Universitat Internacional de Catalunya

Anthropology

Anthropology
6
8476
1
First semester
FB
Global Trends
Antropologia
Main language of instruction: Spanish

Teaching staff


Dr. ROMERO MULERO, Pablo - promero@uic.es

Monday-Friday at 14:00

Introduction

In the event that the health authorities announce a new period of confinement due to the evolution of the health crisis caused by COVID-19, the teaching staff will promptly communicate how this may effect the teaching methodologies and activities as well as the assessment.


The subject of anthropology is presented as a reflection on the phenomenon of religion and rationality. This double reflection is channeled through two readings of "ther others" and "us" that simultaneously also evolves from the most irrational as rational, and further from the closest. Such an approach allows, in part, a study of what Man is, the big questions surrounding him as the religious phenomenon provides a proposed response to it. But the study of this phenomenon is specific to the study of non-Western religions, to contrast, in the second half, with the rational consciousness of the West and the loss of religiosity.

Pre-course requirements

No pre-course requirements are needed to enrol in this subject.

Objectives

  • Be aware and understand the main concepts and approaches of life to the great religions: Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam.
  • Reflect on the ways in which the great religions have responded to the main questions surrounding the human being: the origin of the world, the meaning of life and pain, death, existence and nature of divinity and their relationship, etc.
  • Reflect on the western culture in contrast with the East.
  • Analyse the processes of loss of rationality and the loss of rationality that has occurred in the West.

Competences/Learning outcomes of the degree programme

  • 02 CG - The ability to learn and act an autonomously and responsibly
  • 04 CG - The ability to organise time and workspace
  • 08 CG - The ability to reflect and memorize.
  • 10 CG - Knowledge and mastery of bibliographic repertoires
  • 18 CE - Ability to detect newsworthy events

Learning outcomes of the subject

  • Critical and personal relationship with the great ideas (meaning of life and death, pain, cosmography, happiness) and the responses they gave to the world's major religions.
  • Knowledge of doctrine and forms of organisation of the major religions (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam).
  • Develop the ability to work, analysis and understand.
  • Reflect on Western culture, the loss of confidence in rationalism and reason in the past centuries.

Students:

  1. Will learn basic knowledge of economics, law geography and history in order to be able to understand some of the major problems of modern society.
  2. They will internalize a complex vision of contemporary societies.
  3. They will understand how to spot trends.
  4. They will be able to analyze society and forge a critical and independent spirit.
  5. They will develop abilities to perform better during teamwork and create positive synergies.
  6. They will get detailed knowledge about the origins of mankind and its organization, culture, religion and privacy.

Syllabus

“Toda tecnología conlleva una tendencia intrínseca” (N. Postman)


1. Fenomenología del hecho tecnológico en el pensamiento contemporáneo.

 

1.1  Los medios como epistemología y el hombre como producto (Postman y las redes sociales). El surgimiento del lenguaje publicitario en E. Bernays: The Century of the self.

1.2  Realidad y representación: el giro gnoseológico en la modernidad (Descartes/Hume).

1.3  La naturaleza humana ¿inmutable? Cambio tecnólogico y cambios antropológicos en la era tecnológica. (N. Carr)

1.4  La posibilidad de la comunicación en la sociedad postmoderna. Los mass media como escaparate del mundo.

1.5  El paso de la abstracción a la representación (Homo Videns, G. Sartori, caps. 3,5 y 6)

1.6  La tecnología como paradigma de la racionalidad postmoderna. N. Carr (textos y entrevistas) “¿Internet nos está volviendo estúpidos?”

 

Nicholas Carr, entrevistas en El País acerca de los conceptos de multitasking e infoxicación.

 

2. Tiempo: historia, linealidad y progreso.

 

2.1.         Tiempo lleno y tiempo vacío en el mundo contemporáneo (H. Gadamer) Mongardini)

2.2.         Alienación del tiempo en el hombre postmoderno (Mongardini). La percepción del propio tiempo como identidad (Black mirror y Lifeline, de V. Erice)

2.3.          Ocio y negocio: la fiesta. El tiempo como mercancía. (J. Pieper)

2.4.          Historia y narcisismo: la exhibición sentimental del yo.

 

  • Texto H. Arendt (contemplación y praxis).
  • Texto J. Pieper (el ocio contemplativo).

 

-       La obsolescencia de lo humano en un mundo tecnificado (G. Anders, E. Sennett)

-       Libertad y perfección en el hombre contemporáneo. (M. Sandel, Contra la perfección. Bauman, Vida de consumo: libertad, tiempo y obsolescencia págs. 83-89)

 

-       Tiempos modernos, de Chaplin, para comparar con la práctica de El nuevo capitalismo o la tecnificación del hombre.

-       Despersonalización. (relacionar con el cap. 7 de Beigbeder) en Modernidad líquida, de Z. Bauman)

 

(prácticas: textos de H-G. Gadamer, Los dos tiempos; Mongardini, V. Erice, Lifeline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR-I1FDOr4g)

 

3. El desplazamiento de lo racional. Narcisismo y posmodernidad.

 

-       Del vacío a la postmodernidad. Narcisismo colectivo y proceso de personalización: características, causas y consecuencias (Sartori, caps 3, 5, 6 y prólogo Lipovetsky). Amor líquido en Bauman.

-       La realidad líquida en Z. Bauman y el carácter moral del narcisismo. (Sartori, cap. 6) ¿Podemos definir objetivamente la realidad?

-       Del homo sapiens al homo insipiens. La manipulación de la verdad objetiva por el poder. La advertencia huxleyana. Razón e información en los mass media. (Postman, cap. 11)

-       Del sustento de la realidad al encanto de la imagen. De los hechos a las opiniones: la deriva relativista en el mundo de la comunicación.

-       La opinión teledirigida. El paradigma de la opinión pública (Sartori, Vídeo-política; Postman, Las cinco advertencias del cambio tecnológico)

-       Homo faber: el sujeto como hacedor de la realidad. La subjetivización de la realidad. N. Postman (cap V. El mundo de la diversión)

-       La fragmentación del lenguaje en los medios de comunicación de masas (Postman, cap. 6; Sartori)

 

(prácticas textos de Ch. Lasch, La cultura del narcisismo; La era del vacío, de Lipovetsky; G. Debord, La sociedad del espectáculo, etc)


Teaching and learning activities

In person



TRAINING ACTIVITYECTS CREDITS
Focused Praxis. Handing in occasional exercises to learn theory through practice.
1
Lectures. In lectures, lecturers/professors not only transmit content or knowledge, but also, and above all else, attitudes, motivation, skills and values, etc. They also ensure that participants can express their opinions and arguments to the other students.
5

Evaluation systems and criteria

In person



Students will need to pass a partial exam about the reading books during the semester; this test will be monographic and will deduct content for the final exam if the average grade of the group exceeds seven. Otherwise it will enter again in the final. Their total value is 30% of the grade.

The final exam will be held at the end of the semester and its value is 50% of the final grade. The minimum score on this test will be 2; any lower rating will automatically prevent the student to enhance his average score with practice notes.

Class attendance, interventions with questions concerning the agenda and participation will generally be 10% of the final grade. Practices and work done in class or at home must be delivered without exception at the date and time agreed. If the student can't get to come to class at the time, the practice will have to be sent by mail in advance. The student will never be able to deliver it later. Its value will be 20% of the grade (class attendance, interventions with questions concerning the agenda and participation are included). Similarly, the non-attendance should always be notified in advance (in case of illness or unforeseen) and through proof when there is some kind of occasional incompatibility. Any work, practice or general text containing foreign elements in the form of plagiarism (defined in this way any undocumented note, copies of previous work or reproduction without the relevant quote from a text internet) will be considered a very serious offense and will involve the automatic fail of the subject and the loss of the immediate convocation. Thus, the student will have to necessarily occur in the next call.

Bibliography and resources

 

Bauman, Z. La posmodernidad y sus descontentos; Akal, 2001.

Bauman, Z. Amor líquido; FCE, 2005.

Debord, G. La sociedad del espectáculo, Pre-textos, 1999.

Graf Huyn, Hans, Seréis como dioses; El buey mudo, 2010.

Finkielkraut, A. Nosotros, los modernos, Encuentro, 2006.

Lasch, Ch. La cultura del narcisismo; Edit. Andrés Bello, 2001.

Lipovetsky, G. La era del vacío, Anagrama, 2003.

Postman, Neil, Divertirse hasta morir, Edic. La tempestad, 2001.

Sartori, G, Homo videns: la sociedad teledirigida, Taurus, 2012.

Sennett, R., La corrosión del carácter; Anagrama, 2000.

Toutain, F., Imitación del hombre, Malpaso, 2020.

Teaching and learning material



Print version