Philosophy of Work - ASZFS0079
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Bruton. Looks-based hiring and wrongful discrimination. 2015.pdf | Week 6. Bruton 'Looks-based hiring and wrongful discrimination' | Christopher Cowley, Ph.D. |
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Budd. Work as Identity. 2011.pdf | Week 3. Budd 'Work as identity' | Christopher Cowley, Ph.D. |
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Conscientious_objection_in_medicine.pdf | Week 9. Savulescu 'Conscientious objection in medicine' | Christopher Cowley, Ph.D. |
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Fineman. Work_ A Very Short Introduction. 2012.pdf | Background reading. Fineman. A Very Short Introduction to Work | Christopher Cowley, Ph.D. |
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Gheus. The feminist argument against supporting care. 2020.pdf | Week 8. Gheus 'The feminist argument against supporting care' | Christopher Cowley, Ph.D. |
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Heath. Economics without illusions. 2009.pdf | Week 4. Heath 'Ch. 10 Equal pay' in his book 'Economics without Illusions' | Christopher Cowley, Ph.D. |
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Jecker. The dignity of work. An ethical argument against mandatory retirement. 2022.pdf | Week 10. Jecker 'The dignity of work: an ethical argument against mandatory retirement' | Christopher Cowley, Ph.D. |
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Koltonski. Vocations, exploitation and professions. 2018.pdf | Week 5. Koltonski 'Vocations, exploitations and professions' | Christopher Cowley, Ph.D. |
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Tyler. All roads lead to abolition. 2021.pdf | Week 7. Tyler 'All roads lead to abolition' | Christopher Cowley, Ph.D. |
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Work. Outline. Autumn 2026.pdf | Philosophy of Work course outline | Christopher Cowley, Ph.D. |
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Yeoman. Oxford Handbook of Meaningful Work. 2019.pdf | Week 2. Bowie 'Dignity and Meaningful Work' in Yeoman, The Oxford Handbook of Meaningful Work | Christopher Cowley, Ph.D. |
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2. Work. Meaningful work.pptx | Week 2 lecture slides. Meaningful work | Christopher Cowley, Ph.D. |
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3. Work as identity.pptx | Week 3 lecture slides. Work as identity | Christopher Cowley, Ph.D. |
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Work makes up a huge portion of our lives. Different people identify to different degrees and in different ways with their work: they might be more or less ambitious, they might care more or less about the content or products of the work, they might enjoy the collegial relationships more or less. At one extreme, work can be meaningless and/or undignified drudgery; at the other, work is an all-consuming vocation. This module will examine what work and careers can mean in our lives, alongside other typical sources of meaning and self-esteem and recognition. We will look at the ambiguous concepts of ambition, loyalty, pride and service – concepts notorious for having both positive and negative inflections. We will ask about prestige and wages and power, and the different kinds of inequality in their distribution (especially with reference to class and gender and race). We will look at government policies to do with e.g. income taxation, the minimum wage, unemployment benefits, and retirement. We will ask about certain special categories of work, such as (unpaid) housework and care work, charity work, and sex work.<br>
<br> First note. This is a philosophy module, not a sociology or history module. We are not just describing what work is, we are also arguing about what work should be. It will not focus much on empirical data, but on the concepts that we use to make sense of work and of its place in our lives. <br> <br> Second note: this course comprises TWO parallel courses. Please make sure to register in the correct one.<br> * ASZFS0079 is for Faculty of Arts students, who need credits from the 'Common Base' ('společný základ') category, and will result in a credit (zápočet), i.e. pass/fail.<br> * AFSV00465 is for Erasmus students, and will result in a grade of 1 (best) to 4 (worst).<br> Poslední úprava: Cowley Christopher, Ph.D. (19.09.2026)
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The only assessment in this course will be an exam in the first week of January. The exam will last 60 minutes, and comprise 50 multiple-choice questions, all of them explicitly about the assigned readings. Those taking this course for credit need to get 50% on the exam. Those taking it for a grade will be assessed as follows: grade 1=70%; grade 2=60-69%; grade 3=50-59%; grade 4(fail)=less than 50% Poslední úprava: Cowley Christopher, Ph.D. (25.08.2026)
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There will be a series of texts to read every week. See the attached syllabus file. For an overview, see the entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on 'Philosophical approaches to work and labor': Also, see the attached book by Fineman Work: a Very Short Introduction. This is just to get you thinking, but it is not very philosophical. We will not be referring to this book directly. Poslední úprava: Cowley Christopher, Ph.D. (25.08.2026)
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There will be a 90-minute lecture every week. I welcome questions at any time during the lecture. The lectures will be in English. Poslední úprava: Cowley Christopher, Ph.D. (25.08.2026)
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