1 PHIL 237: Contemporary Moral Issues Summer 2014 Course Time: 11:00-1:30 Monday to Thursday Office Hours: 1:30 2:30 M/W in HSSL 07A (Mclennan) Email: steven.sych@mail.mcgill.ca COURSE DESCRIPTION Does a citizen have an obligation to follow the laws of the state, no matter what those laws dictate? Is there a higher sense of justice which the individual can bring to bear upon the state's laws? If we accept the latter, just what kinds of breaches of law can be justified, and under what circumstances? Is an individual's conscience admissible as such a justification? Is a violent act of disobedience ever justified, or does violence render any such act unjustifiable? How does an act of disobedience's taking place in public alter our understanding of it, and how does this relate to the phenomenon known as 'hacktivism'? Just what is civil disobedience, and how does it contrast to other kinds of dissent, protest, conscientious refusal, or revolutionary activities? Many of the above questions have been taken up in the history of philosophy and political thought, and this is where we will begin. Yet we will not stop there. PHIL 237 is a course in applied ethics. Our topic will bring us potentially into dialogue with a number of events, both historically proximate and distant: the antebellum abolitionists, the civil rights movement, pacifism and draft refusal, ACT UP, the Black Bloc, the cases of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, Hacktivism and Anonymous, Occupy, and the carré rouge movement in Quebec. Yet we should not assume that our course in applied ethics will take the model of applied mathematics. While in applied mathematics one takes theories and applies them to certain problems (for example, issues in biology or engineering), applied ethics takes by necessity a different approach. Since ethical theories must themselves be judged by how adequately they deal with specific empirical instances, we must take ourselves not only to be applying theory to concrete cases, but likewise be testing the adequacy of our theories precisely by how well they deal with said cases. This will necessitate not only rigorous examination of arguments and specific cases but, furthermore, the use of conceptual analysis, attention to intuitions, thought experiments, and continual reflection on the grounds of our claims. COURSE MATERIALS All readings for the course are to be found on the McGill library catalogue or MyCourses. For those who prefer physical copies, the following are available at the McGill bookstore: Bedau, Hugo A. Civil Disobedience in Focus. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (An anthology of texts, hereafter abbreviated as 'Bedau') Thoreau, Henry D, W S. Merwin, and William Howarth. Walden, Or, Life in the Woods: And "civil Disobedience". New York: Signet Classics, 2012. Print. (Both easily to be found online, but also available if you're looking to fill out your library!) Because a great deal of the course will involve guided discussion of the texts, and because the exams will be open book format, you are strongly encouraged to have a copy or printout of the readings each class!
2 ASSIGNMENTS AND EVALUATION Participation: 15% Discussion is an essential component of this course. Not only is one's presence required, but likewise a constructive engagement in class discussions will be expected. Engagement implies more than just 'saying as much as one possibly can'; rather, participation includes thoughtfully and respectfully listening to what others have to say. In addition to the above, there will be numerous small in-class writing activities used to deepen our understanding of the material, as well as to edit and revise ideas for the final paper. The participation mark will be a function of presence in class and positive contributions (either in commentary, in writing, or in thoughtful listening) in all of these activities. Leading discussion: 10% (once during the term) Each class, 3-4 students will be assigned to be discussion leaders for particular class days. The role of the leaders is to guide small groups (7 or 8 students) in discussion regarding the issues and readings assigned for that day's class. Specific instructions for this assignment and how it will be evaluated will be posted on MyCourses. Mid-term Exam: 25% (Monday, June 23) An in-class exam consisting of both short answer and longer form essay questions. Final Exam: 25% (Monday, July 7) A non-cumulative in-class exam consisting of both short answer and longer form essay questions. Final paper: 25% The final paper of approximately 1600 words will be submitted in LEA934 (Friday, July 11th), before 5:00 pm. If you do not mind not getting comments, you are entitled to take the weekend and submit the papers on Monday, July 14 th. Papers will be drafted and peer-edited in-class (July 8th). Final paper topics will be provided around the first midterm, and it is highly advisable to begin thinking about it soon thereafter. Late final papers will not be accepted. McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see www.mcgill.ca/integrity/ for more information). In accord with McGill University s Charter of Students Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.
3 COURSE SCHEDULE TOPICS AND READINGS All readings are posted on MyCourses or accessible through the library catalogue. Some readings are marked as supplemental which means that they are not mandatory readings, though they will often be lectured upon/be helpful to you in understanding the material. You may also wish to draw on them for your final paper. If you are a discussion leader for a particular class, you will be expected to have read the supplementary material. June 9 th : Introduction 1. Bedau Introduction (in Bedau) June 10 th : Political obligation 1. Plato Crito (in Bedau) Part 1: Introduction, our responsibility to the state 2. Selections from Hume/Hobbes/Locke (excerpts available on Mycourses) June 11 th : Resistance to government 1. Thoreau Civil disobedience (in Bedau) Part 2: Our responsibility for the state 2. Fortas, Abe Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience (on Mycourses) June 12 th : Indirect disobedience, indirect responsibility, direct justification? 1. Bedau Civil disobedience and personal responsibility for injustice (in Bedau) 2. Thoreau A Week on the Concord and Merrimack (excerpts on conscience, on Mycourses) Part 3: Love, Conscience, and Politics June 16 th : Love and Unjust Laws 1. Martin Luther King Letter from a Birmingham City Jail (in Bedau) 2. Tolstoy A Letter to a Hindu (on Mycourses) June 17 th : Against Civil Disobedience 1. Storing The Case Against Civil Disobedience (in Bedau) 2. Waldon Civil Rights Yes, Civil Disobedience No (on Mycourses)
4 June 18 th : Conscience, Conscientious Objection 1. Arendt Civil disobedience (part I) (on Mycourses) 2. Singer Conscientious objection (on Mycourses) June 19 th : Conscience cont., Political Withdraw, Exemplarity 1. Arendt Civil disobedience (part II) (on Mycourses) 2. DeCristopher I Do Not Want Mercy, I Want You to Join me (on Mycourses) 3. Thoreau 'Economy' from Walden (on Mycourses) 5. Kant Excerpts on sublime misanthropy (on Mycourses) June 23 rd : Midterm Exam (No readings for today) June 24 th : Day off (No readings or class for today) Part 4: Democracy, Community, and Disobedient Communication June 25 th : Disobedience and Democracy 1. Rawls Justifying Civil Disobedience in a Democracy (in Bedau) 2. Rawls A Theory of Justice (excerpts on Mycourses) June 26 th : Community and Publicity 1. Singer Civil Disobedience as a Plea for Reconsideration (in Bedau) 2. Singer Publicity (on Mycourses) Part 5: Violence and Coercion June 30 th : Violence 1. Morreall Justifying Violent Civil Disobedience (in Bedau) 2. AK Thompson Black Bloc, White Riot (excerpts on Mycourses) July 1 st : Day Off (No readings or class for today, enjoy nationalism and/or moving!) July 2 nd : Protest, Violence, and Publicity in the Digital Age 1. Critical Art Ensemble Electronic civil disobedience and other unpopular ideas (on Mycourses) 2. Manion and Goodrum Terrorism or Civil Disobedience: Towards a Hacktivist Ethic (on Mycourses)
5 3. Healy Civil Disobedience in Cyberspace: A tale of two online protests (on Mycourses) 4. The Brilliant Life and Tragic Death of Aaron Swartz (on Mycourses) July 3 rd : Coercion and Radical Disobedience 1. Marion Young Activist Challenges to Deliberative Democracy (on Mycourses) July 7 th : Final Exam (No readings for today) July 8 th : Essay brainstorming/draft Workshop (No readings for today) July 9 th : Office hours (1:30-3:30pm in HSSL RM-07A) July 10 th : Office hours (1:30-2:30pm in HSSL RM-07A) July 11 th : Essay due with comments (Before 5pm in LEA934) July 14 th : Essay deadline (Before 5pm in LEA934)
6 Selected Bibliography Arendt, Hannah. Crises of the Republic. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1972. Print. Auty, Caroline. Political Hacktivism: Tool of the Underdog or Scourge of Cyberspace?. Aslib Proceedings 56.4 (2004): 212 221. Web. Boxill, Bernard R. The Responsibility of the Oppressed to Resist Their Own Oppression. Journal of Social Philosophy 41.1 (2010): 1 12. Print. Brownlee, Kimberley. Penalizing Public Disobedience. Ethics 118.4 (2008): 711 716. Web. Calabrese, Andrew. Virtual Nonviolence? Civil Disobedience and Political Violence in the Information Age. info 6.5 (2004): 326 338. Web. Cavell, Stanley. Stanley Cavell the Senses of Walden an Expanded Edition. University of Chicago Press, 2013. Print. Covington, Coline. Terrorism and War. Karnac Books, 2002. Print. Hobby, Blake. Civil Disobedience. Infobase Publishing, 2010. Print. Kretzmann, Norman. Lex Iniusta Non Est Lex-Laws on Trial in Aquinas' Court of Conscience. Am. J. Juris. 33 (1988): 99. Print. Lefkowitz, David. On a Moral Right to Civil Disobedience. Ethics 117.2 (2007): 202 233. Web. Lyons, David. Confronting Injustice. Oxford University Press. Web. Lyons, David. Moral Judgment, Historical Reality, and Civil Disobedience. Philosophy & public affairs 27.1 (1998): 31 49. Print. Rawls, John. A theory of Justice. (2006): 1 562. Print. Rawls, John. Outline of a Decision Procedure for Ethics. The Philosophical Review 60.2 (1951): 177 197. Web. Thompson, A K. Black Bloc, White Riot. AK Press, 2010. Print. Turner, J. Performing Conscience: Thoreau, Political Action, and the Plea for John Brown. Political Theory 33.4 (2005): 448 471. Web. Waldron, Jeremy. Terrorism and the Uses of Terror. The Journal of Ethics 8.1 (2004): 5 35. Print. Walker, Brian. Thoreau's Alternative Economics: Work, Liberty, and Democratic Cultivation. American Political Science Review (1998): 845 856. Print.