Philosophy of Politics:
A journey through the history of Humanity
Do you want to go on an amazing philosophical expedition with me?
The crisis caused by the coronavirus will likely name a new chapter in the astonishing history of Humanity. And it is a great mystery which the essence, the fundamental texture, of this new chapter, of this modern era, will be.
Today, right now, millions of citizens all over the world are looking, with a philosophical/political gaze, through many windows: the windows of their houses, of their screens, and their souls. Our future is both challenging and fascinating. But before facing it, we should ask us what “Politics” exactly is. What is the essence, the core engine, of these hurricanes of ideas, institutions, dreams and reciprocal demonologies? What is the essential and inalienable dream of humanity? Does such core-dream exist at all?
This course is a massive expedition, a long flight, and also an unlimited dive through millennia, civilisations and prodigious minds.
The objective, apart from the immense pleasure of flying and diving, is to contemplate and analyse under the mighty light of Philosophy the different political ideas and their creators, as well as the real systems in which such ideas have been embodied. Or eventually not. By the way: What precisely is an “idea”?
We will start in ancient China and, almost three thousand years later, after flying through Vedic India and ancient Greece and Rome, we reach the present moment. Well, instead: We will arrive at whatever in eight months from now “the present moment” might be.
“Bibliography on demand” – means that I will be at your entire disposal to advise you on readings, studies or investigations that might be of your particular interest so that you can take a personal, unique journey within the one offered by this course.
Included is the possibility of actively participating (via chat) in the 30 lectures, deferred access to those lectures that you might not have been able to attend and, as I have indicated above, my attention (via email) for your “bibliography on demand”.
It is an honour for me to start with you this great expedition into the depths of the mystery of what we call “Politics”. In the millennia of our history, there are treasures of ideas and feelings that have not yet been explored. Or not enough. And we need those treasures to build our fascinating future.
30 conferences. 30 weeks. Via the Zoom platform. Every Thursday.
Time
- Europe/Madrid: 03:00 PM.
- London: 02:00 PM.
- New York: 09:00 AM.
- Tokyo: 10:00 PM.
- New Delhi: 06:30 PM.
- Seoul: 10:00 PM.
- Doha: 04:00 PM.
Course registration fee: 125 Euros.
Please ask me any further information you may need. I am at your entire disposal at the following email address:
contacto@davidlopez.info
PROGRAMME
1.- Introduction. What is politics? What are its metaphysical, physical and anthropological presuppositions? The issue of freedom. The issue of progress. Society versus individuality? Freedom versus order? Creativity versus tradition?
2.- Confucianism and Taoism in ancient China. State versus Nature. Social order/cosmic order/human inner order.
3.- The regulation of the anti-system possibility in ancient India: the saddhus.
4.- The sophists in ancient Greece. Scepticism and nihilism versus hope in reflections on politics.
5.- Plato: Crito. The sacralisation of the laws. Freedom versus legality.
6.- Plato: Republic. What is the best political system?
7.- Aristotle: Politics. The factuality of human slavery.
8.- Cicero. Political intelligence in ancient Rome. Is there a natural- eternally fair law that human beings can discover in their conscience if their intellect is empowered through education?
9.- Augustine of Hippo: City of God. Faith in the arrival of a perfect, sacred, final political system.
10.- Averroes: Commentaries on Plato’s Republic. Political and metaphysical brilliance from Islam.
11.- Kant: Perpetual Peace. The mystery of politics seen from the heights of Kantian philosophy.
12.– Hegel: Lectures on the Philosophy of History. What is the secret plan that unfolds in history? What/Who is the creator of such paramount plan?
13.- John Stuart Mill. The sacralisation of human freedom (and dignity). The abolition of state education. The elimination of a state. Are we ready for so much freedom, for so much responsibility?
14.- Communism. Marx. A metaphysical and soteriological analysis.
15.- Nietzsche and his radical theory about freedom and slavery. Is it possible to create a political system high enough for the “Super-human” (Übermensch)?
16.- The Frankfurt School. Horkheimer. Marxism that passionate loves individual human beings.
17.- Marxism-Leninism. Nazism. Fascism. A philosophical reflection on violence. Ideologies against the moral imperative “You shall not kill.”
18.- “Open society”. Henri Bergson. Karl Popper.
19.- Ortega y Gasset: The Revolt of the Masses. The danger of mass-humans. The urgent need for noble humans.
20.- Simone Weil: The Need for Roots: prelude towards a declaration of duties towards Mankind.
21.- Michel Foucault. A reticular and kaleidoscopic theory of power.
22.- Lyotard versus Habermas. The postmodern Condition/The Theory of Communicative Action.
23.- Noam Chomsky. Libertarian socialism.
24.- Francis Fukuyama: The End of History and the Last Man/ Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution.
25.– E. O. Wilson: The social Conquest of Earth. A great sage on the ants-universe proposing political ideas for humanity.
26.- Martha Nussbaum. Political Emotions: why love matters for Justice.
27.- Yuval Noah Harari. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.
28.- Steven Pinker: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. The “new favourite book” of Bill Gates.
29.- Political repercussions of the coronavirus-crisis.
30.- Final reflections. Glimpses of the essence and future of politics. A personal proposal.