Subjugation, Discrimination and Political Transformation

Our goal, in this course, is twofold. First, to identify different ways in which members of a community can be subjugated and marginalized. Second, to ask ourselves what kind of ethical and strategic considerations should inform our response to instances of subjugation and discrimination, if our primary concern is that our actions be at once faithful to the values that we stand for and politically efficacious. We will study works by Simone Weil, Michel Foucault, Martin Luther King Jr., Primo Levi, Simone de Beauvoir, Charles W. Mills, and Epictetus among others. We will also use films and press articles as material for case studies.(Previous Philosophy class or waiver) 3 hrs. sem.