AP/PHIL4180 3.0 A: Seminar in Political Philosophy
Offered by: PHIL
Session
Summer 2020
Term
S1
Format
SEMR
Instructor
Calendar Description / Prerequisite / Co-Requisite
An intensive study of some selected normative and conceptual problems in contemporary political philosophy. Prerequisite: At least nine credits in philosophy including one of the following: AP/PHIL 3020 3.00 or AP/PHIL 3110 3.00. Course credit exclusion: GL/PHIL 4626 3.00 (may be waived with permission of the Department). PRIOR TO FALL 2009: Prerequisite: At least nine credits in philosophy including at least three credits from the following: AK/AS/PHIL 3110 3.00, AK/PHIL 3050 3.00, AS/PHIL 3020 3.00, AS/PHIL 3025 3.00 (prior to Summer 2006), AS/PHIL 3050 3.00, or AS/PHIL 3130 3.00 (prior to Summer 2001). Course credit exclusion: AS/PHIL 4180 3.00.
Course Website
Many courses utilize Moodle, York University's course website system. If your course is using Moodle, refer to the image below to access it.
Dr. Joshua Paul (Please note: the course director has changed)
Office Location: TBA
Phone Number: TBA
Office Hours: By appointment only via e-mail
In this seminar course, we will examine this question of the political as it relates to thinking the practice of politics, which includes thinking the articulation(s) of dominant power and the militant resistance of this power. The problematics and tools of the material––metapolitics, the conception of the state and state power, biopolitics and necropolitics, the notion of sovereignty, debilitation, etc.––will also allow us to think the ways in which economic and political power is deployed and acutely revealed during times of crisis such as the current pandemic. In the end, the hope of this seminar is to encourage the thinking of a “concrete analysis of a concrete situation” and thus getting beyond the mores of “political philosophy” as they have ossified in both analytic and continental traditions.
Metapolitics (Alain Badiou)
The State and Revolution (V.I. Lenin)
The Undercommons (Stefan Harney and Fred Moten)
Selected articles
(All of these are available online and the links are up on the course Moodle site.)
Class Participation: 20%
Exposition Essay 1: 25%
Exposition Essay 2: 25%
Critical Essay: 30%
The course will function as a seminar and thus will be close and guided discussions of the text. Since it will be a Zoom seminar it will be a little more relaxed than a normal seminar, but it will still be organized in a guided group discussion manner.
To be familiar with debates on the meaning of political philosophy and conceptions of state and sovereign power as they relate to capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism.
- Academic Honesty
- Student Rights and Responsibilities
- Religious Observance
- Grading Scheme and Feedback
- 20% Rule
No examinations or tests collectively worth more than 20% of the final grade in a course will be given during the final 14 calendar days of classes in a term. The exceptions to the rule are classes which regularly meet Friday evenings or on Saturday and/or Sunday at any time, and courses offered in the compressed summer terms. - Academic Accommodation for Students with Disabilities
