After this course, you can:
- find your way in key debates that political philosophers and other intellectuals/academics engage in;
- work with one explicit position in political philosophy;
- develop your own thoughts;
- express your ideas within the area of political philosophy, both in written and spoken form;
- think more clearly, more "conceptually" and more critically, about current affairs.
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Political Philosophy in the 20th and 21st Century
This course familiarizes students with key topics and debates in political philosophy today. The course does not limit itself to the Western hemisphere, but extends beyond it to include other parts of the world, both in terms of topics and of authors. Apart from the two basic books, by Thompson and Mouffe, shorter texts by a variety of authors can be made available and discussed, and may in some cases also form the content of assignments.
The aim of this course is to introduce students to a selection of key debates that political philosophers and other intellectuals/academics engage in worldwide. They look up background information for themselves, esp. with the help of the handbook that is used with this course. Also, students develop the ability to relate the information offered in this course to the more general knowledge about the history of philosophical thought that they obtained during the first semester. As often as possible, the content of the course will be related to current (world) affairs, and the question how we "know" what these current affairs are, including the issue of "fake news vs. truth", is part of the course. This dimension is also addressed in the assignments.
The book by Mouffe presents an explicit position in political philosophy (one that one can agree or disagree with, obviously), while the book by Thompson offers a more or less objective account of both the history and the current state of political philosophy. By combining these two sources, students obtain a clear grasp of, on the one hand, the fact that there is such a thing as objective information when it comes to political philosophy (i.e., not just "subjective" opinions), and, on the other hand, that political philosophy is about questions and discussion. The two together invite you to develop your own way of thinking.
After the course, students will be able to think more clearly, more "conceptually" and more critically, not only about what is going on in the world today, but also about how "the world" is being discussed and conceptualized. Students also develop their capacity to speak and write about these issues in a conceptually clear way.
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No particular knowledge is presupposed (other than a high school diploma or equivalent), but students are expected to inform themselves about current affairs and to look up things needed to provide the context for the authors and topics discussed.
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A combination of written assignments and a test.
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Students will be expected to engage in working in small groups.
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