Programa

All the lessons will be held in English, they will be online, with the use of power point slides. Although the course will be online, students will be encouraged to participate through structured class-discussions which be stimulated by the teacher through focused questions.

First class FEBRUARY 16th (4 HOURS):
Students will be introduced to pacifism as a century-long tradition of thought having a normative status and being characterized by a great variety of diverse schools of thought. After that institutional pacifism will be analysed. In the first instance, this form of pacifism will be described in its general theoretical components, while illustrating its major political objectives. Then, the focus will shift to some of its major theorists and representatives. The first to be taken into consideration will be the Austrian legal philosopher HANS KELSEN with his project of a League of Nations based on the primacy of International law. The second thinker will be the Italian political philosopher NORBERTO BOBBIO proposing an empowerment of the U.N tasks and function.

Second class FEBRUARY 17TH (4 HOURS)
In this second day of lesson we will analyze absolute pacifism through two iconic figures, MAHATMA GANDHI and MARTIN L. KING. Their lives and ideals will be discussed, while relating their ethical and political commitment for peace to the concrete, historical and political context within which they lived and acted. Gandhi’s pacifism will be analized in relation to the Indian liberation movement from the British rule, whereas King’s pacifism in relation to the American civil rights movement. By this way, the second class aims to show and argue how Gandhi’ and King’s pacifism had a strong operative dimension consisting in a personal and concrete effort to make India independent and fight against racism in U.S.

Third class FEBRUARY 18TH (4 HOURS)
The last lesson aims to argue how ecological pacifism looks at the protection of the environment and the promotion of peaceful relations amongst living beings as two profoundly interrelated elements. According to ecological pacifism, human beings are potentially harmful not only towards their own kind, but also toward the environment as a whole. Starting from such an assumption, ecological pacifism shifts its focus from the search for peace, in terms of how to avoid warfare, to the search for peace in terms of protecting the environment in order to avoid “the extinction” of entire forms of life. A specific focus will be devoted to the concrete strategies promoted by eco-pacifism in order to improve eco-protection as a key-condition for conflict-solutions and peacekeeping. In the last lesson students will be asked to prepare a critical reflection on each of the three forms of pacifism discussed in class in order to argue and stress both strengths and limits.

BIBLIOGRAFIA

A.Alexandra, Political Pacifism, “Social Theory and Practice”, 29, 4, 2003, pp. 589-606.

D. Dalton, M. Gandhi: Non Violent Power in Action, N. Y, Columbia University Press, 2012.

A.Fiala (ed. by), The Routledge Handbook of Ecology and Pacifism, New York, Routledge, 2018.

D. L. Cady; From Warism to Pacifism. A Moral Continuum, Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1989.D. L. Cady, Why Ecologists must be Pacifists, paper read for the American Philosophical Association (2018): https://duanelcady.com/why-environmentalists-must-be-pacifists/

A.Fiala, The Pacifist Tradition and Pacifism as Transformative and Creative Theory, “The Acorn: Philosophical Studies in Pacifism and Nonviolence, 2019, available online: https://www.andrewfiala.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Fiala-Acorn-Paci…

H. Kelsen, Peace through Law, New Jersey, Lawbook Exchange Ltd; Reprint, 2008.

M. L. King, A Testament of Hope: the Essential Writings and Speeches, London, Harper & Collins, 1990.

Leopold, Living with the Land Ethic, “Bioscience”, 54, 2, 2004, pp. 149-154: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/54/2/149/255019

O. Shabani, Democracy, Power and Legitimacy: the Critical Theory of Jürgen Hambermas, Toronto, Toronto University Press, 2003.