Advanced Class in Political Philosophy (MT2025) 'Culture, Value and Justice'
Tuesdays, weeks 1-8, 11am-1pm. Wharton Room, All Souls College.
Class description
There are things, or places (monuments, certain kinds of buildings, artworks and cultural artefacts, etc.) which are central to our/other people's culture, which we value or indeed disvalue for that reason, and which we think are worth preserving, or on the contrary should be destroyed. In this class, we will address the following sets of questions: (1) What does it mean to value something, and which properties of cultural objects give us reasons to value or disvalue them? Are there cultural artefacts which have universal value? (2) What rights and duties, if any, do we have in respect of those things?
Why this topic? It is (I think) fascinating in its own right. In addition:
Syllabus
You are required to read the articles listed each week under Core Readings. As a rule of thumb, you should allocate half a day per week to prepare for the class: 2.5 hrs to read the two or three assigned articles, and 1 hr or so to think about the issues, write up your notes, etc. Supplementary readings (by no means exhaustive) will help you explore the issues further. The Core Readings are available online from the Bodleian Library.
Although the class is offered above and beyond the Faculty’s core BPhil classes, students will be expected to attend all sessions, which are designed to build on each other.
General reading: E. H. Matthes. 'Ethics of Cultural Heritage'. Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.
Week 1 Valuing cultural objects
Key questions: what does valuing something mean? What properties confer value? Is there such a thing as universal value?
Core readings:
Week 2 Justice and cultural objects
Key questions: Many people think, intuitively, that there are certain things which we/governments ought to do, in respect of cultural objects: preserve them, curate them, contextualise them, etc. But why? This, in effect, is tantamount to asking why those things matter to us. Note: there are very few readings directly about this issue, if any. This is partly the point of this particular class: the challenge is to work out how the readings below help us think about cultural objects.
Core readings
Week 3 Property rights and culture I: Foundations
Key questions: On what grounds if any may individuals/private corporations own cultural objects or buildings, and if they do, can they do whatever they want with it? Are there cultural artefacts which ought to be treated as public property?
Core readings
Week 4 Property Rights and Culture II: Markets in cultural artefacts
Cultural artefacts such as paintings, antiquities, sculptures, manuscripts and old musical instruments are routinely bought and sold on open markets. Yet, many of those objects are deemed 'priceless'. What, then, are the ethics of selling and buying those things?
Core readings
Week 5 Territorial Rights
Key questions: Cultural goods are located on countries’ territories. If one accepts that a political community has territorial rights, why can’t it decide what to do with those cultural goods? Ex: what if anything would be wrong with the Italian state/people letting Venice sink into the sea?
Core readings
Week 6 Cultural Appropriation
Key questions: there is a lively debate on the ethics of appropriating objects/symbols/practices from other cultural groups. When is it apt to say that some actor commits an act of cultural appropriation? What does make a cultural appropriation wrongful, if and when it is wrongful?
Core readings
Week 7 Return
Key questions: should the British return the Parthenon Sculptures to Athens and the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria? Is it a necessary condition for there to be a duty to return a cultural object that the latter was wrongfully taken? Does the passage of time make a difference? Can there be a duty not to return?
Core readings
Week 8 Vandalising cultural objects
Key questions: is vandalising a morally appropriate response to cultural injustice? To any form of injustice?
Core readings
Additional resources
Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy and the International Encyclopaedia of Ethics (available online from the Bodleian). For good podcasts, see Philosophy Bites, and Political Philosophy Podcasts, which together have over three hundreds of interviews with philosophers on a huge range of topics. Be aware that audio content is subject to plagiarism rules, so do not cite an interviewee without properly referencing the podcast.
The class
There will be no presentation. Each week, I will spend 15-20mns or so introduce the topic at the beginning. Half way through, I will summarise where we have got to (or invite one of you to do so), and offer some concluding remarks at the end. In between, the onus will be on you, individually and collectively, to get a good discussion going. My classes are very much run along the lines of: ‘It’s not you against me about the philosophical problem. It’s you and me together against the problem.’ (Jane Heal, Cambridge philosopher, in private correspondence. Brilliant scholar of Wittgenstein/philosophy of language.) In other words: there are no stupid questions; and there is no shame in conceding that one was wrong on a particular point or in admitting that one doesn’t understand a point.
There are things, or places (monuments, certain kinds of buildings, artworks and cultural artefacts, etc.) which are central to our/other people's culture, which we value or indeed disvalue for that reason, and which we think are worth preserving, or on the contrary should be destroyed. In this class, we will address the following sets of questions: (1) What does it mean to value something, and which properties of cultural objects give us reasons to value or disvalue them? Are there cultural artefacts which have universal value? (2) What rights and duties, if any, do we have in respect of those things?
Why this topic? It is (I think) fascinating in its own right. In addition:
- Focusing on some of the normative issues raised by cultural objects will lead us to address some fundamental questions in political philosophy. For example, when we consider the question of whether cultural objects may be regarded as private property, we will have to think about justifications for property rights in general, as well as the ethics of markets in general.
- There is relatively little work, in contemporary political philosophy, on the ethics of cultural heritage. In some weeks, you will need to extract relevant points/arguments from the readings. This is a skill worth developing.
Syllabus
You are required to read the articles listed each week under Core Readings. As a rule of thumb, you should allocate half a day per week to prepare for the class: 2.5 hrs to read the two or three assigned articles, and 1 hr or so to think about the issues, write up your notes, etc. Supplementary readings (by no means exhaustive) will help you explore the issues further. The Core Readings are available online from the Bodleian Library.
Although the class is offered above and beyond the Faculty’s core BPhil classes, students will be expected to attend all sessions, which are designed to build on each other.
General reading: E. H. Matthes. 'Ethics of Cultural Heritage'. Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.
Week 1 Valuing cultural objects
Key questions: what does valuing something mean? What properties confer value? Is there such a thing as universal value?
Core readings:
- Matthes, Erich Hatala. "Impersonal Value, Universal Value, and the Scope of Cultural Heritage." Ethics 125, no. 4 (2015): 999-1027.
- Scheffler, Samuel. "Valuing." In Samuel Freeman and Rahul Kumar (eds.) Reasons and Recognition: Essays on the Philosophy of T.M. Scanlon. Oxford University Press, 2012.
- Raz, Joseph. Value, Respect, and Attachment. Cambridge University Press, 2001. Ch. 2.
- Anderson, Elizabeth. Value in Ethics and Economics. Harvard University Press, 1993.
- Chisholm, Roderick. "Defining Intrinsic Value." Analysis 41, no. 2 (1981): 99-100.
- Grau, Christopher. "Irreplaceability and Unique Value." Philosophical Topics 32 (2004): 111-29.
- Kagan, Shelly. "Rethinking Intrinsic Value." The Journal of Ethics 2, no. 4 (1998): 277-97.
- O'Neill, John. "The Varieties of Intrinsic Value." The Monist 75, no. 2 (1992 1992): 119-37.
- Quinn, Warren S. "Theories of Intrinsic Value." American Philosophical Quarterly 11, no. 2 (1974): 123-32.
- Zimmerman, Michael J. "In Defense of the Concept of Intrinsic Value." Canadian Journal of Philosophy 29, no. 3 (1999): 389-409.
- ———. "Partiality and Intrinsic Value." Mind 120, no. 478 (2011): 447-83.
Week 2 Justice and cultural objects
Key questions: Many people think, intuitively, that there are certain things which we/governments ought to do, in respect of cultural objects: preserve them, curate them, contextualise them, etc. But why? This, in effect, is tantamount to asking why those things matter to us. Note: there are very few readings directly about this issue, if any. This is partly the point of this particular class: the challenge is to work out how the readings below help us think about cultural objects.
Core readings
- Nussbaum, Martha. Creating Capabilities. Harvard University Press, 2011. Ch. 2.
- Fricker, Miranda. Epistemic Injustice. Oxford University Press, 2007. Ch. 1-2
- Callahan, Joan C. "On Harming the Dead." Ethics 97 (1987): 341-52.
- Fabre, C. “To Snatch Something from Death: Value, Justice and Humankind's Cultural Heritage”, in Tanner Lectures on Human Values - vol 39, ed. by M. Matheson. University of Utah Press, 2024.
- Gosseries, Axel and Meyer, Lukas H. (eds.). Intergenerational justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
- Ridge, Michael. "Giving the Dead Their Due." Ethics 114, no. 1 (2003): 38-59.
- Stemplowska, Zofia. "Duties to the Dead." In Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy - Vol. 6, edited by D. Sobel, P. Vallentyne and S. Wall. Oxford University Press, 2020.
Week 3 Property rights and culture I: Foundations
Key questions: On what grounds if any may individuals/private corporations own cultural objects or buildings, and if they do, can they do whatever they want with it? Are there cultural artefacts which ought to be treated as public property?
Core readings
- Waldron, Jeremy. The Right to Private Property . Oxford University Press, 1988. Ch. 8
- Dorfman, Avihay and Harel, Alon. Reclaiming the Public. Cambridge University Press, 2024. Ch. 6.
- Young, James O. "Destroying Works of Art." Journal Of Aesthetics And Art Criticism 47, no. 4 (1989): 367-73.
- Honoré, A. M. “Ownership”, in Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence, ed by A.J. Guest Oxford University Press, 1961.
- Nili, Shmuel. “The Idea of Public Property”, Ethics 129 no. 2 (2019): 344-369.
- Radin, M. J., “Property and Personhood”, Stanford Law Review 34, no. 5(1982): 957-1015.
- Ripstein, Arthur. Force and Freedom. Cambridge University Press, 2009. Ch. 8.
- Rose, Carol. "The Comedy of the Commons: Custom, Commerce, and Inherently Public Property". The University of Chicago Law Review, 53, no. 3 (1986), 711-781.
- Sax, Joseph L. Playing with a Rembrandt - Public and Private Rights in Cultural Treasures. The University of Michigan Press, 1999.
Week 4 Property Rights and Culture II: Markets in cultural artefacts
Cultural artefacts such as paintings, antiquities, sculptures, manuscripts and old musical instruments are routinely bought and sold on open markets. Yet, many of those objects are deemed 'priceless'. What, then, are the ethics of selling and buying those things?
Core readings
- Brennan, Jason & Jaworski, P. M. Markets without Limits - Moral Virtues and Commercial Interests: Routledge, 2016. Ch.2.
- Radin, Margaret. Contested Commodities. Harvard University Press, 1996. Chs 2 and 7.
- Anderson, E. Value in Ethics and Economics, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
- Fabre, Cécile. Whose Body Is It Anyway? Oxford University Press, 2006. chs 6-8.Phillips, Anne. Our Bodies, Whose Property? Princeton University Press, 2013.
- Reeve, Andrew. (ed.)Modern Theories of Exploitation. Sage, 1987.
- Sandel, Michael.What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. Penguin Books, 2013.
- Satz, Deborah, 2010, Why Some Things Should Not Be For Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets. Oxford University Press, 2010.
Week 5 Territorial Rights
Key questions: Cultural goods are located on countries’ territories. If one accepts that a political community has territorial rights, why can’t it decide what to do with those cultural goods? Ex: what if anything would be wrong with the Italian state/people letting Venice sink into the sea?
Core readings
- Miller, David. "Territorial Rights: Concept and Justification." Political Studies 60, no. 2 (2012): 252-68.
- Simmons, A. J. “On the Territorial Rights of States”, Philosophical Issues 11, (2011): 300-26.
- Stilz, Anna. "Nations, States, and Territory." Ethics 121, no. 3 (2011): 572-601.
- Fabre, Cécile. "Territorial Sovereignty and Humankind's Common Heritage." Journal of Social Philosophy 52, no. 1 (2021): 17-23.
- Kolers, Avery. Land, Conflict, and Justice - a Political Theory of Territory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
- Meisels, Tamar. Territorial Rights. Dordrecht: Springer, 2005.
- Moore, Margaret. A Political Theory of Territory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
- Simmons, A. John. "On the Territorial Rights of States." Philosophical Issues 11 (2001): 300-26.
- Steiner, Hillel. "Territorial Justice." In National Rights, International Obligations, edited by S. Caney, D. George and P. Jones, 139-48. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press, 1996.
- Stilz, Anna. Territorial Sovereignty - a Philosophical Exploration. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Week 6 Cultural Appropriation
Key questions: there is a lively debate on the ethics of appropriating objects/symbols/practices from other cultural groups. When is it apt to say that some actor commits an act of cultural appropriation? What does make a cultural appropriation wrongful, if and when it is wrongful?
Core readings
- Kim, Hochan. “Cultural Appropriation and Social Recognition”, Philosophy & Public Affairs 52, no. 3 (2024): 254-288.
- Lenard, Patti & Balint, Peter “What is (the wrong of) cultural appropriation?”, Ethnicities 20, no. 2 (2020): 331-352.
- Matthes, Erich Hatala. "Cultural Appropriation without Essentialism?". Social Theory and Practice 42, no. 2 (2019): 343-66.
- Bardon, Aurelia & Page, Jennifer M. Cultural appropriation : wrongs and rights, Abingdon, England ;: Routledge, 2025.
- Young, James O. Cultural Appropriation and the Arts, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
- Young, James O. & Brunck, Conrad G. (eds.) The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
Week 7 Return
Key questions: should the British return the Parthenon Sculptures to Athens and the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria? Is it a necessary condition for there to be a duty to return a cultural object that the latter was wrongfully taken? Does the passage of time make a difference? Can there be a duty not to return?
Core readings
- Matthes, Erich H. “Repatriation and the Radical Redistribution of Art”, Ergo 4, no. 32 (2017): 931-953.
- Thompson, Janna. “Cultural Property, Restitution and Value”, Journal of Applied Philosophy 20, no.3 (2003): 251-262.
- Waldron, Jeremy. “Superseding Historic Injustice”, Ethics 103, no.1 (1992): 4-28.
- Butt, Daniel. Rectifying International Injustice - Principles of Compensation and Restitution between Nations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
- Fabre, Cécile. Cosmopolitan Peace. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Ch. 6.
- Herman, A. Restitution - The Return of Cultural Artefacts: Lund Humphries, 2021.
- Greenfield, Jeannette. The Return of Cultural Treasures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Week 8 Vandalising cultural objects
Key questions: is vandalising a morally appropriate response to cultural injustice? To any form of injustice?
Core readings
- Lai, Then-Herng. “Political vandalism as counter‐speech: A defense of Defacing and Destroying Tainted Monuments”, European Journal of Philosophy 28, no.3 (2020): 602-616.
- Lim, C. M. “Vandalizing Tainted Commemorations”, Philosophy & Public Affairs 48, no. 2 (2020): 185-216.
- Brownlee, Kimberley.Conscience and Conviction: The Case for Civil Disobedience. Oxford University Press, 2012.
- Raz, Joseph.The Authority of Law. Oxford University Press, 1979. Chs. 14–15.
- Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice, revised edition. Harvard University Press, 1999. Sections 55–59.
Additional resources
Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy and the International Encyclopaedia of Ethics (available online from the Bodleian). For good podcasts, see Philosophy Bites, and Political Philosophy Podcasts, which together have over three hundreds of interviews with philosophers on a huge range of topics. Be aware that audio content is subject to plagiarism rules, so do not cite an interviewee without properly referencing the podcast.
The class
There will be no presentation. Each week, I will spend 15-20mns or so introduce the topic at the beginning. Half way through, I will summarise where we have got to (or invite one of you to do so), and offer some concluding remarks at the end. In between, the onus will be on you, individually and collectively, to get a good discussion going. My classes are very much run along the lines of: ‘It’s not you against me about the philosophical problem. It’s you and me together against the problem.’ (Jane Heal, Cambridge philosopher, in private correspondence. Brilliant scholar of Wittgenstein/philosophy of language.) In other words: there are no stupid questions; and there is no shame in conceding that one was wrong on a particular point or in admitting that one doesn’t understand a point.
