units

ATS2690

Faculty of Arts

18 September 2017 20 April 2024
Monash University

Undergraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

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LevelUndergraduate
FacultyFaculty of Arts
Organisational UnitPolitics
OfferedNot offered in 2013
Coordinator(s)Dr Paul Muldoon; Dr Michael Janover

Notes

Previously coded PLT2090

Synopsis

This unit seeks to illuminate the current crisis of humanity by looking at the work of three key figures in recent political theory - Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. Each of these theorists has interrogated the relationship between politics and barbarism at the most profound level and attempted to salvage a concept of humanity from the catastrophes of the twentieth century. Pivoting around themes of truth, freedom and power, their work draws us back to fundamental questions about the purposes and possibilities of politics as a human endeavour. Engaging with them will help to shed light on what might be hoped for human beings, individually and collectively, in the future.

Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit students at levels 2 and 3 will be able to:

  1. understand debates about humanism and anti-humanism in politics and political theory
  2. compare and contrast key political ideas of the three theorists studied in the unit: Arendt, Foucault, Derrida
  3. display developing skills of spoken and written communication in addressing questions of politics and humanism
  4. summarise and analyse passages of text (including visual documentary text) that raise issues and ideas in political theory
  5. understand and analyse the relationship between politics and ethics in the writings of political theorists

In addition, students taking this unit at level three will be able to:

  1. critically reflect on political theory as an attempt to explain the meaning and advance the possibility of human freedom

Assessment

Tutorial presentation: 10%
Written work: 60% (3000 words)
2 Hours exam: 30%

Contact hours

1 one-hour lecture and a one-hour tutorial per week

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Politics
Philosophy
International studies

Prerequisites

First year sequence in politics

Prohibitions

ATS3690