humes

nomos and narrative- cover

types of norms that create types of nomos:

• imperial- impose a single meaning/order ex. public school curricula

• paideic- communal; grows from stories, traditions, and experiences

• nomos- worlds/normative universes

• types of nomos:

• insular- shield practices from outside sources to preserve their own meanings, don’t want to reform society just practice on their own

• redemptive- want to transform society- still keeping the constitution but making changes to make it better for everyone

• judges/justices/the state is jurispathic- law destroying kill laws by declaring one norm as the only valid law

• jurispathetic is the opposite of jurisgenesis which is law creating which nomos do through having interpretations/social norms

• analyzed this through the bob jones v us case since the irs removed their tax-exempt status bc they prohibited interracial marriage/dating- court supported the irs, favoring racial equality over religious freedom- choosing one narrative/nomos over another

the principles of morals and legislation (ch. 1,4)- bentham

• pain and pleasure dictate our lives

• principle of utility- an action is morally right if it promotes the greatest happiness and vice versa; serves as the basis of utilitarianism

• utilitarianism- considering everyone when deciding what the right thing to do is; only the actual consequences matter

• types of utilitarianism- 1) consequentialist- judges morality based on outcomes, not the action itself or its intentions

• the right thing to do is whatever has the best consequences

• consequences are determined by pain and pleasure

the ones who walk away from the omelas- le guin

• story abt a utopian city where the town’s happiness is dependednt on a neglected child

• citizens can either accept the situation w/ the child or walk away and never return

• the ones who walk away end up in the mountains

famine, affluence, and morality- singer

• says that if we can help without sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance/value, we are obligated to help

• ex. if a child is drowning, getting your clothes wet is not as costly as a dead kid

• factors like proximity or numbers of donations do not reduce obligation

• makes distinction between acts of duty vs charity- donating is not charity

• also a utilitarian argument that is consequentialist bc it focuses on preventing a bad outcome aka death from famine

a simplified account of kantian ethics- o’neill/kant

• emphasis on maxims- express a person’s policy/intentions behind their actions

• actions are moral if they have good intentions and if the person on the receiving end of the action knows what maxims/goals of the other person

• if someone is unaware, they are being used as a mere means- aka not giving consent and manipulated into achieving someone else’s goal

• this manipulation + disregarding someone’s maxims/principles = injustice

• we should regard ppl as rational beings w/ their own maxims = justice

• when deciding if actions are right/wrong, we should look at maxims and not the happiness/sadness it creates like bentham does

• kant hates utilitarianism since ppl are capable of reason beyond pain + pleasure

• categorical- moral worth of an action comes from the intention of the act, not the consequences (aka cherishes the motive of duty-the morally right thing over motive of inclination- a personal want/desire)

• introduces the categorical imperative- applying your potential action to others and applies to everyone- ex. if you think abt lying, ask if you’d want to live in a world where everyone else on earth lies

inferno- dante

• contrapasso- punishment fits the crime

• in inferno, a sinner’s punishment reflects/contrasts w/ their sin, creating poetic justice to suffer for eternity

• contrapasso can have similitude- punishment is similar to the crime ex. arrogant ppl carry stones, contrast- opposite punishment, symbolic (thieves becoming snakes)

• brings up questions of what sins are worse than others (ex. is inaction worse than murder)

• who is at liberty to punish? dante insists god is and thus only god can distribute justice

• also how do one’s circumstances impact their lives and thus their place in the afterlife (ex. politicians/clergy are more susceptible to power abuses —> circle of the greedy)

second treatise of government (ch. 2, 5,8)- locke

• state/law of nature- everyone is entitled to rights (life, liberty, property)

• to determine our natural rights, we must consider what the state was like before society

• legitimate governments and political authority are derived from the consent of the governed

• hates anarchy; everyone is equal and no one is born to be a leader/subject

• punishment should be focused on compensating the victim and imposing restraint on the perpetrator so they don’t act similarly in the future

• punishment should be proportionate to the crime and be guided by the desire to educate not humiliate

• god has given society nature + resources

• conversely, the body belongs to the self

• therefore, work done by the body is your property ex. if you grew food, the food is yours- aka doing work gets you property

• however, if you take too many resources and don’t use all of them, you are not honoring god’s purpose and spoil

• also taking these resources is considered a crime of theft since other ppl could’ve used it

a theory of justice- rawls

• fair society comes from the original position- where individuals live behind a veil of ignorance- unaware of their own status/potential and decide what justice is w/o knowing their own fully realized beliefs/standings

• in this original position, they choose between the equal liberty principle- equal basic rights for everyone and the difference principle- inequalities that are fair only if they benefit the least advantage

• ppl choose these principles in the original position bc they don’t risk being worse off in society = fairness

• social contract doesn’t exist bc if it did, ppl would only make contracts that benefitted themselves

• accident of birth- factors of a person’s life that are determined by chance and should not influence their prospects or principles of a fair society

• ex. no one earns/deserves their natural talents (intelligence, physical abilities), social standing, or family background which are all “morally arbitrary”/facts

• political/social institutions should be arranged to mitigate the effects of these undeserved differences

• an alternative to utilitarianism that could justify harming ppl for the sake of the greater good

anarchy, state, and utopia- nozick

• a state that only protects rights against force, theft, fraud is justified according to the entitlement theory- which emphasizes individual rights and voluntary exchanges

• ppl have strong rights, including properties

• justice is abt how holdings- og acquisition of holdings- how unheld things become property, transfer of holdings- how property is transferred/acquire something held before, and rectification of injustice-correcting how the first two were violated

• principle of distributive justice- a distribution is just if everyone is entitled to the holdings they get in the distribution

• wilt chamberlain example- if everyone has an equal amount of money but also love to watch wilt chamberlain, and give money to watch him play, it would be unfair for the gov to interfere and take his money to ensure equal wealth, so instead of redistributing the wealth, they consent to the exchange through self-ownership

• principle of self ownership- you own yourself, so you own your talents, skills, labor, and resulting products, and you can’t be used as a mere means

• taxation = forced labor bc then the person is working for the state and if you work for yourself/your labor, the state has no right to claim it

‘ideal theory’ as ideology- mills

• mainstream political philosophy’s focus on perfect aka ideal society (rawls’ term) neglects the reality of racial/gender hierarchies and injustices

• in other words, it only takes into account what ideal means for upper/middle class white men and not other historically unheard perspectives

• this ideal stance shows white ignorance which prevents philosophers from seeing racism as crucial to social structures, instead of a deviation

• also distracts from more pressing and current injustices

• instead argues for a non-ideal society which takes into account injustices/discriminatory practices to better understand and rectify current injustices

• justice isn’t achieving perfection but removing injustices

the constitution of the united states: contemporary ratification- brennan

• argues that the constitution is a living document that evolves w/ the times

• therefore, judges need to interpret its main principles like liberty/justice for modern times

• the constitution was meant to protect individual liberties/rights, so his view that the constitution is a living document does that too

• brennan promotes human dignity- the inherent worth + rights every individual has simply bc they’re a human being

• against capital punishment which he thinks violates the 8th amendment and argues it reduces humans to nonhumans devoid of intrinsic value

• instead, punishment should be grounded in/reflect humanity

• interpretation is a public act that people must follow and in turn, a judge’s interpretation changes ppl’s lives

prigg v. pennsylvania

• prigg is a maryland slavecatcher

• margaret morgan is a runaway slave who lived freely in pennsylvania and was taken forcibly by prigg back to maryland

• pennsylavnia state law said you can’t forcibly remove ppl to a state where slavery is practiced

• supreme court upheld the fugitive slave act of 1793- saying that slave catchers can go to non-slave holding territories since slaves are possessions owners are entitled to

• story argues that states can’t block federal law but weren’t required to enforce it since that was the gov’s responsibility

• slaves are vital to the founding of the us

• didn’t go into slavery and more property focused

• state vs federalism

• story was a strict constructionist

silencing the past- trouillot

• history includes what happened, what gets told, and who tells stories

• involves how power dictates whose stories are heard

• silences aka omissions/erasures are part of the historical process

• 4 moments of silencing- aka when silences happen includes:

• creation- when sources are made

• assembly- when sources are selected from archives

• retrieval- when historians choose what to reference

• retrospection- when narratives are accepted

• recognizes these silences in the context of the haitian revolution

zong!- philip

• words taken/restructured from the gregson v gilbert case which upheld the zong ship captains’ murder of 150 slaves for insurance claims

• basically justified that slaves were property

• poem was meant to be felt instead of understood- to give a voice to slaves thrown overboard/denied humanity ex. gray/faint font resembles slaves in water trying to make sense of what’s happening and survive

• integrates various languages to unite everyone

• philip insists language limits others’ ability to recognize each other’s culture/virtue (ex. how words were used in the case to justify violence), so the poem is meant to unite ppl and encourages them to understand

"OCH/CHI GI AGAFEGO OKE'' (You are governing too much)- king ahebi ugbabe versus the community- A Case Study of Female Clout, Excess, and Conflict in Enugu-Ezike + Performing Masculinities: Homecoming — and she becomes a man- achebe

• ahebi ugbabe was an uneducated sex worker who became the female warrant chief/king in colonial Nigeria

• she learned of her capabilities by working closely w/ the british who she helped lead to invade nigerian territories

• fled to igalaland at a young age to avoid marrying ohe as a punishment for her dad’s crime

• attained this position because she was intelligent and aligned best w/ british policies

• perception of ahebi is based on accounts of what witnesses thought of her

• her feet did not touch the ground

• towards the end, she did not consider herself a gendered woman and was recognized as a male and female

• fell from grace when she tried to have her own masquerade- ancestors who come back to life and enforce the laws of the community

• britain didn’t support her in court when male elders objected her masquerade but she still held influence until her death

• ahebi was a female husband- a woman taking the role of a husband in society

• gender is not socially constructed but a cultural system maintained by human relationships

decolonization and afrofeminism- “introduction”- tamale

• race was used to justify taking over land in africa by british colonists/anglo-americans to rationalize prejudice and domination

• reinvention of race was also a reinvention of gender

• british colonialism introduced the idea that women were not involved in public life

• male daughters- woman takes the role of a son to inherent land

• afrofeminism is linked to more diverse african realities

judgement at nuremberg

• 4 nazi judges were on trial for crimes against humanity

• were the judges just following orders or were they personally responsible for sentencing innocent ppl under nazi law- judge in the movie says nazi judges were wrong when they first sentenced someone

• based on the third nuremberg trial

• ernst janning was quiet but eventually admits his remorse and culpability

neither settler nor native- mamdani

• nuremberg trials didn’t look into nazi ideology + policy

• investigating this would’ve been uncomfy since us’ westward expansion served as the basis for hitler’s beliefs

• hitler was also influenced by american immigration policies

• trial put individual nazis on trial instead of nazism bc it would’ve showed that nazism reflects american policies

• war crimes held germans accountable while making it impossible for americans to be accountable for racial crimes in the us

• imt was not made to establish new policies

the nuremberg trial: fifty years after- marrus

• ex-post facto- when something legal is made illegal and then you are punished after the fact = issue of nuremberg

• victor’s justice- when the winning party is imposing justice on the losing party and only the losing party’s actions are punished

• allies skirt legality by never conceding that the nazis’ actions are illegal but instead charge them w/ war crimes

• established that leaders/ppl not just states could be charged for crimes against peace/humanity

the imperial boomerang: how colonial methods of repression migrate back to the metropolis- woodman (blog)

• imperial boomerang- empires use colonies for social control and repression and then the same tactics are used against the empire’s marginalized populations (ex. the holocaust)

discourse on colonialism- cesaire

• colonization destroys civilization

• it also removed ppl from humanity and with such intentions as to dominate/be superior to another, countries like europe will inevitably collapse

• when we can’t understand something through science, we turn to literature- aka emotions must be considered, not just numbers and scientific methods colonists most commonly relied on

• colonization isn’t worth the security, culture, rule of law, education is a joke bc there’s no interaction of culture- but just domination/superiority + old civilizations/cultures were disregarded and valuable

• deals w/ waste since colonizers would deem only themselves capable of reason + take land since indigenous ppl were not using the territory properly

• hitler is crucial to helping understanding capitalism since he wanted to impose german superiority

death and the maiden- dorfman

• gerardo is appointed to be on the country’s truth and reconciliation commission

• he is helped by roberto who was a doctor who potentially sexually abused paulina, gerardo’s wife

• paulina imposes justice on roberto by making him confess to his crime, using deception to show his guilt

• gerardo is torn by supporting his country vs his wife- demands introspection

• ambiguous if paulina kills roberto to show the lingering affects of trauma to show how prevalent that is for victims

• mirror at the end meant to cause introspection and debate between justice vs vengeance/vigilante

• shows issues w/ only considering murder cases and disregading other forms of violence

long night’s journey into day

• focused on the trc which offered amnesty for full confession to see if truth can heal deep wounds

• centers on amy biehl- woman trying to end apartheid but killed, cradock 4- anti-apartheid activists who were abducted/tortued/killed by the south african police, robert mcbride- granted amnesty bc he was a prisoner of war despite setting a bomb off that killed 3 ppl, guguletu 7- 7 anti-apartheid activists who were killed by south african security

• trc isn’t meant to achieve an end but compromise so society can function + had emphasis on forgiveness

no future w/o forgiveness- tutu

• justifies trc

• couldn’t have nuremberg since neither side has a decisive victory + still had to live w/ e/o

• south africa was also too fragile for long cases that disrupted peace

• many black ppl didn’t have faith in the judicial system so victims told their stories

• there is factual truth, social truth/truth of interaction which trc helps by allowing ppl to talk abt their stories/perspectives

• amnesty meant amnesia so amnesty could only be achieved if you were honest/recounted everything

• ubuntu- (i am bc we are) self assuredness knowing you belong to a greater whole

• forgiveness is not altruistic but the best form of self interest since you are rid of anger and others are rid of guilt

with what are you apologizing + Can white South Africa live up to Ubuntu, the African philosophy Tutu globalised? (blogs)- chigumadzi

• slavery is the material womb of the modern world”

• traces the birth of capitalism back to the transatlantic slave trade, arguing that the slave labor used by colonial powers laid the groundwork for today’s global economy

• highlights how enslaves people’s minds were deemed irrational, which justified their treatment as property rather than people by colonizers

• critiques modern reparations debates, suggesting that acknowledging the full cost of slavery would challenge the economic foundations of Western powers that shape modern society

  
  

cultural memory in the wake of violence: exceptionalism, vulnerability, and the grievable life- sturken

• memorialization is abt inclusion + exclusion

• one event takes over other events which creates competitive memory

• memorials are political

• cultural memories- a system of values, artifacts, institutions, and practices that retain the past for present + future and transfers knowledge to support the emergence of distinct identities

• cultural memory through museums is political since it only gives one narrative and presents subjectivity as fact

• monument is a physical thing while memorialization could be street names

• deciding who’s life is grievable is exclusive

• exceptionalism justifies violence and leads to exclusion

• 9/ll museum ignored the context that led up to the attacks and the aftermath, giving the us a victim mentality

moving bodies, moving architecture- zhu

• memorials contrast what memory is supposed to be- fluid + unsettled by being stable

• deals w/ how vietnam veterans memorial can incorporate the body to better memorialize

• body is a source of knowledge and memory

• memorial’s design shapes viewer’s movements which are part of the memorial’s meaning

• the v shape and clear granite compel visitors to physically interact = bodily text that creates personal and collective memory

• memory affect- you can feel emotions for something even if you didn’t directly experience it

democracy moving “introduction”- nereson

• history is the narration of change overtime so dance can narrate the past + also is the ordering of the past

• dance has intellectual merit

• bill t jones’ choreography invites + informs viewers

• choreography- ordering of movement

• performance constitutes a tradition against history by giving marginalized ppl a voice

• historiography- questions how stories are made and presented

• aesthetics- what are the values that make something valuable, how are we trained to see some things as beautiful

• finds taylor’s archive and repertoire to not be applicable to everything

• dance can be exclusionary (ex. ballet) but has the potential to be more inclusive

"archive and the repertoire “introduction”- taylor

• archive- stable material, written records like books/documents

• meant to preserve evidence and transmit knowledge

• repertoire- embodied memory through gestures, dance, song, rituals

• meant to transmit trauma

• performances function as acts of transfering social knowledge, memory, and a sense of identity

• performance relates to memory + history and helps how to spread culture

• performativity is abt how gender + sexuality studies is ingrained in society and hard to identify