NOTES/STUDY GUIDES
- You can write on any of the questions below (1-3 in each entry) for your journals and/or paper.
- They are meant to help you formulate key questions and points for your own reflections.
- If you want to formulate your own questions, feel free to do so. In any case, make sure your questions/points are clear and relevant to the topic.
I. In/Justice Today: Globalization
Topic 1: A Planetary Opticalization of the World: A Philosophical And Relevant Introduction
Supplementary
Paul Virilio, Excerpts, The Information Bomb
1. What are some of the general characteristics of globalization? Name and describe at least five strands and discuss their significance.
2. Today in the age of the pandemic, are we seeing the end of globalization? And how can we understand the rise of defensive nationalism?
3. Illustrate and evaluate effects, pros and cons of globalization by analyzing examples in your own life: a theoretical translation of your own globalization.
Topic 2: Global Justice: Free, Fun and Fair?
Supplementary
1. Summarize and respond to Appadurai's analysis of landscapes of globalization by also providing your example for each concept discussed in the article.
2. What are the structural problems in any attempts at solving global injustice? Explain this conundrum by summarizing and addressing points in Steger.
3. If possible/you feel ambitious enough, try to combine Steger, Appadurai and Harvey's perspectives to explain how and why technocapitalism is thriving.
Topic 3: Who Are We? And Where Are We?
Supplementary
1. "We are the world," says Michael Jackson, and yet increasingly the category "we" itself seems at risk. Explain this by detailing a theorist's view.
2. What are the connections between global justice and racial justice? In what sense is BLM is already or has become a global movement?
3. Could a totalitarian control or a share economy ever be an answer to the current, global epidemic of economic inequality?
II. In/Justice and Out/Laws: Spirit and Embodiment
Topic 4: The Code of Hammurabi and the Spirit of Laws
Supplementary
1. Explain both the power and the limits of Lex Talionis (the law of retaliation or retribution) and show some specific contemporary examples.
2. Given that not all laws are just, and senses of justice vary across cultures and histories, how exactly does justice relate to laws? Explain with examples
3. Examine some "comparable" cases from both the Code of Hammurabi and any contemporary legal histories to show how laws evolve.
Topic 5: Confucianism and the Spirit of Laws
Supplementary
1. Confucian philosophy of law is premised on Ren 仁 (benevolent humanity) and Li 禮 (rituals and propriety). Explain, illustrate and evaluate this.
2. How do Confucius' notions of law and order compare to Montesquieu's ideas on that as shown in The Spirit of the Laws?
3. What insights and or issues can you see in Confucius' aspiration towards social harmony, especially seen from some contemporary viewpoints?
Topic 6: Criminology as Lovemaking: An African Perspective
Supplementary
1. What has "love" got to do with criminology? Summarize the article above, explain some of the key notions or moves, and evaluate its perspective.
2. How does Plato's theory of justice compare to the Afro-centric counterpart dramatized in this paper, and what "difference" does it really make?
3. As one is not born but rather becomes a criminal, the importance of communities and social environments is self-evident. Explain this link further.
III. In/Justice and Non/Violence: Conquest, Resistance and Ecological Vision
Topic 7: Sun Tzu's Art of War And Its Contemporaneity
Supplementary
1. Is war justifiable or necessary? The Art of War is both a military strategy book and a piece of political philosophy pertaining to the ethics of war. Explain.
2. Start with one concept you find most interesting and show at least four different, relevant concepts, while show this connection through a real life story.
3. (How) is this book helpful today? In your own and or broader social/everyday/political/community context. Try and draw some practical insights.
Topic 8: Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King on Non-Violence
Supplementary
1. Summarize and compare Ghandi's and Dr. King's philosophy of non-violence, and show specifically how and where they remain instructive today.
2. Is non-violence or could it be a politically efficacious way of counteracting violence? What lessons or insights can you draw from Ghandi/King's cases?
3. Violence is both here and everywhere, to paraphrase Dr. King. Articulate this connection by discussing some specific, relatively unexplored examples.
Topic 9: Colonial-Imperial Legacies, Capitalist Productions and Climate Justice
1. Why does climate justice matter so urgently today and in what sense is this movement a "decolonial" social political project on a global scale? Explain.
2. Is the new term, "BIPOC," more helpful than POC in some ways? Explain and argue your position also with a global perspective in mind.
3. How is the ongoing pandemic crisis impacting your thinking on global justice? Try to tie together your own experiences with some theoretical thoughts.
