Goucher College 2020-2021 Undergraduate Catalogue 
    
    Mar 28, 2024  
Goucher College 2020-2021 Undergraduate Catalogue PLEASE NOTE: This is an archived catalog. Programs are subject to change each academic year.

PHL 410 - States of Exception (4 Cr.)

(GCR Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies area)
This course will investigate the nature of the political exception through a sustained examination of the work of the contemporary political philosopher, Giorgio Agamben. The course will be devoted to a careful reading of Agamben’s most important works, paying particular attention to his expansive investigation of the political exception as it appears in such historical figures as the enslaved, the exile, and the sovereign - each of which represents a different manner of being excluded from the legal order. We will explore these figures not only in abstraction, but in relation to concrete contemporary examples, and along the way we will ask whether well-meaning attempts to restore rights, extend sovereignty, and strenghten the law are sufficient to resolve the injustice caused by these forms of exclusion. Prerequisite: Either two philosophy courses (one at the 300-level), or permission of the instructor. Fall semester. Offered 2019-20 and alternate years. DeCaroli.