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  2. NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities
  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

Giovanni Damele

Hours

Weekly - 3

Total - 280

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

None.

Bibliography

SHKLAR, J., After Utopia: The Decline of Political Faith, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1957 (Reprint: Princeton Legacy Library, 2016)
--------------, Ordinary Vices, Cambridge, Mass., The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1984
--------------, Legalism: Law, Morals and Political Trials, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1987


ARENDT, H., The Human Condition, Chicago, Chicago University Press, 2019 (A Condição Humana, Lisboa, Relógio de Água, 2001)
RAWLS, J., Political Liberalism, New York, Columbia University Press, 2005 (O Liberalismo Político, Lisboa, Editorial Presença, 1997)
WEIL, S., Need For Roots. Prelude To A Declaration Of Duties Towards Mankind, London, Taylor & Francis, 2001 (O Enraizamento, Lisboa, Relógio de Água, 2014)
WILLIAMS, B., In the Beginning Was the Deed: Realism and Moralism in Political Argument, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2017

Teaching method

Explanation and collaborative discussions. Textual analysis. Debate

Evaluation method

Participation in seminar discussion - 20%
Final assignment - 80%

Subject matter

The seminar will address the relationship between ethics and politics starting from the work of the political theorist and philosopher Judith Nisse Shklar (1928-1992). The dialectic between private rights and public life, between freedom and power, between morality and force (ethos and kratos) will be analyzed by comparing Shklar's fundamental texts with the work of other authors (Simone Weil, Isaiah Berlin, Hannah Arendt. John Rawls)