- Inter-faculty Studies in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Computer Science
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Mathematics
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Computer Science
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Mathematics
(in Polish) Contract, Covenant and the Strucure of Law 3501-CCSL19-M-OG
These lectures examine how the two constitutions connect. the political constitution in which ‘law’ functions, and the personal one in which the law of conscience reigns. We shall examine this relation by way of philosophical enquiry into questions surrounding natural and contractual obligations. Many examples will be drawn from literature, both secular and sacred. The theme of ‘contract’, or in a more sacred register, ‘covenant’, cuts to the heart of something permanent and also something evolving in our understanding of moral obligation, and thus in our understanding of what it is to be a person. This theme also connects how political power is justified or perpetuated – e.g., appeals to ‘the consent of the people’ – to certain beliefs about the individual persons who are supposed to be consenting. Both Aristotle and Tocqueville wondered how far personal identity might be determined by the constitution of the group, namely, by the political community. The high valuation of contract in determining moral obligations in our age (consensual obligations preferred over those coming from history, status, or authority), should be of great interest to modern democrats who happen also to be students of philosophy. For, contractarian politics assumes a consenting agent, who is a centre of autonomous moral responsibility, and who should thus be respected prima facie. This is a ‘liber’, a freeman with, necessarily, a free will. As is apparent, this theme immediately connects law and personhood. It would seem that a contractarian system of law and politics requires a certain metaphysical concept of the person as sui juris or ‘autonomous’ in order to support the weight of its ethical and political claims. However, there are philosophical problems with personal autonomy that remain unsolved. If it is to be relied upon as the metaphysical centre of a moral order, it must be justifiable and defensible. These lectures address the constitutional problems that emerge from the over-reliance on a shaky philosophical concept, and seek to outline a stronger metaphysics of the person for law and political theory, with which both constitutions could be structured.
Sample lecture titles:
1. Does a covenant, (social) contract, or eternal contract bind us to live a life together?
2. Is that a ‘basic law’, upon which all other laws rely?
3. Is consent necessary for moral obligation to be present in law?
4. What does our understanding of law tell us about our understanding of the person?
5. Is the modern autonomous person a sustainable model for a legal order?
6. Is contractarian politics the only way to sustain a lasting order once the naturalness of the political order has been demystified?
7. Do ‘human nature’ or ‘personhood’ provide us a starting point for law or morality?
8. Is it better to find and ground law in a concept rather than a thing/being, for example, in reason or justice?
9. If one denies either a natural order to law or a rationalist approach, is the only other option that ‘might makes right’?
10. If I am autonomous, why may I not enslave myself?
11. What is the end of the human person?
12. What is the end of law?
13. What is the end of politics?
14. Are these ends reconcilable?
Type of course
general courses
Mode
Learning outcomes
Knowledge:
- has the broad knowledge of place of contract and covenant in the philosophical tradition;
- has the knowledge of the basic meanings of the categories of contract and covenant derived from the history of philosophy;
- has the well-structured knowledge about two types of constitutions: the political one in which positive law functions, and the personal one in which the law of conscience reigns
- has deepened knowledge of the relation between the type of political community and self- understanding of a moral subject.
- has the broad knowledge and deeper understanding of particular philosophical conception of the person and is able to contrast it with other conceptions;
- has the broad knowledge of the norms constituting and regulating political community;
- has the broad knowledge of the interdependence between philosophical ideas and cultural changes.
Abilities:
After the course student:
- analyses arguments about the subject of the lecture;
- prepares argumentation on the relevant subject and is able to defend his/her own perspective;
- creatively uses philosophical and methodological knowledge by formulating hypotheses and creating critical arguments;
- formulate and re-construct arguments taken from different philosophical perspectives being aware of the differences and similarities between these perspectives;
- is able to find and analyze in detail controversies and problems connected with the categories of contract and covenant;
- has ability of comparative analysis of different perspectives on the main problems connected with the categories of contract and covenant;
Social competence:
After the course student:
- takes and initiates research activities;
- is reliable, considerate, and engaged in planning and proceeding in research activities;
- is fully aware of the value and cultural importance and ambiguities of contractualism.
Assessment criteria
Final written test
Bibliography
1. Selections from the Old Testament of the Bible
Full text of the King James Translation of the Bible can be found:
https://archive.org/stream/thebibleoldandne00010gut/kjv10.txt#
Or download a PDF from the main announcement page of these seminars.
• The Ten Commandments
o Exodus 20
o Deuteronomy 5
• The story of David and Bathsheba
o 2 Samuel 11
• Daniel and the Lion’s Den
o Daniel 6
2. Medea by Euripides
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35451/35451-h/35451-h.htm
3. Selections from Book I of the Justinian Code of Roman Law*
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7LkLAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=institutes+of+justinian&hl=en&sa=X&ei=txFRVIPSG4LTygPP14DgBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
*Pages 86-96 of this translation will be used, which can also be downloaded as a PDF on the main page of this seminar series.
4. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
5. Sophocles, “Ajax”
o https://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/sophocles/ajax.htm
6. The American Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights
o http://billofrightsinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/DelarationofIndependence.pdf
o http://billofrightsinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/BillofRights.pdf
7. Book VII of Aristotle’s “Politics”
o http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6762
8. Thomas Aquinas’s “Treatise on Law”, Questions 90 and 91
o https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Treatise_on_Law
9. William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” Act 1, Scene 1- Act 2, Scene 1
o http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1524
10. William Shakespeare, “King Lear”, Act 1
o http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1128
11. The Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5-7 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205-7
Additional information
Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:
- Inter-faculty Studies in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Computer Science
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Mathematics
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Computer Science
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Mathematics
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: