The ethics of cultural heritage

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

• 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