Students

PHIL2054 – Freedom and Domination

2020 – Session 2, Fully online/virtual

Notice

As part of Phase 3 of our return to campus plan, most units will now run tutorials, seminars and other small group learning activities on campus for the second half-year, while keeping an online version available for those students unable to return or those who choose to continue their studies online.

To check the availability of face to face activities for your unit, please go to timetable viewer. To check detailed information on unit assessments visit your unit's iLearn space or consult your unit convenor.

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff
Loughlin Gleeson
Jean-Philippe Deranty
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
40cp at 1000 level or above
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

'Freedom' is the most important norm for modern societies, but what do we really mean when we appeal to freedom? Is there more freedom in modern liberal societies than in other forms of society? If so, does this make them better? What about the negation of freedom, the experience of domination? How are we to define it, what are the structures and the forms of domination in modern society? This unit explores these questions by studying key philosophical reference points in the modern reflection on the nature and conditions of freedom, such as Kant, Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Demonstrate good general understanding of the philosophical concepts of 'freedom' and 'domination'.
  • ULO2: Analyse and critically evaluate arguments and concepts in social and political philosophy.
  • ULO3: Apply philosophical conceptions of freedom and domination to current public debates.
  • ULO4: Articulate personal views clearly and cogently, in written and oral expression, on the views and arguments presented in the unit.

General Assessment Information

Extensions and Special Consideration

Requests for extensions must, normally, be made in writing before the due date. Extensions of up to 3 days can be granted by your convenor if reasonable grounds are given, and some written documentation can be produced. Work load from other units, or from employment, are not considered reasonable justification.

Requests for extensions of more than 3 days should be submitted via a Special Consideration request, which is available in the http://ask.mq.edu.au portal. Your request should be accompanied by appropriate documentation, such as a medical certificate. Please see the Special Consideration policy in the list of policies at the end of this document for further details.

Read the policy closely as your request may be turned down if you have not followed procedure, or if you have not submitted a request in a timely manner.

Late Submission Penalty

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests.

Academic Honesty

In Philosophy, academic honesty is taken very seriously. Misrepresenting someone else's work as your own may be grounds for referral to the Faculty Disciplinary Committee. If you have questions about how to properly cite work or how to credit sources, please talk to one of the teaching staff and see also the  Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html

Please note that the policy also prohibits resubmitting work you have already submitted in another unit or unit offering. This counts as self-plagiarism. To avoid self-plagiarism, if you have done this unit previously, you should write on another topic this time. If this presents you with any problems, please contact the unit covenor as soon as possible.

For information about extensions, late penalties and special consideration, see Policies and Procedures section below.

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Short Answer Questions 5% No Week 3
Critical Analysis 30% No Week 5
FInal essay 50% No Week 12
Participation 15% No Ongoing

Short Answer Questions

Assessment Type 1: Quiz/Test
Indicative Time on Task 2: 5 hours
Due: Week 3
Weighting: 5%

A short test early in the unit testing student understanding of key concepts


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate good general understanding of the philosophical concepts of 'freedom' and 'domination'.
  • Articulate personal views clearly and cogently, in written and oral expression, on the views and arguments presented in the unit.

Critical Analysis

Assessment Type 1: Case study/analysis
Indicative Time on Task 2: 15 hours
Due: Week 5
Weighting: 30%

Critical analysis of a key text


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate good general understanding of the philosophical concepts of 'freedom' and 'domination'.
  • Analyse and critically evaluate arguments and concepts in social and political philosophy.
  • Articulate personal views clearly and cogently, in written and oral expression, on the views and arguments presented in the unit.

FInal essay

Assessment Type 1: Essay
Indicative Time on Task 2: 30 hours
Due: Week 12
Weighting: 50%

Final essay


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate good general understanding of the philosophical concepts of 'freedom' and 'domination'.
  • Analyse and critically evaluate arguments and concepts in social and political philosophy.
  • Apply philosophical conceptions of freedom and domination to current public debates.
  • Articulate personal views clearly and cogently, in written and oral expression, on the views and arguments presented in the unit.

Participation

Assessment Type 1: Participatory task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Ongoing
Weighting: 15%

Students should be well prepared for tutorials (in class or online), having done the required reading and devised questions and discussion points. Students should make a constructive contribution to classroom/online discussion.


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Analyse and critically evaluate arguments and concepts in social and political philosophy.
  • Apply philosophical conceptions of freedom and domination to current public debates.
  • Articulate personal views clearly and cogently, in written and oral expression, on the views and arguments presented in the unit.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

PHL2054 will be delivered using a combination of online lectures and online discussion groups.

Online lectures will be delivered live through zoom (Tuesdays 11 am-1 pm, Weeks 1-12, minus Recess). Recordings of those will be posted to iLearn, or alternatively made available through Echo360.

Online discussion groups, which represent the course's participation mark, will be accessible through iLearn.

The course's iLearn website will also contain all other relevant materials (assessment notifications, readings etc.)

Unit Schedule

Week 1: Introduction: Freedom and Domination

Overview of different conceptions of freedom, including MacCallum's triadic notion, Berlin's distinction of positive and negative freedom and the notion of relational freedom. Overview of different conceptions of domination, including interference, heteronomy and alienation. Criticisms of freedom(s).

Background Readings:

Isaiah Berlin, ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’

Axel Honneth, ‘Three, Not Two, Concepts of Liberty: A Proposal to Enlarge Our Moral Self-Understanding’ (audio lecture available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wslFRjaGyRQ)

Charles Taylor, ‘What’s Wrong with Negative Liberty?’

(ed.) David, Miller, The Liberty Reader

(ed.) John Christman, Autonomy and the Challenges to Liberalism

 

Week 2: Modern, Kantian ‘Autonomy’

Kant's modern conception of freedom as autonomy. The historical background and overall systematic position of his decidedly moral conception of freedom. Kant's notion of domination as heteronomy and the social and political implications of autonomy.

Required readings

Kant, ‘What is Enlightenment?’

——,Critique of Pure Reason, pp. 464-79

——, Groundwork, pp. 44-5; 49-62

Further readings

Kant, 'Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose'

Henry Allison, Kant’s Theory of Freedom

Christine Korsgaard, “Morality as Freedom,” Creating the Kingdom of Ends, pp. 159-185.  E-book: http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9781139174503&cid=CBO9781139174503A013

 

Week 3: Kant’s Limitations and Fichte’s Innovation

The limitations of Kantian autonomy, specifically its 'abstractness'. Fichte's innovative model of 'formal freedom' and his incorporation of the body (self-relation) and other subjects (other-relation) into a relational model of freedom. Hegel's critique of Fichte.

Required readings

Hegel, Philosophy of Right, §§131-37

Fichte, Foundations of Natural Right, §§1-5

Further readings

Allen Wood, Hegel’s Ethical Thought, Chapter 9 ('The Emptiness of the Moral Law’)

Robert Williams, ‘Recognition, Right and Social Contract’

 

Week 4: Hegel's Concept of Concrete Freedom

Introduction to Hegel's notion of concrete freedom as genuine reconciliation with constitutive others, or 'being at home in the other'.  The underlying ontological principle of 'negation'. Analysis of the will as set out in introductory paragraphs of Philosophy of Right.

Required readings

Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of Spirit, pp.65-8

Hegel, Philosophy of Right, §§4-23

Further readings

Ikaheimo, ‘Holism and Normative Essentialism in Hegel’s Social Ontology’

Wood, Hegel's Ethical Thought, Part One ('Hegel's Ethical Theory')

 

Week Five: The Dimensions of Concrete Freedom

The 'subjective', 'intersubjective', 'natural' and 'social' dimensions of concrete freedom. A holistic picture of concrete human freedom as being reconciled with, or at 'home in', oneself, others, nature and society.

Required readings

Hegel, Philosophy of Mind, §§409-12; § 436  

——, Philosophy of Right, §§142-156

——, Philosophy of Nature, §§ 245-6

Further reading

Gleeson and Ikaheimo, ‘Hegelian Perfectionism and Freedom’

Neuhouser, 'Hegel's Social Philosophy', in The Cambridge Companion to Hegel and Nineteenth-Century Philosophy

 

Week Six: Hegel's 'Critical Potential'

A Hegelian model of normative criticism. The various kinds of concrete un-freedom; namely, domination and alienation with respect to constitutive others. 

Required readings

Hegel, Philosophy of Mind, §§ 382; 428; 433-35;

——, Phenomenology of Spirit, §§198-201

Further reading

Kauppinen, 'Reason, Recognition and Internal Critique'

Honneth, Pathologies of Individual Freedom: Hegel’s Social Theory

 

Week 7: From Idealism to Materialism: Hegel on History, Feuerbach on Religion

Hegel's account of history and modernity in particular. Feuerbach's critique of Hegel, his materialist approach and account of religious alienation.

Required readings

Hegel, ‘Introduction’ to Lectures on the Philosophy of World History

Feuerbach, ‘Introduction’ to The Essence of Christianity

——, Principles of Philosophy of Future, §§, 52, 59-60

Further reading

Pinkard, Does History Makes Sense?

Deranty, 'Feuerbach and the Philosophy of Critical Theory' 

 

Week Eight: Marx’s Critique of (Capitalist) Alienation

Marx's critique of Hegel and Feuerbach. Introduction to his early writings, its conceptual and methodological premises. Outline of his four-fold account of human alienation under capitalism.

Required readings

Marx, ‘From the Paris Notebooks (1844)’, pp. 71-8

——, ‘A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction’, pp. 57-60

——, ‘On Feuerbach’, pp. 116-118

Further reading

Allen Wood, Karl Marx, Part One

Gyorgy Márkus, Marxism and Anthropology, pp. 36-50

 

Week Nine: Marx's Alternative Vision of (Communist) Freedom

Marx's vision of human freedom as deeply 'romantic' (self-realisation) and relational (relations to others, nature and society). Political implications of this model. Marx's vision of history.  A brief sketch of 'commodity fetishism.'

Required readings

Marx, ‘From the Paris Notebooks (1844)’, pp. 78-83

——, ‘Human Relations as Complementarity: from Comments on James Mill’, pp. 93-9

——, Communist Manifesto

Further Reading

George G. Brenkert, Marx’s Ethics of Freedom, pp. 88-122

 

Weeks 10: Nietzsche’s Vision of Modern Nihilism and its Overcoming

Nietzsche's account of 'nihilism' and its various species (radical, active and passive). His claim that 'God is dead', and criticisms of traditional accounts of morality and truth. The resources required to overcome nihilism. His doctrine of 'will to power'

Required readings

Nietzsche, The Gay Science, §125

——, ‘Essay Two’, Genealogy of Morals

——, ‘European Nihilism, §§1-16

Further reading

Robert B. Pippin, 'Nietzsche’s Alleged Farewell: The premodern, modern, and postmodern', in The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche, Cambridge University Press, 1996.

 Stanley Rosen, “Nietzsche’s Revolution” from his The Ancients and the Moderns.

 

Week Eleven: Nietzsche's Vision of Individual Freedom 

Nietzsche's critique of traditional conceptions of freedom. His radical vision of individual self-realisation. The social and political implications of this a-moral, heavily individualistic picture.

Required readings

——, Human, All Too Human, §§39, 225 

——, Beyond Good and Evil, §§24, 29

Further reading

Oaklander, ‘Nietzsche on Freedom’

Nietzsche on Freedom and Autonomy, eds. Ken Gemes and Simon May

 

Week 12: Contemporary Heirs to the 19th Century, German Philosophical Tradition

Freedom today: the Autonomy-debate, Honneth, Jaeggi and Foucault

Required readings

Axel Honneth, Freedom’s Right (selected passages)

Rahel Jaeggi, Alienation (selected passages)

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit the Student Policy Gateway (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/student-policy-gateway). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

If you would like to see all the policies relevant to Learning and Teaching visit Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central).

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/getting-started/student-conduct​

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

Learning Skills

Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to help you improve your marks and take control of your study.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.

Student Enquiries

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If you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

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When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.