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The aim of this Topics Seminar is for the participating student (1) to gain a thorough understanding of the primary texts for the course and a familiarity with the current debates in the philosophical literature on this topic; (2) to appreciate the arguments for and against the positions; and (3) to develop an independent judgment about the most promising approach in this area.
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This “Topics Seminar” explores in depth issues and texts in the area of social and political philosophy.
The topic for 2021-2022 is “Justice and the Body”.
The autonomous subject of philosophical discussion is typically theorised at a high level of abstraction, characterised as a perfectly able, disembodied, rational agent. Behind the paradigmatic “veil of ignorance,” the subject of dialogues on how to order society tends to be de-gendered, for example. Such abstraction disregards pregnancy and other bodily characteristics that might play a major role for women in self-and social-identity formation. Facts about our embodiment plausibly contribute to the formation of political interests, and to a comprehensive understanding of agency. Resultantly, questions surrounding the body ought to play an important role in reflections on justice. This course will centre the body in a range of debates within social and political philosophy. Issues to be explored include property in the body and self-ownership, whether we might “re-distribute the body” in the manner that we do other social goods and resources in the context of healthcare and sexual relations, and how the body carries social significance and meaning.
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