Neighbours have been represented by images ranging from that of the monster and alien, to those of strangers or friends. This transdisciplinary unit explores the shifts in understanding the neighbour as they overlap with, and are consequential for, conceiving of ‘the self’, responsible political/moral decision-making and action, and the nature of sameness and difference as political categories. Attention is paid to associated themes such as those of ‘gift’, ‘sacrifice’, ‘love’, ‘hospitality’, and ‘democracy’.
Unit code: AP3200Y
Unit status: Approved (Minor revision)
Points: 18.0
Unit level: Undergraduate Level 3
Unit discipline: Philosophy
Delivery Mode: Blended
Proposing College: Yarra Theological Union
Show when this unit is running| 1. | Articulately evaluate major strands within political philosophy, political theology, and moral theology. |
| 2. | Demonstrate critical distinctions between various approaches to the theme of the neighbour. |
| 3. | Critically analyse the shifts in theorising about the neighbour and the politics of the practice of neighbourliness. |
| 4. | Evaluate the relationship between concepts of the neighbour, sameness and difference. |
| 5. | Demonstrate a capacity to research a specific topic in a critically rigorous, sustained and self-directed manner. |
1xAP, or CT unit.
lectures and tutorials
Popular Patristics Series (NY: SVS Press).
Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1958).
Augustine. City of God. Trans. Henry Bettenson (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1972).
Bauman, Zygmunt. Strangers at Our Door (Cambridge and Malden: Polity, 2016).
Brown, Wendy. In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019).
Burrell, David B. Friendship and Ways to Truth (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2000).
Butler, Judith. Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence (London and New York: Verso, 2004).
Connolly, William E. Identity/Difference: Democratic Negotiations of Political Paradox, expanded edn. (Minneapolis and London: University of Minneapolis Press, 1991).
Derrida, Jacques. ‘Hostipitality’, in Acts of Religion (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), pp. 356–420.
Giroux, Henry. The Public in Peril: Trump and the Menace of American Authoritarianism (New York and London: Routledge, 2018).
Kearney, Richard. Strangers, Monsters, and Gods: Interpreting Otherness (London and New York: Routledge, 2003).
Mouffe, Chantal. For A Left Populism (London and New York: Verso, 2018).
Schmitt, Carl. Political Theology : Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty. Trans. George Schwab (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1985).
Wyschogrod, Edith. Saints and Postmodernism: Revisioning Moral Philosophy (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1990).
Žižek, Slavoj. Against the Double Blackmail: Refugees, Terror and Other Trouble with Neighbours (Milton Keynes: Allen Lane, 2016).
Žižek, Slavoj, Santner, Eric, and Reinhard, Kenneth. The Neighbour: Three Inquiries in Political Theology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011).
| Type | Description | Word count | Weight (%) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Variant 1 | ||||||||
| Essay | 1500 | 35.0 | ||||||
| Essay | 3000 | 65.0 | ||||||
Variant 2 | ||||||||
| Essay | outline and structure of major essay project |
400 | 10.0 | |||||
| Essay | major research-directed essay |
4100 | 90.0 | |||||
Unit approved for the University of Divinity by Prof Albert Haddad on 22 Jul, 2024
Unit record last updated: 2024-07-22 12:07:48 +1000