GPOL 6413 -

Institution:

The New School

Subject:

Description:

Doing Justice to the Past Fall 2008. Three credits. Ross Poole "The past is not dead. It is not even past." (Faulkner)How much of the past survives in the present Do members of the present generation have a responsibility to address past crimes and injustices How extensive are our responsibilities to the past What are the possibilities and the limitations of historical justice Is there a place for forgetting for forgiveness In the past 60 years, there have been three main ways in which societies have tried to deal with past crimes: 1) Trials for war crimes and human rights violations; for example, the Nuremberg trials, the Eichmann trial, and recent proceedings of the International Court of Criminal Justice. 2) Truth and reconciliation commissions, especially in transitional societies, for example, South Africa, Chile, Peru, etc. 3) Commemoration practices; for example, memorials, museums, commemorative rituals. In this course, we discuss the advantages and limitations of each of these ways of dealing with crimes of the past. We will look at particular examples, we will also explore some of the theoretical questions involved. These include: the relationship between individual and collective responsibility; the choice between punishment, pardon and amnesty, and between remembering and forgetting; the relationship between memory and history. Authors discussed include by Arendt, Jaspers, Benjamin, Habermas, Derrida.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.newschool.edu

Phone Number:

(212) 229-5600

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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