Philosophies and Instruments of Peace-Keeping and of Peace-Making: course description
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The aim of this seminar is to make the participating students familiar with the various attempts of mankind to cope with the apparently unavoidable fact of social and political conflict. Obviously the polarity between war and peace accompanies men from their evolutionary roots up to our present times. One may leave it undecided whether the “survival of the fittest” (Darwin) or the curse of Cain’s fratricide, whether scarcity, greed, folly or other naturally determinating factors make conflicts and wars unavoidable. However, there is no doubt that men do not strive for wars for the sake of war-making. If they do so, they start wars because they try to use wars to achieve other goals. Finally, all men, groups or states that waged war did so because they wanted to shape the peace that should follow war. However, this calculation rarely meets the expectations of those who have waged war – let alone of those who took it into the bargain. The state of war is – without exception – “nasty, brutish and short” (to quote Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan).
Wise people always realized this simple truth and tried to convince mankind of the obnoxiousness, uselessness and misery of starting and leading wars. Other wise men of a more practical mind tried to design methods and instruments of avoiding wars by economic, social and political instruments of securing peace.
In the first part of this seminar shall be discussed the ideas of outstanding ‘Philosophers of Peace’ from Aristotle up to Gandhi and Mandela. In the second part of this seminar shall be discussed practical approaches and instruments of peace-keeping and peace-making.
Course Outline
In the beginning of the course I intend to ask for the academic background and the expectations of the participants, at the same time stating my own goals for this seminar. The course then will start by a general introduction into the respective topic. Thereafter one of the students who has prepared a paper within the framework of the respective topic (ca. 15-20 minutes) will present his paper. Following this presentation the paper will be extensively discussed, the discussion being enriched and widened by complementary information and considerations of the professor.
During the first lesson the students are confronted with a list of possible topics for their respective paper. At the latest during the second week of the semester the participants have to choose their topic.
There will be a final written exam. The students will be confronted with three questions, referring to the topic of the seminar, including the topics of the presented papers and the discussed ideas and institutions. This final exam will last about 1 ½ hours.
To do some exercise there will be a short intermediate written exam towards the end of October. At this exam the students will be confronted with two questions referring to the topic of the seminar. This intermediate exam will last 1 hour. The aim is to make the students more comfortable with the final exam.
