Human Thought 1
Module: Economic Framework
Matter: The individual, Business and Society
Main language of instruction: Spanish
Other languages of instruction: Catalan, English
If the student is enrolled for the English track then classes for that subject will be taught in the same language.
Head instructor
Dr. Pablo ROMERO - promero@uic.es
Dr. Joan Vianney DOMINGO - vdomingo@uic.es
Office hours
On Monday from 12.00 to 13.00. Please ask for an appointment by e-mail.
This module is based on a premise that is very relevant to university education: the main challenges and problems that university students will face during their degree programme and in the future will not be solved using techniques that can be taught but rather through an in-depth understanding of the human condition. Therefore, the objective of this course is to think what it means to be human within oneself and in society.
The current crisis of the social and economic capitalist system and the welfare state makes this kind of training increasingly relevant and necessary for those who will be making decisions concerning other people in the future. Only a calm and honest reflection about the person and society can provide the guidance that is necessary in an increasingly complex world. In today’s world, stopping to think and taking a humanistic approach to the world has become an urgent humanitarian task.
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To reflect on the personal, family, professional and social dimensions of the human being.
Part I. Man and the World. Analysis of Consumerism and the Origin of Advertising.
I. Phenomenology of Advertising and Consumption in the Contemporary World. Advertising and Mass Media.
- 1.1. Media as epistemology and man as product. The emergence of advertising language in E. Bernay’s: The Century of the Self.
- 1.2. Fetishism of the subjectivity and fetishism of the commodity (K. Marx and Z. Bauman, Consumer Life).
- 1.3. The consumer production industry (Ferlosio, Non Olet, J. Rifkin, The End of Work).
- 1.4. The possibility of communication in postmodern society. The mass media as a showcase of the world (N. Postman).
- 1.5. Advertising syntax and fragmentation of language in the mass media (Postman, chapter 6, Sartori).
II. Man and Time: History, Linearity and Progress.
- 2.1. Full time and empty time in contemporary man (H. Gadamer).
- 2.2. Alienation of time in the present culture (Mongardini). The perception of one's own time as an identity (Black Mirror, Modern Times and Lifeline, short by V. Erice).
- 2.3. Pointillist Time, Obsolescence and Hanging Culture in Z. Bauman (pp. 51-57).
- 2.4. Leisure and business: the party. Time as a commodity (Z. Bauman, Consumer Life, chapter I.2, pp. 83-89).
o From the medieval otium to the neg-otium of the consumer society (J. Pieper, Leisure and Intellectual Life).
- 2.5. The obsolescence of the human in a technified world (G. Anders, R. Sennett, Hegel).
- 2.6. Freedom and perfection in contemporary man (Alvira, What is Freedom?, Ayllón texts, M. Sandel, Against Perfection) (Bauman, Life of Consumption, Freedom pp. 83-89).
III. Man and Morals: the Ethical Limits of the Market.
- 3.1. From vacuum to postmodernity. Collective narcissism and personalisation process: characteristics, causes and consequences (Sartori, chaps 3, 5, 6 and Prologue, Lipovetsky). Liquid love in Bauman.
- 3.2. Narcissism and perfection. The technique as a horizon of success: Against perfection (M. Sandel).
- 3.3. First and second individualist revolution (Lipovetsky).
- 3.7. Practical case studies. What money cannot buy.
The classes will contain a mix of theoretical explanations and practical activities.
La primera es la buena:
TRAINING ACTIVITY |
COMPETENCES |
REPORT PRESENTATIONS |
11 68 53 56 57 60 38 45 46 62 65 33 50 54 |
TRAINING ACTIVITY | COMPETENCES |
---|---|
REPORT PRESENTATIONS SMALL GROUP SEMINARS TUTORIALS INDIVIDUAL STUDY MAGISTER CLASS CLASSROOM PRACTICE (SOLVING PROBLEMS/VIDEOS/TEXT COMMENTS/ESSAYS) | 11 68 53 56 57 60 38 45 46 62 65 33 50 54 |
The module is assessed as follows:
Attendance and participation: 2 points
Mid-course examinations (including mid-course): 2 points (at the time, an explanation of the specific form and scoring for each activity will be given). This test is not matter-free. The whole syllabus is covered in the final examination.
Essays, presentations and comments on texts: 2 points.
Examination on comprehension and presentation of concepts: 4 points.
No essay may be submitted after the stated deadline. Exercises and comments not submitted will be failed, to be repeated by the deadline specified by the lecturer. The mark from practical work contributes towards the final mark. There are no exceptions to this rule unless previously announced, or subsequently justified by relevant documentation.
Students who have several unsubmitted exercises will not be allowed to sit the final examination. Likewise, those who have failed the practical section must repeat it, bearing in mind the corrections made.
Finally, any in-class exercise or written essay that mid-coursely or totally plagiarises any other text, be it a citation or an anonymous source, website or a published text in any possible format (books, magazines, etc.) will lead to immediate failure of the module and the loss of the right to sit the final examination. There are also no exceptions to this rule.
REFERENCE BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Sellés, J. F., Anthropology for Rebels: A Different Way of Doing Philosophical Anthropology, Strathmore University, 2010
- Yepes Stork, R., Notes on Philosophical Anthropology. Human Excellence,
- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
- Aristotle, De Anima
- Plato, The Republic
- Polo, L., Ethics: A Modern Version of Its Classic Themes, Sinag-Tala, 2008
- Llano, C. y Polo, L., The Anthropology of Directive Action (Activity), 1997
- Pérez López, J. A., Foundations of Management, Rialp, 2014
- Malo, A., Il senso antropologico dell'azione: paradigmi e prospettive, Armando, 2004
- Malo, A., Antropologia dell'affettività, Armando, 1999 (trad. española: Antropología de la afectividad, EUNSA, 2004)
- Anscombe, G. E. M., Human Life, Action and Ethics, St. Andrews studies in philosophy and public affairs, 2004
- Lyons, W., Emotion, Cambridge University Press, 1980
- Solomon, R. C., The Passions, Anchor Press-Doubleday, Garden City, 1976
- Bauman, Z., Liquid Love, Polity Press, 2003
- Bauman, Z., Consuming Life, Polity Press, 2007
- Sandel, M., What Money Can’t Buy, FSG, 2012
TEXTS and other material
- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, selected brands
- Aristotle, De Anima, selected brands
- Plato, The Republic, book 4
- Anscombe, G. E. M., “The Dignity of the Human Being”, in Human Life, Action and Ethics, St. Andrews studies in philosophy and public affairs, 2006
- George, R.P. “Gnostic liberalism”, First Things, December 2016
- Shepherd, J., “A Broken Body isn’t a Broken Person”, TED Talk
- Brooks, David, Our elites still don’t get it, New York Times, 16th November 2017
- Schwartz, P., “The Paradox of Choice”, TEDtalk
- Lynch, P., “How to see past our own perspective and find truth”, TED Talk
- Sandel, M., Contra la libertad,
- Bernays, E, Century of the Self (youtube)
- Bauman, Z., Liquid Love
- Bauman, Z., Consuming Life
- Sandel, M., What Money Can't Buy
E: exam date | R: revision date | 1: first session | 2: second session: