ATS3690 Reflections on humanity: Truth, freedom and power
Faculty of Arts
ATS3690 Reflections on humanity: Truth, freedom and power is a level 3, 6-credit-point, undergraduate unit from the Faculty of Arts, offered in 2023 in Semester 2 at Clayton. It has no prerequisites.
- Credit points
- 6
- Offered in 2023
- Semester 2
- Clayton
- Assessment
- No exam
- 3 tasks
- Workload
- 144 hours
- per semester
This is the 2023 handbook entry. See the 2024 entry.
Reviews
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Requisites
Before ATS3690
No prerequisites or corequisites besides the enrolment rules below.
After ATS3690
No unit lists ATS3690 as a prerequisite in the 2023 handbook.
Enrolment rules
Prerequisite: Twelve credit points of second-year Arts units. It is highly recommended that students only take this unit after they have completed two gateway units in Politics.
Prohibition: ATS2690
Overview
This unit seeks to illuminate the current crisis of humanity by looking at the work of three key figures in recent political theory - Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. Each of these theorists has interrogated the relationship between politics and barbarism at the most profound level and attempted to salvage a concept of humanity from the catastrophes of the twentieth century. Pivoting around themes of truth, freedom and power, their work draws us back to fundamental questions about the purposes and possibilities of politics as a human endeavour. Engaging with them will help to shed light on what might be hoped for human beings, individually and collectively, in the future.
Offerings in 2023
| Teaching period | Campus | Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Second semester | Clayton | On campus |
Assessment
- Presentation15%
- Essay50%
- Take home final assessmentOther35%
Learning outcomes
When you finish this unit, you should be able to:
- 1
Understand debates about humanism and anti-humanism in politics and political theory
- 2
Compare and contrast key political ideas of the three theorists studied in the unit: Arendt, Foucault, Derrida
- 3
Display developing skills of spoken and written communication in addressing questions of politics and humanism
- 4
Summarise and analyse passages of text that raise issues and ideas in political theory
- 5
Understand and analyse the relationship between politics and ethics in the writings of political theorists
- 6
Critically reflect on political theory as an attempt to explain the meaning and advance the possibility of human freedom
Workload and teaching
- Workshops24 hours
- Lectures12 hours
- Teaching approachEnquiry-based learning
- Teaching approachResearch activities
Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.
This unit engages students in enquiry-based learning, where they will be encouraged to use their own knowledge to develop and engage in a process of enquiry, study and research to identify areas to be investigated and an approach to doing so.
This unit allows students to develop their research skills by engaging in structured inquiry using a systematic approach and discipline-specific methodologies.
Where it fits
ATS3690 is part of 9 areas of study in the 2023 handbook.
- HUMNRGHT07Human rights elective unitsHuman rightsNo reviews yet
- HUMNRGHT09Level 2 and 3 elective unitsHuman rightsNo reviews yet
- HUMNRGHT10Level 2 and 3 elective unitsHuman rightsNo reviews yet
- INTLREL06Level 2 and 3 elective unitsInternational relationsNo reviews yet
- INTLREL09Level 2 and 3 elective unitsInternational relationsNo reviews yet
- INTREL04Elective unitsInternational relationsNo reviews yet
- POLITICS02Level 2 and 3 elective unitsPoliticsNo reviews yet
- POLITICS03Level 2 and 3 elective unitsPoliticsNo reviews yet
- PLTCGOVE01Specialisation elective unitsPolitics and governanceNo reviews yet
Contacts
- Unit Coordinators
- Dr Paul Muldoon
- Chief Examiners
- Dr Paul Muldoon
Common questions
What are the prerequisites for ATS3690?
ATS3690 has no prerequisites, but enrolment rules apply.
When is ATS3690 offered?
In 2023, ATS3690 runs in Semester 2 at Clayton.
How much work is ATS3690?
The handbook expects about 144 hours of study across the semester. No students have rated its difficulty yet.
Does ATS3690 have an exam?
No. ATS3690 has 3 assessment tasks and no exam.
Which majors and minors include ATS3690?
ATS3690 is part of Human rights; International relations; Politics; and Politics and governance.