ETHICS FOUNDAMENTALS (96h)
Responsible lecturers: Professor Anna Siwik*, Ph.D., Anna Małecka, Ph.D. **
1 ETHICS FUNDAMENTALS (40h)
The objective of the course lies in presenting and discussing the main issues of ethics and morality, both in the individual and social planes. Firstly, the basic ethical concepts are introduced, alongside their philosophical interpretation and discourse, including such notions as the good and evil, moral value, happiness, freedom, moral obligations and standards. Secondly, the social and political implications of ethics are analysed in the context of globalisation, ethnicity, and postmodern cultur. The course aims at the development of students’ self-awareness and understanding of contemporary moral issues, as well as the encouragement to their active participation in the processes of building up the ethical dimension of social life.
The course consists of lectures, classes, presentations, and discussions/debates.
The following basic issues are included in the course syllabus:
Part One: The Philosophical Foundations of Morality
1. Introduction to ethics. Philosophical foundations of moral theories. Basic notions of ethics (moral absolutism and relativism, the concepts of the good and evil, virtue, the role of logos, “the golden mean”, various theories of happiness, hedonism; moral princiles) (2 hours) (Dr Anna Małecka)
2. Ancient sources of basic ethical notions – the Sophists, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics (2 hours) (Dr Anna Małecka)
3. Christian ethics (St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, John Paul II) (2 hours) (Dr Anna Małecka)
4. The problem of freedom in ethics; the question of “the gene for crime”- presentation of the documentary The Original Sin; followed by discussion. (2 hours) (Dr Anna Małecka)
5. Categorical moral imperative and utilitarian ethics (Immanuel Kant’s critical philosophy and rigorist ethics; the principle of utility, the “greatest happiness principle”, altruism, liberty – Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill) (2 hours) (Dr Anna Małecka)
6. Relativism in ethics – Friedrich Nietzsche (the will to power, master and slave morality, criticism of Christian morality, revaluation of all morals). (2 hours) (Dr Anna Małecka)
7. The fundamental distinction between the being/existence and ethical obligations. Introduction to the contemporary concept of existence in relation to ethical values (2 hours) (Prof. Piotr Mróz)
8. The situation of the human being (freedom) in term of moral/ethical
choices (Sartre, Camus) (2 hours) (Prof. Piotr Mróz)
9. Authentic versus inauthentic existence in terms of morality and ethics
(Heidegger, Tillich) (2 hours) (Prof. Piotr Mróz)
10. Courage to talk – contemporary ethics and the problem of our situation
– the postmodern vision of values. Ethics as the unified project and blueprint of humankind (Fromm and Horney) (2 hours) (Prof. Piotr Mróz)
Part Two: The Social and Political Implications of Ethics
11. Moral aspects of ethnicity. Selected issues (6 hours)
(Global nature of ethnic relations – race and ethnic relations, racism (2 hours)
Ethnic stratification: dominant groups and minorities, stratification systems and their moral dimensions, ethnicity and power, ethnic subordination and minority responses to it – violent and non-violent (2 hours)
Mechanisms of ethnic dominance: prejudices and discrimination (2 hours)
(Prof. Janusz Mucha)
12. Ethical consequences (and side effects) of social change (the impact of technological innovations, new media, environment, biotechnology, the concept of risk society (2 hours) (Radosław Tyrała, M.A.)
13. Business ethics (2 hours) (Dr Maria Stojkow)
14. Menaces of the transitional period (2 hours) (Prof.Mróz)
15. Ethical problems of postmodern culture (4 hours) (Prof. Piotr Mróz/ Joanna Małecka, M.A.)
16. The city and (in)justice
( (in)justice and urban realm, ethics of political solidarity against domination and repression, the spatial dialectics of injustice, the right to the city and the right to difference. Heidegger, Soja, Habermas, Jürgen, Harvey, Lefebvre) (2 hours) (Dr Jacek Gądecki)
18.The Big Brother’s policy (surveillance tactics and technologies, CCTV technology, antisocial behavior as policy, culture of control, private and public space (2 hours) (Dr Jacek Gądecki)
2 LENGUA POLACA (16h)
3 RELACIÓN HUMANA (40h)
*The Head of the Summer School: Professor Anna Siwik, Ph.D., Vice Rector for Students Affairs, AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, Poland, Member of PAU Commission of Research on the Polish Diaspora by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences; member of World Research Council on Poles Abroad; Chairman of the Board of Audit of the International Association for Geotourism.
Professional interests: the Political, Societal and Cultural Transformation of Polish Society after World War II, the Polish Political Diaspora after World War II, the Social Democratic Movement.
Major books (in Polish): Polish Socialist Party in Émigré Conditions, 1945-1956, Krakow 1998; Democracy: Theory-Ideas-Institutions, (ed.) Torun 2000 (third edition 2003); Polish Political Exiles, 1956-1990, Krakow 2002; From the Industrial Society to the Information Society, (ed.) Krakow 2007; From the Factory Hand to the Internet Sufferer, (ed.) Krakow 2008.
** The programme of the School developed by: Anna Małecka, Ph.D., Vice Dean for Cooperation, Faculty of Humanities, AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, Poland, teaching the following courses: History of Philosophy, The World of Art, Rhetoric and Media Genres, Introduction to Rhetoric, Museums of the World, Aesthetics of Traditional and New Media. Major research areas: British Philosophy, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Art, Museology Media Studies. Over 30 publications, including 2 books. Numerous translations of Anglo-Saxon literature and philosophy. Head of the Audit Committee of the Kraków Branch of the Polish Philosophical Association, member of The Carlyle Society, Edinburgh, Chairman of the “Solidarity” Movement Branch at the Faculty of Humanities, Sworn Translator at the Regional Court in Kraków (English-Polish).
