PHIL 531A 001 Political Philosophy - POLITICAL PHIL

Dominic McIver Lopes
Office: Mondays 12h30–13h30 in Buchanan E367 

Political philosophy crafts theories of justice, theories of what it is for large scale social arrangements to be good. In general, large good scale social arrangements serve basic human interests. Among these are interests in community or culture. However, since at least the early nineteenth century, philosophers have disagreed about how basic human interests in culture should be accommodated within a theory of justice. This seminar is predicated on the conjecture that the disagreement is handicapped by a homogeneous conception of culture, which tends to be modelled on religious culture (actually, monotheist sectarianism) and which can be illiberal. Aesthetic culture provides an alternative model. Following an overview of recent aesthetic theory and some related  political issues, we examine the core debates between liberals and communitarians about culture and multiculturalism, before considering the outlines of theories of aesthetic justice and their implications for debates in political philosophy.

Assessment

The seminar requirements are two very short (ten minute) presentations, a longer presentation, and three to five thousand words in writing (in anything from many short pieces to one long piece).

Short Presentations (20%) You will make two ten minute presentations to structure discussion of a reading. Your aim is to highlight the issues and their significance, articulate the main arguments, and raise objections or queries that get to the heart of the matter. Treat this like an APA commentary. You will get feedback from the instructor but the presentations are not graded.

Seminar Participation (10 %) Your goal is to make contributions to the seminar that are (1) regular, (2) pertinent, and (3) constructive. 10/10 for all three; 8/10 for any two, 6/10 for one.

Writing: Short Papers Option (70 %) Submit a total of three to four thousand words in the form of any reasonable number of smaller papers submitted throughout the term. Think of these papers as: partial literature reviews, conference-style comments, journal discussion pieces, blog entries, reports from the front for non-philosophers, lecture outlines, notes to self… be creative. 

Writing: Term Paper Option (70 %) Submit between three and five thousand words as a single term paper due at the end of term. Excellent term papers make original contributions of a kind that promise impact on the work of other scholars, they are situated in ongoing debates and bring out the motivations for positions in those debates, they charitably represent opposing considerations, they have impeccable logic, and they are written in a clear and vigorous prose with a supple and economical structure. 

Research Presentation If you are writing a term paper, you will make a twenty minute presentation of your seminar-related work in progress, using the presentation to stimulate a discussion that will yield material improvements to your written work for the seminar. This is mandatory for seminar members  exercising the term paper option, but the presentation is not graded.

Schedule