Teaching Responsibility
LJMU Schools involved in Delivery:
Law
Learning Methods
Lecture
Module Offerings
7138LAWPL-SEP-MTP
Aims
The module aims to teach the students the various theories on philosophy of history (linear and directional vs. cyclical history; ‘end of history’ theories; Marxist notion of history; recognition of patterns in history, such as, cycles; theory of history as history of ‘civilizations’; Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence theory; decline of the West; Carl Schmitt’s Land vs. Sea dichotomy) and to familiarize the students with the works of the thinkers who developed these theories (Kant, Hegel, Marx, Fukuyama, Popper, Tolstoy, Nietzsche, Huntington, Spengler, Schmitt, Toynbee, Gibbon etc.). The module aims in particular to show the relevance of these theories to international relations (IR) and European integration theory.
IR can indeed be understood in different ways depending on the different conceptions of history; for example, as international ‘class struggle’ (Marxist approach), as ‘clash or encounter of civilizations’ (Huntington, Spengler, Toynbee), as ‘struggle for recognition’ (Fukuyama), as conflict between terrestrial powers and thalassocracies (Schmitt), as ‘eternal recurrence’ of the same patterns and conflicts (Nietzsche). The module will therefore encourage the students to think about IR in combination with a particular conception of history.
The module is relevant to European integration theory. The most important theories on European integration (especially neofunctionalism, but also, although less evidently, liberal intergovernmentalism) adopt a deterministic approach or at least an approach which draws inspiration from historical determinism. Accordingly, European integration theories reveal an underpinning ‘philosophy of history’ that sees integration as an automatic result of certain premises (for example, economic integration as leading necessarily to political integration) and that sees the EU as the most important example of ‘post-historical’ (Fukuyama) and ‘post-political’ entity (Majone). The module will therefore disclose to students a new way to look at European integration theory in combination with a particular conception of history.
Learning Outcomes
1.
Identify and discuss competently and critically the key philosophical conceptions of history.
2.
Discuss competently and critically the relevance of these theories to IR theory.
3.
Discuss competently and critically the relevance of these theories to European integration theory.
Module Content
Outline Syllabus:1) Introduction to the module: the notion of philosophy of history: Tolstoy
2) Linear and directional history and ‘the end of history’: Kant, Hegel and Fukuyama
3) History as class struggle: Marx
4) Enlightenment, Positivism, scientific progress and Darwinism: Galilei, Comte, Darwin
5) Cyclical history and the ‘eternal recurrence’: Hesiod, Virgil, Vico, Nietzsche, Gibbon
6) Land vs. Sea: Schmitt
7) The end of history: Fukuyama
8) The clash or the encounter of civilizations and the notion of decline: Huntington, Spengler, Toynbee
9) The poverty of historicism: Popper
10) Historical determinism and European integration theories
Module Overview:
The module aims to teach the students the various theories on philosophy of history (linear and directional vs. cyclical history; ‘end of history’ theories; Marxist notion of history; recognition of patterns in history, such as, cycles; theory of history as history of ‘civilizations’; Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence theory; decline of the West; Carl Schmitt’s Land vs. Sea dichotomy) and to familiarize the students with the works of the thinkers who developed these theories (Kant, Hegel, Marx, Fukuyama, Popper, Tolstoy, Nietzsche, Huntington, Spengler, Schmitt, Toynbee, Gibbon etc.). The module aims in particular to show the relevance of these theories to international relations (IR) and European integration theory.
IR can indeed be understood in different ways depending on the different conceptions of history; for example, as international ‘class struggle’ (Marxist approach), as ‘clash or encounter of civilizations’ (Huntington, Spengler, Toynbee), as ‘struggle for recognition’ (Fukuyama), as conflict between terrestrial powers and thalassocracies (Schmitt), as ‘eternal recurrence’ of the same patterns and conflicts (Nietzsche). The module will therefore encourage the students to think about IR in combination with a particular conception of history.
The module is relevant to European integration theory. The most important theories on European integration (especially neofunctionalism, but also, although less evidently, liberal intergovernmentalism) adopt a deterministic approach or at least an approach which draws inspiration from historical determinism. Accordingly, European integration theories reveal an underpinning ‘philosophy of history’ that sees integration as an automatic result of certain premises (for example, economic integration as leading necessarily to political integration) and that sees the EU as the most important example of ‘post-historical’ (Fukuyama) and ‘post-political’ entity (Majone). The module will therefore disclose to students a new way to look at European integration theory in combination with a particular conception of history.
The module aims to teach the students the various theories on philosophy of history (linear and directional vs. cyclical history; ‘end of history’ theories; Marxist notion of history; recognition of patterns in history, such as, cycles; theory of history as history of ‘civilizations’; Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence theory; decline of the West; Carl Schmitt’s Land vs. Sea dichotomy) and to familiarize the students with the works of the thinkers who developed these theories (Kant, Hegel, Marx, Fukuyama, Popper, Tolstoy, Nietzsche, Huntington, Spengler, Schmitt, Toynbee, Gibbon etc.). The module aims in particular to show the relevance of these theories to international relations (IR) and European integration theory.
IR can indeed be understood in different ways depending on the different conceptions of history; for example, as international ‘class struggle’ (Marxist approach), as ‘clash or encounter of civilizations’ (Huntington, Spengler, Toynbee), as ‘struggle for recognition’ (Fukuyama), as conflict between terrestrial powers and thalassocracies (Schmitt), as ‘eternal recurrence’ of the same patterns and conflicts (Nietzsche). The module will therefore encourage the students to think about IR in combination with a particular conception of history.
The module is relevant to European integration theory. The most important theories on European integration (especially neofunctionalism, but also, although less evidently, liberal intergovernmentalism) adopt a deterministic approach or at least an approach which draws inspiration from historical determinism. Accordingly, European integration theories reveal an underpinning ‘philosophy of history’ that sees integration as an automatic result of certain premises (for example, economic integration as leading necessarily to political integration) and that sees the EU as the most important example of ‘post-historical’ (Fukuyama) and ‘post-political’ entity (Majone). The module will therefore disclose to students a new way to look at European integration theory in combination with a particular conception of history.
Additional Information:This is an Option Module.