The course aims to provide knowledge of the foundations of ethics, but also to enable students to take a stand on current social issues.
Content
It is not enough for the law to be expressed in various laws; it must also be just in order to be meaningful. At the foundation of law, there is therefore ethics. What is its foundation? In order to unfold this question, we will follow a theme, that of civil disobedience, through three questions: 1) How do we know that the cause we are defending is just? 2) Is disobedience the sign of human freedom? 3) How far can we go in violence?
It would be a disservice to the law to reduce it to strict technical procedures to be respected. For the guilty party as for the victim, what is at stake there, in these highly ritualised moments, touches on what they are at the deepest level, and which metaphysical discourse has the task of bringing to light. Indeed, through each trial, no matter how insignificant the case being dealt with, what is fundamentally determining our humanity is at stake (as one puts a bet on the line, at the risk of losing it): what we ultimately are as subjects, what it is also about others and the meaning of existence. To understand the scope of law requires that we rise to these radical questions. In this metaphysical approach, great contemporary thinkers (Spinoza, Kant, Heidegger, Maine de Biran, Husserl, Fichte, Hegel, Sartre, etc.) are called upon as witnesses or guides.
EXAMINATION FORMULA: Oral or written examination, as desired. The list of possible questions is given to students before the exams. ASSESSMENT CRITERIA 1) knowledge and understanding of the course; 2) precision in expression, structuring of arguments.
Sources and references will be provided with the updated course notes.