "The Politics of Recognition"

John Rawls, Theory of Justice (fragments)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (selected entries)

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (selected entries)

Learning outcomes acc to PRK 2019:

Knowledge

Student knows and understands

1. relations between language and society and its institutions in an integrated system of dependencies and influence through a philosophical perspective (k_W02/P7S_WG)

2. the (role of) historical tradition and its influence on the human condition through a philosophical perspective (k_W05/P7S_WG)

3. principles of operation and discourses of organizations relevant to professional activity in such fields as education, culture, media, arts, professional communication, entrepreneurship through a philosophical perspective (k_W16/P7S_WK)

Skills

Student can

4. understand and process information of various domains in the humanities and reconstruct underlying meaning and argumentation given specific cultural and social context (k_U03/P7S_UW)

5. apply a normative social paradigm in order to explain and solve a selected problem within social science and relate the solution to a particular category of social relations or social norms (k_U10/P7S_UW)

6. conduct a debate according to a particular rhetorical format, respond in writing to offer alternative viewpoint or reasoned critique (k_U12/P7S_UK)

Social competences

Student is ready to

7. express opinions based on reasonable premises and deliberate on the issues of social philosophy with the use of available media technologies (k_K07/P7S_KO)

Forms of evaluation of learning outcomes

1. Active participation in the classes - 30% of the final grade (outcome 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

2. Recorded oral presentation - 20% of the final grade (outcome 1,2,3,4,5,7)

3. Additional Contribution to the Classes - 30% of the final grade (outcome 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

4. Written work 20% of the final grade (outcome 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

pass at 60% of the final grade