Political Philosophy

Year/Semester

Spring Semester

Type of Course

Elective

Credits

3

Aims and Objectives

This course intends to give students an understanding of some important political philosophical questions in public affairs. It will be seen that every public policy and its implementation inevitably has ethical/philosophical foundation(s). In modern globalized multi-cultural world, it is highly recommended that public policy makers have conscious knowledge of these foundations. This course will give a theoretical framework that will facilitate students to think about policy in a philosophical way

Course Contents

A great part of public policy decisions are concerned with distributive activities: who gets what. In other words: how do we allocate benefits and burdens of economic activity of a certain society. Naturally there are variant models for this distribution/allocation. Every society is arguably supposed to adhere to one model or another. However, the difference between these models could not be measured in economic terms, which is more or less scientific. They can only be measured in ethical/political terms, or, in the way we see “what is good (public) life.” To compare these models, we have to step outside purely economic field and enter into one that is more “political philosophical.”

Sequence of principal themes:

Week 1: Introduction

Week 2-4: Market-State Approach

Week 4-10: Community-Democracy Approach

Week 11-12: Utilitarianism Approach

Course Requirement

Since the lectures given by the convener are exactly associated with corresponding reading materials, students are obliged to complete their reading before every week’s class.

Textbook/Recommended Reading

Nozick, Robert, 1974, Anarchy, State and Utopia (New York: Basic Books).

Dworkin, Ronald, 2000, Sovereign Virtue (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).

Sen, Amartya, Choice, Welfare and Measurement (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Rawls, John, 1971, A Theory of Justice (Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press).

Rawls, John, 1993, Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press).

Miller, David, 1989, Market, State, and Community (Oxford: Clarendon Press).

Miller, David, 1976, Social Justice (Oxford: Clarendon Press).

Cohen, G. A., 1995, Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality (New York: Cambridge University Press).

Carens, Joseph, 1981, Equality, Moral Incentives and the Market (Chicago: Chicago University Press).

Kymlicka, Will, 1990, Contemporary Political Philosophy (Oxford: Clarendon Press).

Sen, Amartya, and Bernard Williams (eds.), 1982, Utilitarianism and Beyond (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Course Evaluation

The assessment is based on individual student’s presentation/ participation at the course and written paper at the end of the academic term.

Language

English

Instructor

DUAN Demin

Correspondence

duandemin@gmail.com