This free course, The ethics of cultural heritage, will provide the basic theory behind the protection of cultural property in war zones. It is structured in three parts: the protection of cultural property; the legal basis for that protection; and accounts of proportionality (that is, on deciding whether or not there is a feasible alternative to damaging cultural property). It explores some of the most pressing ethical questions surrounding the treatment of cultural heritage.Transcript
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction
- Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- Acknowledgements
- Week1Week 1: Notre-Dame and the ethics of heritage preservation
- Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- 1 Notre-Dame Cathedral
- 1.1 The Notre-Dame fire
- 1.2 The day after the fire
- 1.3 Response to the fire
- 1.4 Charitable donations to the restoration project
- 2 The debate about rebuilding Notre-Dame
- 2.1 The ‘It’s my money’ response (part 1)
- 2.2 The ‘It’s my money’ response (part 2)
- The French government
- 2.3 The economic justification for rebuilding
- 2.4 The heritage value justification for rebuilding
- 2.5 Can heritage values outweigh the value of human lives?
- 3 This week’s quiz
- 4 Week 1 summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week2Week 2: Cultural heritage in war
- Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- 1 Introduction to the basic dilemma in war
- 2 Monte Cassino Abbey
- 2.1 The destruction of Monte Cassino
- 3 The Hague Convention (1954)
- 3.1 Applying Hague Convention Guidelines
- 3.2 The Hague Convention in practice
- 4 Arguments for and against protecting cultural property in war
- 4.1 The humanitarian position
- 4.2 The force-multiplier argument
- 4.3 The heritage value justification (again)
- 5 This week’s quiz
- 6 Week 2 summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week3Week 3: Weighing heritage against lives
- Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- 1 The inseparability thesis
- 1.1 The evidential reading
- Problems with the evidential reading
- 1.2 The strategic reading
- Problems with the strategic reading
- 1.3 The constitutive reading
- The value of a flourishing life
- 1.4 The constitutive reading (continued)
- 1.5 Problems with the constitutive reading
- 1.6 Section conclusion
- 2 Difficulties weighing the values of heritage and human lives
- 2.1 Incommensurable values
- 2.2 Incomparable values
- 2.3 The aggregation problem
- 2.4 Cultural heritage and the aggregation problem
- 3 This week’s quiz
- 4 Week 3 summary
- End-of-course summary
- Where next?
- References
- Acknowledgements
