Law, ethics, and the struggle for
recognition
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"Though this be madness, yet there is method in it"
- Shakespeare, Hamlet, II, ii, 205
This page contains descriptions of courses in legal philosophy in the academic year 1998-1999 that will be offered in English. Of course, they will in the first place be of interest to students of law and/or philosophy. But they are open to all foreign or exchange students at the Erasmus University.
Law, ethics, and the struggle for
recognitionIn this course, we will chart some of the many ways in which the relational dimension of subjectivity is relevant to moral and legal philosophy. This is not a common view to take. In thinking about ordering social life, and about the moral implications of this ordering, philosophers often seem to focus exclusively on either the individual or the world (or 'the community'). Relationships with others, either individuals or groups, are either left out altogether, or not discussed extensively or expliticly. This course wants to show that, to the contrary, personal relations and group memberships are crucial in the formation of subjectivity, and in the explanation and justification of human action. Especially important here is the notion of 'recognition' ('Anerkennung'), implying that the formation of subjectivity always proceeds through confrontation wit hother persons. Insights from areas such as gender studies, developmental psychology, psychoanalysis, sociology and political theory will be relevant to this line of inquiry.
Literature: Axel Honneth, Kampf um Anerkennung; Frankfurt: Suhrkamp 1992
(English translation available: The struggle for recognition; Polity Press
1995. Spanish translation also available). For exact literature info, see
the course listing
Purpose: Acquiring insight into the importance of the relational and
confrontational dimension of the formation of subjectivity, and its
relevance for moral and legal philsophy.
NB: active engagement of students in discussing the material is expected
(and stimulated).
Legal philosophy: law and the spectre of
postmodernismThe central institutions of modern western society, like politics and
law, are confronted nowadays with ever increasing pressure from processes
like identity politics, feminism, multiculturalism, and postcolonialism. A
large diversity of groups is manifested as potential new actors in the
political and the legal domain. In this course we will discuss the
implications of this development, in terms of political theory and legal
philosophy, for the framework within which these institutions (politics and
law) function. Is this still adequate to the task? Can the needs, demands,
and desires of the actors be accomodated by modifying the existing
institutional framework? Can law and politics be distinguished at all? Such
questions might point toward underlying tensions in law, that would require
a revision of the boundaries of the institutional framework, or maybe of
the notions of rationality and reasonableness implicit in it.
These questions are discussed from different perspectives, among which the
postmodern critique will be pervasively present.
For exact literature info, see the course
listing
A reader of the texts is available. Classes start January 27, at the
philosophy department.
Credit points: 5 (but can be individualized)
Format: 2-hour weekly classes, for 15 weeks
Examination: oral, based on short paper by student.
Formal entry requirements: none. Some acquiantance with ethics and social
philosophy is recommended.
For more info contact the instructor: Dr Gijs van Oenen, Department of
Philosophy, Oostmaaslaan 950 (5 minutes from Woudestein campus), tel.
010.4088999 or 020.6860948. Email:G.H.vanOenen@fwb.eur.nl.
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