Week 1: Wednesday: Shipwrecked
Part I. The social contract
Week 2: Hobbes on authority
Monday: ‘Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’: Life in a state of nature
Wednesday: Absolute authority? Hobbes on government
Week 3: Locke and liberalism
Monday: Individual freedom and the common good
Wednesday: Property and toleration
Week 4: Rousseau’s democratic contract
Monday: How society corrupts human nature
Wednesday: The ‘general will’: Democratic or totalitarian?
Week 5: Preparation of first written assignment
Part II. Liberal democracy and its critics
Week 6: Mill on freedom, democracy, and women
Monday: The ‘harm principle’
Wednesday: Reform: democracy and feminism
Week 7: Marx against capitalism and liberalism
Monday: Capitalism and communism
Wednesday: False vs. true freedom: Marx’s critique of liberalism
Week 8: Nietzsche and power
Monday: ‘Masters’ and ‘slaves’: Against liberal democracy
Wednesday: Nietzschean democracy? Power and contestation
Week 9: Preparation of second written assignment
Part III. Contemporary issues
Week 10: Equality
Monday: Equality of what? Rawls on equal opportunity and redistribution
Wednesday: Same-sex marriage, affirmative action, and healthcare
Week 11: Religion
Monday: Should religious ideas be allowed in democratic debate?
Wednesday: Abortion, creationism, and the veil
Week 12: Environment
Monday: Climate equality
Wednesday: Animal citizenship and human genetic engineering
Week 13: War and terrorism
Monday: Preventive war and torture
Wednesday: Humanitarian war: Responsibility to protect?
Week 14: Preparation for final exam
Basic bibliography
Below are the primary texts and extracts that we will study, arranged by week. These and supporting materials will be provided on the Moodle site and in class, and full bibliographical details will also be given on the site.
2. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651/1668), ed. Bennett, 2006, pt. 1, ch. 13, and pt. 2, chs. 17, 18, and 21
3. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1689), ed. Bennett, 2008, §§ 4, 6, 19, 20, 25-37, 95-97, 123-133, 142, and 243
_, Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), ed. Bennett, 2010, §§ 2, 4 and 10
4. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754), trans. Cole, 1920 (extracts)
_, The Social Contract (1762), trans. Bennett, 2010, bk. 1, chs. 1-8, and bk. 2, ch. 3
6. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859), ed. Bennett, 2008, ch. 1, pp. 3-8
_, Considerations on Representative Government (1861), chs. 3-5, 7-8, and 10 (extracts)
_, The Subjection of Women (1869), ed. Bennett, 2009, ch. 1, pp. 1-2, 7-10, and 12-14
7. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848), pts. I and II
Karl Marx, ‘Alienated Labour’, in Economic and Political Manuscripts (1844), trans. McLlellan (extracts)
_, On the Jewish Question (1843), pt. 1, trans. McLlellan (extracts)
8. Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (1888), trans. J. Norman, ‘Skirmishes’, §§ 38 and 48
_, On the Genealogy of Morality (1887), trans. Diethe, First essay, §§ 10-13, and Second essay, §§ 8-11
_, ‘Homer’s Contest’ (1872), trans. Diethe
10. John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, 2001, §§ 13.1-4, 14.3, 18.1-2, 36, and 41.4-42.3
11. Richard Rorty, ‘Religion as Conversation-Stopper’, 1994
Andrew March, ‘Rethinking Religious Reasons in Public Justification’, 2013