Latest Module Specifications
Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026
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Description In this module, we explore various meanings of freedom and their relevance to matters of health. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Learning Outcomes 1. Discuss the varied meanings of freedom and the rhetorical significance of their uses. 2. Explore the stoic insistence on 'freedom of assent' and how this relates to matters of personal relationships and mental health. 3. Consider the politics of anger in political life with particular reference to health and racial oppression. 4. Discuss John Stuart Mill's account of liberty of opinion and how this relates to matters of health communication. 5. Explore the relevance and limits of the 'harm principle' and the capabilities approach in relation to vaccination, intravenous drug use and coercive psychiatric injections. 6. Evaluate libertarian ideas of a minimal state by reference to crime and public health. 7. Consider neoliberal ideas of consumer freedom and markets as they relate to bodily modification. 8. Discuss Pettit's republican conception of non-domination and how this relates to work and health. 9. Explain the work of Thaler and Sunstein with particular reference to 'libertarian paternalism', 'nudge theory' and 'choice architecture'. 10. Explore ideas to do with governmentality, self-surveillance and disciplined subjectivities as they relate to health. 11. Consider ideas of freedom as a burden, responsibility for the meaning of one's life and the ideological uses of responsibilisation as they relate to health. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml |
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Indicative Content and Learning Activities
Freedom, health and wellbeing: an introduction Introduction to the module; the varied meanings of freedom; rhetoric and freedom; the need for critical readings of freedom; the relations of freedom to health. "What a wicked way to treat the girl who loves you!": Intimate relationships, mental health and stoic detachment Stoicism and the passions, freedom of assent, the perils of attachments, stoicism and mental health Anger, politics and freedom The stoic critique of anger; the possibility of righteous anger; anger and health; Nussbaum and transitional anger; the place of anger in struggles against racial injustice. "Fake medical news" and liberty of opinion John Stuart Mill on liberty of opinion and truth; what to do about "fake medical news"? The uses of the syringe: Bodily autonomy, capabilities and freedom Vaccine uptake and hesitancy; debates on mandated vaccination; Mill's harm principle; coercion and injections- the case of psychiatry; freedom as capabilities and implications for vaccination Crime, safety and the role of the state Libertarians and the minimal state; the state as guarantor of protection against crime; crime and public health; vulnerability, crime and threat; rape and sexual harassment; preventing knife crime and the role of the state. Markets and health Markets and freedom- the neoliberal account; markets as providers for consumer wants; marketisation and the body as a project; the cultural creation of bodily wants; the limits of markets and the public good. Non-domination and health: A republican perspective Republicanism and non-domination; the state as guarantor of non-domination and basic liberties; status and health; workplaces as sites of domination; occupational health and domination. "Putting the fruit at eye level.": Choice architecture, nudges and health Thaler and Sunstein, libertarian paternalism and choice architecture; "nudges" and health. Considering the "smart watch": Governmentality, self surveillance and unfreedom Foucault, disciplinary power and panopticism; subjectivity, self surveillance and social control; "free subjects" and subjection. "Condemned to be free"?: Existentialism, responsibility and responsibilisation Sartre on "being before essence"; Frankl and responsibility for the meaning of one's own life; fear of freedom; critique of responsibilisation; ideology and responsibility. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Indicative Reading List Books:
Articles: None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Other Resources None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||