BHUM 17A33 - Human Responsibility in Times of Disasters

Who is responsible for the evil that affects humanity and its environment? A tension emerges between, on the one hand, a current of thought that considers man to be absolutely free of his acts and therefore fully responsible for the evil he commits, and, on the other hand, the various systems that, locking man in a deterministic stranglehold, place the responsibility for evil on a causality that transcends him. The question becomes even more complex when it comes to questioning the responsibility of catastrophes: evils whose scale is then so large that their causes are extremely diffuse, uncertain and difficult to identify. Anyway, tracing the chain of efficient causes would be insufficient to establish the moral, political and legal responsibility of disasters. Trying to determine who is responsible for catastrophes means connecting them to a specific temporality, which sometimes is quite different from the visible consequences (for example in the case of the climate change). In view of all these difficulties, the course will seek to determine whether it is possible or not to apply the principle of responsibility to catastrophes, using historical events and major philosophical, literary and artistic works to enlighten us.

Léa ANTONICELLI,Patrick LE BIHAN

Séminaire

English

Written and oral english, basic concepts of politics

Autumn and Spring 2023-2024

Class participation 10% Oral presentation 25% Mid-term work 25% Final paper 40%