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Last update: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (31.08.2023)
The main objective of the course is to stimulate consideration and debate over the ethical context of the use of violence in international, political and social relations. It investigates whether and under what circumstances the use of violence can be considered as morally justifiable, right or even unavoidable and when it is problematic or unacceptable. The course starts with presenting the ethical context of violent behaviour on three established levels of political research analysis – individual, state and international system. Summer semester: The overall goal is to encourage participants to reassess and reconsider the role of violence in politics, and in the international system. This is followed by a closer focus on the ethics of armed conflicts. Based on a tradition dating back to St. Augustine and Aristotle, the ethics of war experienced a renewed interest during the 1970s due to Michael Walzer’s seminal book, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, and to the Vietnam War which motivated Walzer, and others, to question if and under what conditions war and the use of lethal violence can be morally permissible. The ethics of armed conflicts is also a subject of utmost importance today. Statements addressing the justice of both the resort to force and conduct in its execution are prevalent in the media and in on-going political debates. The legitimacy of the Iraq War, the humanitarian intervention in Libya, targeted killing of Taliban and al-Qaida leaders around the world, or e.g. the question of soldiers’ obligations in peacekeeping missions became issues that divide international public opinion and put strains on international politics. The aim of this course is not to give prefabricated answers to such moral questions. Instead, the goal is to explore the moral arguments, assumptions and principles that underlie the range of answers and thus make students engage critically with these questions and arguments in relation to specific cases. |
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Last update: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (31.08.2023)
Winter semester: Please check the course syllabus for WS 2023 in the file section above.
In the Summer Semester, the course Ethics of Violence will focus on ethical issues in armed conflicts. The ethics of armed conflicts is a subject that has experienced a revival in the last nearly four decades. Based on a tradition dating back to St. Augustine and Aristotle, the ethics of war experienced a renewed interest during the 1970s due to Michael Walzer’s seminal book, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, and to the Vietnam War which motivated Walzer, and others, to question if and under what conditions war and the use of lethal violence can be morally permissible. The ethics of armed conflicts is also a subject of utmost importance today. Statements addressing the justice of both the resort to force and conduct in its execution are prevalent in the media and in on-going political debates. The legitimacy of the Iraq War, the humanitarian intervention in Libya, targeted killing of Taliban and al-Qaida leaders around the world, or e.g. the question of soldiers’ obligations in peacekeeping missions became issues that divide international public opinion and put strains on international politics. The aim of this course is not to give prefabricated answers to such moral questions. Instead, the goal is to explore the moral arguments, assumptions and principles that underlie the range of answers and thus make students engage critically with these questions and arguments in relation to specific cases. |
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Last update: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (31.08.2023)
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Last update: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (31.08.2023)
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Last update: Mgr. et Mgr. Tomáš Kučera, Ph.D. (16.09.2023)
Winter semester: Please check the course syllabus for WS 2023 in the file section above, for Moodle connect here https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=7528. Please note that the course will start on October 10! Summer semester: The course is devided into lectures and seminars. The aim of the lectures is to introduce basic concepts, assumptions and problems in ethical thinking on armed conflicts. This introduction is followed with six seminars in which concrete cases are examined. Students will split into six groups, each group studying two cases. The seminars then will take the form of a trial with one group of students acting as a prosecutor and another group playing the role of a defendant and the rest of the class being a jury. In contrast with criminal courts, however, these trials will not be based on a cogent law but, rather, on (informed) moral intuition of the participants. Moodle (https://dl1.cuni.cz/enrol/index.php?id=4002) The e-learning platform ‘moodle’ is an essential part of this course. Every participating student is expected to enrol into the moodle-page of this module (http://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=4002) and regularly check its content. Moodle will provide a platform for 1) communication between the course convener and students, 2) distribution of the required reading, 3) mid-term examination.
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Last update: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (31.08.2023)
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Last update: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (31.08.2023)
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Last update: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (31.08.2023)
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