Anglo-American University in 糖心Vlog Philosophy of the Family
| Course Name | Philosophy of the Family |
| Course Code | PHI406 / PHI606 |
| Description | We all live in families. And we remain 鈥榠n鈥� the family even if we do not cohabit with them. As such the concept of a family is very familiar. On the other hand, families are so diverse (and sometimes quite opaque, both to outsiders and to its own members) that it might seem difficult to generalise about them. And yet there are clearly some shared norms of what a healthy and unhealthy family is like, what a 鈥榞ood鈥� parent means, what a 鈥榣oyal鈥� child would do, norms of what one reasonably owes to another person in virtue of their status as my step-sibling or my adoptive parent or my cousin.聽 This is not a sociology or a law course: we are not aiming to describe patterns of family life in the modern West, nor to describe much of the laws that govern family conflicts. Our task is philosophical: that means we are looking at what 鈥榝amily鈥� means, or can mean, or ought to mean. Imagine I have moved out and started my own adult life. I have an ugly fight with my father, and I swear I never want to speak to him again. My sibling tells me: 鈥測ou can鈥檛 just write him off like that, he鈥檚 your father.鈥� Clearly my cousin is not informing me of a biological link 鈥� I know he鈥檚 my father. But why exactly can鈥檛 I write him off because of that? There might be different answers to this question, but some answers are better than others. One of the over-arching questions will concern family autonomy, and the limits to state recognition and intervention in family life. Primary school education is compulsory but vaccination is not 鈥� why? Drivers have to be licensed but parents do not 鈥� why? Is domestic abuse a matter of 鈥渋n our family, we do things our way,鈥� or should the state make more effort to educate, monitor, and intervene? Insofar as we will consider bits of family law, we will draw from the Czech Republic and the UK, with occasional comparisons to Germany and the United States. |
| Learning Outcomes | Upon completion of this course, students should be able to: – Critically discuss the nature of family autonomy, family duties, family identity, the role of biology, and some of the public policy debates surrounding families. – Reflect on the lived reality of families in the Czech Republic and in other Western countries, and reflect on the relations and values in their own families. – Develop the philosophical skill of critical examination, reflection and discussion in speech and in writing. |
| School | School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Level | BA / MA |
| Number of credits (US / ECTS) | 3 US / 6 ECTS |