Philosophy 371: Social and Political Philosophy

• Professor: William Sweet
• Office: 707 Nicholson Hall Tower
• Telephone: 867-2341     E-mail: wsweet@stfx.ca
• Office Hours: Monday 9.15-11; Tuesday 14.15-15.00; Wednesday 9.15-11,  Thursday: 10.15-11.00;  and by arrangement.
• This class is scheduled to meet in the 'EF/FE' time block (Monday 12.45-2 p.m. and Wednesday, 11.15 to 12.30 p.m.)
  

Description:

What would an ideal society be like? Should there be limits on human freedom? Do human beings have rights that everyone should respect? Is it ever morally acceptable to disobey or rebel against the state?
   The course will refer to texts from classical and mediaeval philosophers, but will focus on modern thinkers (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Bentham, Marx, Mill, Green), including authors from the late 20th century (representing liberal, libertarian, Marxist, and conservative thought, and from non-western perspectives).

Tentative Course Outline:

'Classical' sources

• Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan (selections from Parts I and II)
• John Locke: Second Treatise of Government (selections)
• Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Women (selections)
• Jeremy Bentham: Anarchical Fallacies; selections.
  
• (Click on Bentham's name to see the 'auto-icon'. For the 'penitentiary panopticon,' click here.)
• Bernard Bosanquet: The Philosophical Theory of the State (selections)
• Jacques Maritain: Natural Law: Reflections on Theory and Practice

Contemporary sources [tentative list]

• Contractarianism: John Rawls: A Theory of Justice (selections)
• Libertarianism: Tibor Machan: "Towards a Theory of Natural Individual Human Rights" (selections)
• Challenges:
• Cultural Pluralism - Vinay Lal: "The Imperialism of Human Rights"
• Feminism - Helen Bequaert Holmes,  "A Feminist Analysis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights"
• Post Modernism - Richard Rorty: "Human Rights, Rationality, and Sentimentality"
• Communitarianism:
  
• Charles Taylor: The Politics of Recognition (selections)
• Jurgen Habermas: "Multiculturalism and the Liberal State"
  

Method of evaluation:

The class will have a 'lecture and discussion' format. The professor will introduce a topic with a summary of the relevant arguments or a commentary on a text. This will be followed by questions and discussion of the material by the class as a whole (e.g., points of clarification or criticism and of comparison; comments on the relations between or among different issues).

Students are expected to have prepared the readings before class, to attend all of the classes and to participate in discussion.

In conformity with University regulations, students who have more than 3 unjustified absences in a term may be reported to their Dean.

It is essential in learning how to do philosophy that students be prepared to ask and answer questions in class.

2 short assignments (approx 600 words), in late September and mid October - 10%
Essay (due 1 November) - 50 %
Final examination - 40 %
Good participation and preparation of class notes can merit up to an additional 10 points.

Texts:

• Modern Political Thought from Hobbes to Maritain, ed. William Sweet (Washington, DC: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2012).
  
• Readings in Contemporary Political Thought: Electronic Coursepack for Philosophy 371, ed. William Sweet.
  

Recommended Books:

• Philosophical Theory and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (University of Ottawa Press, 2003)
• Natural Law: reflections on theory and practice, by Jacques Maritain (South Bend, IN: St Augustine's Press, 2001)
• Bernard Bosanquet's "The Philosophical Theory of the State" and Related Essays, ed. Gerald F. Gaus and William Sweet (South Bend, IN, 2001)