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Political Philosophy (Spring 2018)

INSTRUCTOR:  Jeff Tolly

CONTACT: jtolly@nd.edu

TEXT:  -All papers/chapters to be made available on the course website.

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SCHEDULE

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1/16:  What’s wrong with political discourse?

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Unit 1: Logic, Ethics, and Political Theory

 

1/18:  2 Tensions: rights vs goodness maximization; equality vs freedom

 

1/23:  Plato’s Republic: Philosopher Kings or Bust!

“Why Socrates Hated Democracy”

“Plato, the Republic: Book 8-Summary and Analysis”

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Unit 2:  John Rawls: Justice as Fairness

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1/25: Rawls-Justice as Fairness 1—the original position

  • Required reading 1: video: Political Theory- John Rawls

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-JQ17X6VNg

  • Required reading 2: “Justice as Fairness”—Rawls

  • Optional reading: Justice as Fairness, A Restatement , pgs 42-49; 97-100; 57-61—Rawls

 

1/30: Rawls-Justice as Fairness 2—the institutions of justice

  • Required Reading 1: A Theory of Justice, pgs 73-81, 242-262—Rawls

  • Required Reading 2: Justice as Fairness, a Restatement, pgs 135-140—Rawls

 

2/1:  Rawls-Justice as Fairness 3—criticisms of Rawls

  • Required Reading 1: Justice as Fairness, a Restatement, pgs 62-63, 66-72—Rawls

  • Required Reading 2: Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy—pgs 77-80—Bernard Williams

 

2/6: Rawls-Justice as Fairness 4—Rawls, and the sustainability of justice

  • Required Reading 1: A Theory of Justice, 464-474—Rawls

  • Required Reading 2: Justice as Fairness, a Restatement, 195-198—Rawls

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Unit 3: Contemporary Socialism

 

2/8:  Socialism 1  --Cohen’s “Camping Trip” analogy, and the principles of socialism

  • Required reading: “Why Not Socialism?”, pgs 8-19—Cohen

 

2/13:  Socialism 2 –Is socialism feasible?

  • Required reading: Why Not Socialism?”, pgs 20-29—Cohen

  • GGroup Responses assigned

 

2/15: Socialism 3 –Egalitarian criticisms of Cohen’s socialism

  • Required reading: “What is the Point of Equality?” pgs 287-315—Elizabeth Anderson

  • Optional reading: finish the article

 

Unit 4:  Libertarianism

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2/20:  Libertarianism 1—The Wilt Chamberlain argument against taxation

  • Required reading: Anarchy, State, and Utopia, pgs 149-164—Nozick

  • GGroup Response 1 due

 

2/22: Libertarianism 2 –Is taxation on par with forced labor?

  • Required reading: Anarchy, State, and Utopia, pgs 167-182—Nozick

 

2/27:  Libertarianism 3 – libertarian criticisms of Rawls

  • Required reading: Anarchy, State, and Utopia, pgs 232-250—Nozick

  • GGroup Response 2 due

 

3/1:  Libertarianism 4 – Property rights and justice for those less fortunate

  • Required reading: “Self-Ownership and Equality”—Otsuka

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3/6:  Communitarian Virtue critiques of Contemporary theories of Justice

  • Required reading: “Justice as a Virtue: Changing Conceptions”—Alistair MacIntyre

  • Assign final paper

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Unit 5: Anarchism

 

3/8:  Anarchism 1 –Huemer’s “vigilante” thought experiment

  • Required reading: “The Problem of Political Authority”—Michael Huemer

  • Quiz 1

  • Assign Podcast project

 

3/10-3/18:  Spring break

 

3/20:  Anarchism 2 – Hypothetical Social Contracts do not ground political authority

  • Required reading: “The Hypothetical Social Contract Theory”—Huemer

 

3/22:  Anarchism 3 – majority rule democracy does not ground political authority

  • Required reading: “The Authority of Democracy”—Huemer

  • Prospectus workshop

 

3/27:  Anarchism 4 – consequentialist arguments do not ground political authority

  • Required reading: “The Relevance of Anarcho-syndicalism”—Noam Chomsky

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Unit 6:  The nature of human rights

 

3/29: Religion and Human Rights 1 – Secularism and the existence of human rights

  • Required reading: “Is a Secular Grounding of Human Rights Possible?”—Nicholas Wolterstorff

 

4/3:  Religion and Human Rights 2 – theism and the existence of human rights

  • Required reading: “A Theistic Grounding of Human Rights”—Nicholas Wolterstorff

 

4/5:  The Shalom Community

  • Required Reading: “Jesus and Affluence”—Tom Crisp

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Unit 7:  Criminal Justice

 

4/10:  Criminal Justice, day 1

  • Required reading: “What is Restorative Justice?”

http://restorativejustice.org/restorative-justice/about-restorative-justice/tutorial-intro-to-restorative-justice/lesson-1-what-is-restorative-justice/#sthash.pxaeNwCq.dpbs

(be sure to click on the links “Inclusion,” “Encounter,” “Amends,” and “Reintegration” to read them as well)

  • Video “The Neuroscience of Restorative Justice”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzJYY2p0QIc

 

4/12: Criminal Justice, day 2

  • Required reading: “A Different Justice: Why Anders Breivik Only Got 21 Years for Killing 77 People”

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/08/a-different-justice-why-anders-breivik-only-got-21-years-for-killing-77-people/261532/

  • Video “Truth Justice Memory: South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Process”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3taLI3moaM

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Unit 8: Healthcare and Justice

 

4/17:  Healthcare System Ethics: There is a right to healthcare

  • Required reading: “Is Healthcare a Right?”—Atul Gawande, The New Yorker,

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/02/is-health-care-a-right

 

4/19:  Healthcare System Ethics 2: There is no right to healthcare

  • Required reading: “Rights to Healthcare”—Tristram Engelhardt

  • Rough draft workshop

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Unit 9:  Religion in a pluralistic democracy

 

4/24:  Religious reasons in the public sphere, day 1

  • Required reading: “The Idea of Public Reason Revisited”—John Rawls, 131-152

  • Optional reading: finish the article

 

4/26:  Religious reasons in the public sphere, day 2

  • Required reading: Video: “Nicholas Wolterstorff on Faith in liberal democracy”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjEjGEG9liY

  • Quiz 2

 

5/1: last day of class

  • Podcast project due

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