Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
Contemporary Thought
Teaching staff
Introduction
The history of the world and of contemporary thought is an exciting and dramatic story, marked by the permanent will to break old bonds and open new paths. This journey of abrupt ruptures and transgressive explorations has illuminated paths of freedom and spaces of greater humanization. At the same time, however, it has produced complex anthropological labyrinths and resounding collective failures. In this course we propose to go through the main currents of sociopolitical and anthropological thought of the last two centuries. In this way we will be able to understand the fundamental notes of the sensibility and experience of contemporary man.
The objective of this course is not to learn a long list of names and dates, but to understand in depth the keys to the schools of thought that have shaped the world today. Mastering the fundamental concepts and categories of the great ideological constellations of our recent history will allow the student - and future journalist - to better situate himself in the background of current political, social and cultural debates. We want to apprehend contemporary thought in a broad sense, analyzing the main political currents, but also the turns in the scientific universe, the philosophical backgrounds or the main currents of social transformation: from liberalism and Marxism to personalism, through feminism, environmentalism or the meaning of the main artistic avant-gardes.
Pre-course requirements
No pre-course requirements are needed to enrol in this subject.
Objectives
The main objectives of the course are:
- To know the main currents of thought in the contemporary world.
- To understand the key categories of each school of thought.
- To situate current debates in relation to the main ideological discussions that have characterized contemporary history.
- To understand the background of ideas behind the main events of the last two centuries.
- To understand the intertwining of philosophy, culture, politics and society in the contemporary world.
- To have the ability to critically analyze the main lines of thought, putting them in dialogue with each other and highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.
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
- Acquire the knowledge of basic terms and concepts to develop critical thinking.
- Write essays, make presentations or participate in debates that demonstrate one's ability to express ideas.
- Identify through the media the main latent political and ideological debates on major issues on the public agenda.
- Encourage respect for diversity of views.
Students:
- They will internalize a complex vision of contemporary societies.
- They will understand how to spot trends.
- They will be able to analyze society and forge a critical and independent spirit.
- They will develop abilities to perform better during teamwork and create positive synergies.
- They will get detailed knowledge about the origins of mankind and its organization, culture, religion and privacy.
Syllabus
1. The prelude: Ancien Régime and Enlightenment.
2. The foundations: Classical political liberalism.
3. The deployment of freedom: Economic and social liberalism.
4. Romantic passion: Keys to the romantic movement.
5. The meaning and transformation of history: From Hegel to Marx.
6. The conquest of equality: Social democracy and Eurocommunism.
7. The Triumph of Experimental Science: Evolution of Science and Positivism.
8. The philosophers of suspicion: Nietzsche, Freud and the transmutation of values.
9. The crisis of Modernity: War, artistic avant-garde and totalitarian temptation.
10. The existentialist turn: anguish and meaning of human life.
11. The personalist proposal: the notion of the person as a way out of contemporary labyrinths.
12. Contemporary religious thought: twentieth-century Catholic theology and the Second Vatican Council.
13. The City and Utopia: Urbanism, Architecture and Political-Social Models.
14. The feminine revolution: the multiple faces of feminism.
15. Social criticism and postmodern earthquake: the Frankfurt School, the end of grand narratives, decolonization and the woke movement.
16. The New Conservatism: Conservative Thought in the Twentieth Century.
17. The ecological perspective: The currents of environmentalism.
18. Thinking about the digital revolution: from Bauman to Byung-Chul Han.
19. A new humanity?: The dilemmas of transhumanism.
20. The paradigm of care: a social and political alternative.
Teaching and learning activities
In person
| TRAINING ACTIVITY | ECTS CREDITS |
| 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. | 3 |
| Focused Praxis. Handing in occasional exercises to learn theory through practice. | 1.2 |
| Seminar. This activity will consist of taking an in-depth look at specific up-to-date topics in a monographic manner-in some cases these topics will have been debated socially-, via active work in small groups. | 0,6 |
| Practical workshop. A highly practical working activity, where students can acquire skills that are practical or also theoretical (intellectual skills, logical skills, critical skills, intellectual learning skills, study skills, quoting skills, etc). | 0,6 |
| Coaching. Monitoring how students learn the content of the subject, either individually or in groups. In the coaching sessions, mistakes will be corrected, queries answered, and exercises and activities to achieve the established objectives will be suggested. | 0,6 |
Evaluation systems and criteria
In person
First call
First partial exam: 30%.
Second partial exam: 30%.
Reading journal: 15%.
Class work (press notes + three short text commentaries): 25%.
In order to pass the first call, in any case, an average grade of 4.5 in the midterm exams must be obtained.
Second call
The criteria are the same as in the first call. In this call, the exams can be recovered as well as the "reading diary" and the "class work".
Third call
The student may choose whether to take the exams only (in this case they will be worth 100% of the grade) or follow the ordinary evaluation procedure.