Prepared by:
Dr. Rana Dajani
Objectives and competencies
1. To understand what is Global Civics
2. To comprehend Global civics in the Arab Muslim context
3. To create a relationship between Global civics and Science
Guiding questions:
1. What responsibilities we all have toward people who happen not to be our compatriots?
2. Plausible objections to the concept of global civics?
3. Does Globalization require Global civics?
4. On what grounds is Global civics necessary and feasible
5. Discuss world federation by stealth.
6. Discuss radical cosmopolitanism
7. Discuss doomsday advocates
8. Discuss the cynical realists
9. To what responsibilities to other human beings are we personally ready to commit, and what would global civics look like?
10. Does Fairness Matter?
11. Concentrating on the Middle East as a case study, how plausible it is to establish a sense of global civics among the citizentry?
12. Considering human progress so far, what has constrained global civics?
Opinion forum:
1. The first thought experiment for imagining the shape of global civics is to speculate about what one would say to welcome the seven-billionth human being, who has recently joined the rest of us on this planet. A worthwhile exercise would be for each of us to take fifteen minutes out of our day to imagine what we would tell our fellow seven-billionth person about the human condition awaiting her or him.
2. In considering the shape of global civics, a second, more elaborate thought experiment is the global veil of ignorance, inspired by John Rawls and his book A Theory of Justice. Rawls proposes thinking about justice both on procedural grounds and in terms of a particular definition: “justice as fairness.” According to this definition, the organizing principles for a society would be agreed upon, hypothetically, in an initial position of equality, and these principles would end up governing all further agreements and the kinds of social cooperation and government that could be established. This situation would put people behind a “veil of ignorance,” which would keep them from knowing their position in society or their fortune in the distribution of assets and abilities. The point of all this is to ensure that the organizing principles agreed to behind the veil of ignorance could not be designed to favor any particular condition, and that these principles would be the result of fair deliberation and agreement. Although Rawls’s basic proposition is a familiar Kantian move, one can argue that all major philosophical and religious traditions have similar tenets. The maxim of treating others as we wish to be treated by them in commensurate situations is both a simple proposition and quite possibly one of the most radical ideas in history.
Assessment Essays:
1. Define Global Civics in the context of Arab Muslims
2. What is the role of a scientists in the context of Global Civics?
Resources
Readings:
1. Chapter one: Why a Global civics? ( from the book Global Civics)
2. http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2010/03/global-civics-altinay
3. http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/articles/international-law-and-human-rights/global-civics-necessary-feasible
4. Chapter 2: Perspectives ( from the book Global Civics)
5. Saudi Aramco Magazine
6. The book: Altinay, Hakan (2011). Global Civics: Rights and Responsibilities in an Interdependent World. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
Video
1. Hakan Altany introduction
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkZnast0BXU&feature=youtu.be
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OoF7U9Oqu4
