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  3. Master in Philosophy
  4. area of specialisation in Political Philosophy
  5. Contemporary Politics and Ethics

Contemporary Politics and Ethics

Objectives

a) To identify systematically the issues that arise from the
relationship between ethics and politics;
b) To get a profound knowledge of the present debates on those
issues;
c) To interpret in a critical way the main texts concerned with the
subject;
d) To acquire competences in autonomous research

General characterization

Code

722031044

Credits

10.0

Responsible teacher

António José Duque da Silva Marques

Hours

Weekly - 3

Total - 280

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

None.

Bibliography

Kant, A Metafísica dos Costumes (1797), Lisboa: Fundação Gulbenkian,
2005
- John Rawls, Uma Teoria da Justiça, (1971), Lisboa: Presença, 1993
- Amartya Sen, A Ideia de Justiça (2009), Coimbra: Almedina, 2019
- K.-C. Tan, Kok-Chor, Justice Without Borders. Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism,
and Patriotism. Cambridge University Press, 2004
- S. Scheffler, Boundaries and Allegiances. Oxford University Press, 2001.
- T. Pogge, D. Moellendorf (eds.), Global Justice: Seminal Essays, Paragon
House 2008.
- T. Pogge, K. Norton (eds.), Global Ethics: Seminal Essays, Paragon House,
2008.
- P. Cole Philosophies of exclusion: liberal political theory and immigration,
Edinburgh University Press, 2000.
- M. Walzer, Spheres of justice: a defence of pluralism and equality, Basic
Books 1983

Teaching method

Seminar mode, including text reading e commentary in classes, teamwork and students’ presentations.

Evaluation method

Final test(100%)

Subject matter

Illustrates this change of paradigma from the Kantian approach to global ethics. It will then follow 2 main trajectories.
- Introduction to “global justice” as a new theoretical branch of ethics in order to show how contemporary scholars conceptualise global challenges
- Illustrate what it means to proceed from ethical thinking to political practice in that it introduces in to the specific challenge of negotiating affective global agreements. In order to circumscribe the topic, It will focus on the Global Compact on Refugees.
The 2nd part of the course is devoted to the topic of justice, as seen through the lenses of key modern and contemporary philosophers. The bulk of contemporary theories of justice rest on the work of I. Kant. Will focus, in particular, on the Metaphysics of Morals. The concept of justice is further analysed through the work of 2 philosophers of upmost importance: J. Rawls
and A. Sen..