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| Module Availability |
Full time only |
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| Assessment Pattern |
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Unit(s) of Assessment
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Weighting Towards Module Mark (%)
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Coursework - Essay (1500 words)
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25%
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Essay (1500 words)
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25%
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Formal exam (2 hrs)
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45%
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Attendance
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5%
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Qualifying Condition(s)
- 50% attendance at tutorials/seminars is required to take the final exam
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| Module Overview |
This module serves as a general introduction to political and social philosophy through a historical survey of key thinkers and themes. The major themes will be: sovereignty; political obligation; liberty; rights and equality. These themes will be addressed through a study of major writers in political philosophy from Ancient Greece to the present day.
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| Prerequisites/Co-requisites |
None |
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| Module Aims |
This module will seek to:
- Introduce central issues and themes in political philosophy.
- Introduce central thinkers in political philosophy from the Ancient Geeks to the late twentieth century.
- Increase students’ awareness of conflicts in perspectives between different approaches.
- Produce a sound knowledge of the major thinkers and themes in political philosophy.
- Develop and deepen the students' interest in understanding political issues in terms of the central thinkers and principles involved.
- Enable students to integrate a wide range of views from various sources and to identify the philosophical schools to which they attach.
- Enable students to produce succinct, cogent arguments aware of the philosophical assumptions and frameworks on which they depend.
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| Learning Outcomes |
Subject Specific Learning Outcomes
The successful student will, by the end of this module, be able to:
- Identify different approaches to politics in terms of the philosophical and theoretical perspectives that underlie them.
- Understand and compare the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to in politics and political philosophy.
- Identify the arguments of different thinkers in the history of political thought in terms of how they inform current theory and debates.
- Present an account of the implications for politics of different philosophical approaches.
Generic Learning Outcomes
Cognitive skills
- To demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a wide range of political concepts and principles in relation to the core themes studied.
- To understand the central arguments pertaining to each theme.
- To demonstrate historical knowledge of the core debates in relation to the five themes studied.
Practical skills
- To use primary and secondary sources with reference to key political debates.
- To analyse key sources and reflect on their own learning.
- To engage in academic debate in a professional manner.
- To learn skills of oral presentation through seminars.
Transferable skills
- To communicate succinctly in written and oral forms.
- To read complex primary materials.
- To demonstrate proficiency in the use of word processing.
- To develop proficiency in the art of political debate.
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| Module Content |
Themes – This module will be structures around key themes in political philosophy and will explore how different thinker conceptualised these issues
1. Sovereignty
- Historical development of the concept.
- Essential aspects – legal; political; internal; external.
- Thinkers: Machiavelli; Hobbes; Locke; Rousseau.
2. Political Obligation
- Historical development of the concept: voluntaristic; teleological; other duty theories.
- Limits to political obligation.
- General justification for political obligation.
- Thinkers: Hobbes; Locke; Rousseau.
3. Liberty
- Historical development of the concept: different traditions of interpreting liberty.
- Negative liberty in the history of political thought.
- Positive liberty in the history of political thought.
- Thinkers: Locke; Rousseau; John Stuart Mill; T.H.Green; I. Berlin.
4. Rights
- Historical development of the concept of rights.
- Natural rights: pros and cons.
- 20th century developments in rights theory.
- Problems associated with human rights concept.
- Thinkers: Locke; Burke; Bentham; Paine.
5. Equality
- Formal or foundational.
- Equality of opportunity.
- Equality of outcome.
- Thinkers: Rousseau; Wollstonecraft; John Stuart Mill; Marx.
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| Methods of Teaching/Learning |
Lectures, seminars, independent reading and essay preparation. |
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| Selected Texts/Journals |
Barker, J. (1987) Arguing for Equality. London: Verso.
Bartelson, J. A Genealogy of Sovereignty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Berlin, I. (1969) Two Concepts of Liberty. In: Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Campbell, T. (1998) Justice. London: Macmillan.
Carter, A. (1988) The Politics of Women’s Rights. London: Longman.
Dunn, J. (2002) Political Obligation in its Historical Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Horton, J. (1992) Political Obligation. London: Macmillan.
Jones, T. (2002) Modern Political Thinkers and Ideas: An Historical Introduction. London: Routledge.
Lyons, G. and Mastandumo, M. (eds.) (1995) Beyond Westphalia? Sovereignty and International Intervention. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Lessnof, M. (1986) Social Contract. London: Macmillan.
Letwin, W. (1983) Against Equality. London: Macmillan.
MacCallum, G. C. (1991) “Negative and Positive Freedom”. In: Miller, D. (ed.) Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 100-122.
MacIntyre, A. (1981) After Virtue. London: Duckworth.
Miller, D. (1981) Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Miller, D. (1976) Social Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Waldron, J, (ed.) (1985) Theories of Rights. Oxford: Blackwell.
Waldron, J. (1987) Nonsense Upon Stilts: Burke, Bentham and Marx on Rights of Man. London: Methuen.
Wolff, J. (1991) Robert Nozick: Property, Justice and the Minimal State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
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| Last Updated |
01.02.07 |
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