Political Philosophy
Code: 100284 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2500246 Philosophy | OB | 2 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Mercè Rius Santamaria
- Email:
- merce.rius@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- catalan (cat)
- Some groups entirely in English:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Catalan:
- Yes
- Some groups entirely in Spanish:
- No
Teachers
- Mercè Rius Santamaria
- Marina Ruiz Artiga
Prerequisites
No prerequisite.
Objectives and Contextualisation
1. It will be about knowing the evolution of European political institutions from the perspective of philosophy.
2. Therefore, although the course will focus on conceptual analysis, it will be carried out in a historical order.
3. However, the historical approach will be carried out from the present, that is, based on the issues and problems that currently arise in political philosophy.
4. In addition, the political theme has always been closely related to other "areas" of philosophy: ethics above all, but also epistemology or even ontology. Then you will have to know how to move in those other areas according to the author considered.
5. It is intended that the student learns to guide their study with full awareness of these interrelationships.
Competences
- Analysing and summarising the main arguments of fundamental texts of philosophy in its various disciplines.
- Applying the knowledge of ethics to the moral problems of society, and assessing the implications about the human condition of changes in the world of contemporary techniques.
- Recognising and interpreting topics and problems of philosophy in its various disciplines.
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
Learning Outcomes
- Accurately drawing up normative texts.
- Accurately using the specific lexicon of the history of philosophy.
- Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network.
- Correctly, accurately and clearly communicating the acquired philosophical knowledge in oral and written form.
- Effectively communicating and applying the argumentative and textual processes to formal and scientific texts.
- Establishing relationships between science, philosophy, art, religion, politics, etc.
- Expressing both orally and in written form, the issues and basic problems of the philosophical tradition.
- Indicating and summarising the common content of several manifestations of various fields of culture.
- Relating the characteristic elements and factors of the philosophical tradition.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Summarising the main arguments of the great contemporary texts of ethics and political philosophy.
- Summarising the topics and arguments exposed in a classical philosophical debate.
- Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.
Content
Introduction
I. The ancient community.
a) Plato against the sophists: the art of the politician.
b) Aristotle: politics as a way of life.
c) Cicero: republicanism and ius humanum.
II. The transition to modernity.
a) Contributions of Christianity to political philosophy.
b) Machiavelli: the reason of State.
c) Jean Bodin: the concept of sovereignty.
III. Theories of the social pact.
a) Hobbes: the absolutism of state power.
b) Locke: natural rights and liberalism.
c) Rousseau: the collective political subject.
IV. The constitutional State.
a) Kant and the cosmopolitan Idea.
b) Towards a philosophy of history.
Methodology
During the face-to-face sessions, the teacher will present the subjects of the program with special emphasis on the main concepts, which will be framed in the appropriate argumentation. Thus, this exhibition will also offer guidelines for reading texts.
The mandatory reading must be done in the recommended editions, which are the following in this order:
1) The original version in English, in Harcourt Publisher, whose PDF on the net is freely accessible:https://grattoncourses.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/hannah-arendt-on-violence-harcourt-brace-jovanovich-1969.pd
2) Sobre la violència, Angle Editorial, Barcelona.
3) Sobre la violencia, Alianza.
Any work that is not based on one of these three editions will not be accepted.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Master class | 35 | 1.4 | 6, 9, 2 |
| Text reading orientation | 10 | 0.4 | 3, 6, 9, 12 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Tutorials | 20 | 0.8 | 3, 4 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Reading the recommended bibliography | 50 | 2 | 9 |
| Study and preparation of works | 27.5 | 1.1 | 3, 1, 6, 7, 5, 13, 9, 2 |
Assessment
First test:
It will consist of a review, made at home, of On Violence (1969), by Hannah Arendt. The general rules for submission will be as indicated below. They will be specified in more detail in Moodle in February, and any review that does not comply with all of them will not be accepted (see also Methodology):
Typeface: Times New Roman 12.
Line spacing: 1.5.
Maximum length: 5,000 characters (with spaces).
Second test:
It will consist of a written exam during the class time slot. The evaluable subject will cover topics I and II of the program ("The ancient community" and "The transition to modernity").
Third test:
It will consist of a written exam during the class time slot. The evaluable subject will cover topics III and IV of the program ("Theories of the social pact" and "The constitutional State").
The final grade is calculated as follows:
The first test, 20% of the final grade.
The second test and the third test, each one of them, 40% of the final grade.
The subject will be considered passed if the average of the three tests is not less than 5. And always insofar as the average is only calculable between grades not lower than 4.5.
Test dates
1) The first test will be delivered on April 11, 2023.
2) The second test will be held on May 2, 2023.
3) The third test, on June 1, 2023.
If any eventuality forces a change of dates, the teacher would inform the class as far in advance as possible, and through the course delegate.
In the event that the tests cannot be done in person, their format will be adapted (maintaining their weighting) to the possibilities offered by the UAB’s virtual tools. Homework, activities and class participation will be done through forums, wikis and/or exercise discussions through Teams, etc. The teacher will ensure that the student can access it or offer alternative means, which are within his/her reach.
Conditions for final reassessment:
a)
The subject will be considered non-evaluable if the student does not appear (under the proper conditions formulated in this Guide; see the Organization Rules) to any of the ordinary tests without communicating their reasons to the teacher either before the evaluation date or during the following 10 calendar days, and this in the event that an unexpected incident prevents them from appearing. Logically, the alleged causes must be force majeure and documented. However, the always exceptional possibility of recovering an omitted test will not be extended to three ordinary examination session.
b)
There will be no global revaluation, but only of each of the suspended ordinary tests. However, to access the final revaluation, you must have an evaluation that has already been approved (or, at least, rated 4.5). In a two-hour exam, no more than two ordinary tests can be re-evaluated. Thus, in the data set by Academic Management, it will only be possible to revalue: the first and the second, the first and the third, or the second and the third. Now, in order to re-evaluate the first test, will have had to be presented he review in the first convocatory.
c)
c) The test qualified with a 4.5 should be re-evaluated only if the average with the other two is less than 5.
Evidence review:
The revision dateof each test will be indicated in due course through Moodle.
Organizational rules:
If the student (1) does not personally deliver the test prepared at home at the established place, date and time, (2) if he / she does not appear for one of the tests carried out in the classroom or (3) arrives late to the same, that is, when the ballots with the questions are already distributed and the consequent instructions have been given, in any of the three cases, the convocatory is lost.You can only recover it as part of the final revaluation if you meet the conditions indicated in the previous section (Conditions for final recovery). An exception will be made, allowing him / her to carry out the test, if the student provides due justification for his / her delay in the immediate 5 calendar days; otherwise, the test will be destroyed without grading it. Regarding the delivery of the test carried out at home, if any circumstance prevents him from scrupulously complying with the rules, the student must notify the teacher well in advance.
Regarding the possibility of sending work by email, it will only be effective if the teacher so decides at the time. Otherwise, they will be dismissed. It will also be those that are deposited at the Department's box office, unless consent has been obtained in this regard.
Warning: If plagiarism is committed in any of the aforementioned tests (that is, if fragments of a publication are reproduced, in paper or digital format, without citing the source: author's name and publication reference), the note obtained will be automatically a zero, and will result in the possible loss of the right to revaluation in accordance with current academic regulations.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First test: accreditation of reading. | 20% of the final grade | 2.5 | 0.1 | 3, 4, 1, 6, 7, 5, 13, 9, 11, 12, 2 |
| Second test: exam. | 40% of the final grade | 2.5 | 0.1 | 8, 3, 4, 1, 7, 5, 13, 10, 9, 12, 2 |
| Third test: exam | 40% of the final grade | 2.5 | 0.1 | 8, 3, 4, 1, 7, 5, 13, 10, 9, 12, 2 |
Bibliography
General Bibliography
Hampsher-Monk, Iain, Historia del pensamiento político moderno, Ariel, Barcelona.
Held, David, Modelos de democracia, Alianza, Madrid.
Raynaud, Philippe/Rials, Stéphane, Diccionario Akal de Filosofía Política, Akal, Madrid.
Sabine, George H., Historia de la teoría política, Fondo Cultura Económica (FCE), México/Madrid.
Touchard, Jean, Historia de las ideas políticas, Tecnos, Madrid.
Vallespín, Fernando (recop.), Historia de la teoría política, Alianza.
Bibliography by subject
I. The ancient community.
Agamben, Giorgio, Opus Dei. Arqueología del oficio, Pre-Textos, València – Adriana Hidalgo, Buenos Aires.
Arendt, Hannah, La condició humana, Empúries, Barcelona [cap. IV, ap. 21].
Bowra, Cecil Maurice, La Atenas de Pericles, Alianza.
Cacciari, Massimo, Geo-filosofía de Europa, Aldebarán, Madrid.
Constant, Benjamin, Sobre el espíritu de conquista. Sobre la libertad en los antiguos y en los modernos, Tecnos.
Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis, La ciudad antigua, Península – Edhasa – Iberia.
Weil, Simone, La fuente griega, Trotta, Madrid.
II. The transition to modernity.
Arquillière, Henri Xavier, El agustinismo político, Edicions de les Universitats de Granada i València.
Burckhardt, Jacob, La cultura del Renacimiento en Italia, Edaf, Madrid.
Guardini, Romano, El espíritu de la liturgia, Centre Pastoral Litúrgica, Barcelona.
Kantorowicz, Ernst Hartwig, Los dos cuerpos del rey: un estudio de teología política medieval, Alianza – Akal.
Lefort, Claude, Maquiavelo. Lecturas de lo político, Trotta.
Schmitt, Carl, Catolicismo y forma política, Tecnos.
– , La dictadura, Alianza.
Strauss, Leo, Derecho natural e historia, Círculo de Lectores, Barcelona.
Tönnies, Ferdinand, Comunitat i associació, Edicions 62.
Ullmann, Walter, Principios de gobierno y política en la Edad Media, Alianza.
Weber, Max, L’ètica protestant i l’esperit del capitalisme, Edicions 62.
- , El político y el científico, Alianza.
III. Theories of the social pact.
About Hobbes
Bobbio, Norberto, Thomas Hobbes, FCE.
Monserrat, Josep, Thomas Hobbes: La fundació del l’Estat Modern, Gedisa, Barcelona.
Oakeshott, Michael, El Estado europeo moderno, Paidós/ICE-UAB.
Schmitt, C., El Leviathan en la teoría del Estado de Thomas Hobbes, Comares, Granada.
Strauss, L., La filosofía política de Hobbes, FCE.
Tönnies, f., Hobbes: vida y doctrina, Alianza.
Zarka, Yves-Charles, Hobbes y el pensamiento político moderno, Herder, Barcelona.
About Locke
Ashcraft, Richard, Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, Unwin Hyman, London.
Bobbio, Norberto, Locke e il diritto naturale, G. Giappichelli, Torino [Locke y el derecho natural Tirant lo Blanch, València, electrónico y en papel.]
Dunn, John, Locke. A Very ShortIntroduction, Oxford University Press.
– , The Political Thought of John Locke, Cambridge University Press.
Grant, Ruth W., John Locke’s liberalism, Chicago Universiy Press.
Iversen Vaugh, Karen, John Locke: economista y sociólogo, F.C.E.
Macpherson, C.B. (Crawford Brough), La teoría política del individualismo posesivo: de Hobbes a Locke, Trotta.
About Rousseau (and Montesquieu)
Althusser, Louis, Montesquieu: la política y la historia, Ariel.
Aron, Raymond, Las etapas del pensamiento sociológico, Herder.
Durkheim, Émile, Montesquieu y Rousseau: precursores de la sociología, Tecnos.
Iglesias, Mª Carmen, El pensamiento de Montesquieu: política y ciencia natural, Alianza.
Cassirer, Ernst, The Question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Columbia Univ. Press, New York.
Grimsley, Ronald, La filosofía de Rousseau, Alianza.
Masters, Roger Davis, The Political Philosophy of Rousseau, Princeton University Press, New Jersey.
Rubio Carracedo, José, ¿Democracia o representación? Poder y legitimidad en Rousseau, CEC.
IV. The constitutional State.
Arendt, H., Conferencias sobre la filosofía política de Kant, Paidós.
Aubenque, P., “La prudencia en Kant”, dins La prudencia en Aristóteles, Crítica.
Colomer, José Luis, “Immanuel Kant”, a F. Vallespín (ed.), Historia de la Teoría Política, v. 3.
Foucault, Michel, Sobre la Ilustración, Tecnos.
Olesti, Josep, “Kant, un realista polític?”, a Comprendre, any IV, 2002/1.
Philonenko, Alexis, La théorie kantienne de l’histoire, J. Vrin, Paris.
Turró, Salvi, Lliçons sobre història i dret a Kant, Edicions Universitat de Barcelona.
– , Tránsito de la naturaleza a la historia en la filosofía de Kant, Anthropos, Barcelona.
Williams, Howard, Kant’s Political Philosophy, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Software
No specific software is needed.