Module Directory

This module will investigate the main competing approaches in contemporary political philosophy and discuss how they conceive of their object – the political – and how they understand philosophy's task vis-a-vis this object: What is the role of political philosophy? How should theory and theorists relate to real politics? What are the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches? How do these approaches relate to each other?

This module will begin with scrutinizing the assumptions underpinning the dominant approach in contemporary political philosophy, the liberal, ideal theoretical approach shaped by John Rawls, to then consider a range of alternative ways of doing political philosophy.

The aims of this module are:

• To learn about key approaches to contemporary political philosophy.


• To develop a better grasp of what politics is.


• To be able to critically examine the presuppositions and assumptions we often make when talking about politics.


• To appreciate the different ways in which political philosophy bears on politics.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. To summarise in their own words and critically assess the principal theories and philosophical perspectives examined in this course.


2. To compare and evaluate conflicting accounts of the political, its values and principles.


3. To offer detailed philosophical analysis and critique of journal articles published in the field.


4. To demonstrate an understanding of the relation between political theory and practice by relating, for example, particular theories to their own experience of political life.
   

Skills for your Professional Life (Transferable Skills)

By the end of the module, students should also have acquired a set of transferable skills, and in particular be able to:

1. Define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant.


2. Seek and organise the most relevant discussions and sources of information.


3. Process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments.


4. Compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure.


5. Write and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications.


6. Be sensitive to the positions of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to them.


7. Think 'laterally' and creatively - see interesting connections and possibilities and present these clearly rather than as vague hunches.


8. Maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position if shown wrong.


9. Think critically and constructively.

Incoming Study Abroad students must have already taken two Philosophy modules at their home institution.

This module will be delivered via:

• One 2-hour combined lecture and seminar per week.
• One 1-hour class per week.

Week 21 is Reading Week.