| Dozent/in |
Dr. Regina Surber |
| Veranstaltungsart |
Masterseminar |
| Code |
HS251542 |
| Semester |
Herbstsemester 2025 |
| Durchführender Fachbereich |
Politikwissenschaft |
| Studienstufe |
Bachelor
Master |
| Termin/e |
wöchentlich (Mo), ab 15.09.2025, 14:15 - 16:00 Uhr, 4.B54 |
| Umfang |
2 Semesterwochenstunden |
| Turnus |
Wöchentlich |
| Inhalt |
Ethics establishes an almost universal ban on interpersonal violence. The ethics of war is a sub-area of applied ethics. It deals with the possible justifications for an extreme exception to the prohibition of violence: systematized mass violence between soldiers of several states and/or members of sub-state groups. We read and discuss selected texts on philosophical attempts to justify this exception. Key guiding questions of the seminar are, i.a., the following:
• What is national defense?
• Do states have a right to national defense?
• How could one justify or excuse a soldier’s right to lethal attack in interstate war?
• Do soldiers fighting for an attacking state have the same moral rights as soldiers fighting for a defending state?
• What are morally permissible recruitment policies?
• Do soldiers defend themselves in war or their co-nationals, and what bearing does this difference have on their moral status?
• How should we morally assess soldiers’ veterans’ war traumas?
• Given that there is no global judicial enforcement system, is a war of defense a form of law enforcement, or even a form of punishment?
And many more.
The seminar is non-digital. Students are required to bring the prepared reading to class in print-out. |
| Schlagworte |
Gender/Diversity |
| Lernziele |
Knowledge of basic concepts, problems and theories relating to the topic of the seminar; the ability to independently work on and interpret philosophical texts and to critically reflect on arguments in war ethics. Ability to engage in constructive and text-related discussion, and to summarize the main argument of a philosophical text in a powerpoint-free presentation with handouts. |
| Voraussetzungen |
(Philosophical) curiosity, stamina, willingness to learn how to think, and readiness to learn to share consistent thoughts in class are mandatory prerequisites. |
| Sprache |
Englisch |
| Anmeldung |
***Wichtig*** Um Credits zu erwerben ist die Anmeldung zur Lehrveranstaltung über das UniPortal zwingend erforderlich. Die Anmeldung ist ab zwei Wochen vor bis zwei Wochen nach Beginn des Semesters möglich. An- und Abmeldungen sind nach diesem Zeitraum nicht mehr möglich. Die genauen Anmeldedaten finden Sie hier: http://www.unilu.ch/ksf/semesterdaten |
| Leistungsnachweis |
Referat, Protokoll, Aktive Teilnahme (Besuch des Seminars, wöchentliche, kurze schriftliche Kommentare, aktive Mitgestaltung der Sitzungen) |
| Abschlussform / Credits |
Aktive Teilnahme (Referat) / 4 Credits
|
| Hinweise |
See "Material" |
| Hörer-/innen |
Ja |
| Kontakt |
regina.surber@uzh.ch |
| Material |
The course literature will be available on OLAT. Weekly, we will discuss articles and book chapters of war ethics, app. 15-25 pages of length. Students are required to print the literature and bring the prepared printout to class. The class is non-digital. |
| Literatur |
The course literature is subject to change. The following list is a selection:
Thomas Nagel, 1972, War and Massacre, Philosophy and Public Affairs 1(2): 123-144.
Helen Frowe, 2011, The Ethics of War and Peace: An Introduction, New York: Routledge.
Ned Dobos, 2020, Ethics, Security, and the War Machine, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cheyney Ryan, 2023, Killing and Dying for Public Relations, Conatus 8(2), 521-543.
David Rodin, 2002, War and Self-Defense, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
David Rodin, 2014, “The Myth of National Self-Defense”, in Cécile Fabre and Seth Lazar (eds.), The Morality of Defensive War. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jonathan Parry and Christina Easton, 2024, “Filling the Ranks”: Moral Risks and the Ethics of Military Recruitment, American Political Science Review, 1-15.
Michael Walzer, 1977, Just and Unjust Wars: A moral argument with historical illustrations, New York: Basic Books.
Cheyney Ryan 2018, Pacifism, In The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of War, eds. Seth Lazar and Helen Frowe, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cheyney Ryan, 2024, Pacifism as War Abolitionism, New York: Routledge. |