Esteve Morera

Email address: morera@yorku.ca

This course will focus on the conceptual foundations of Western social and political philosophy.  It will be divided into two parts, one historical and one contemporary.  In the first part, we will engage in an examination of some of the primary texts of such thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Mill, and Marx.  We will pay particular attention to their views about human nature, the social contract, social justice and its foundations, and the nature and origins of inequality.   The second part of the course will be devoted to the study of some contemporary thinkers, both to develop an understanding of important criticisms of the classical texts and appreciation of crucial debates in our times. This will include liberal, socialist, and feminist thinkers, as well as some African and indigenous thinkers.

This course will be taught in person, Monday and Wednesday 1:00 - 2:30 pm

Required Course Text / Readings:

Course text available at the York Bookstore:

Andrea Veltman, editor. Social and Political Philosophy.  Classic and Contemporary Readings.  Oxford.

Other required readings (Links provided in eClass)

1. Plato. Republic Book I (pp. 75-76)
2. Young, Iris Marion. "Polity and Group Difference: A Critique of the Ideal of Universal Citizenship."

3.Hardimon, Michael O. "The Ordinary Concept of Race."

4. Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1856)
5. Chemhuru, Munamato. "African Communitarianism and Human Rights. Towards a Compatibilist View."
6. Boldt, Menno and J. Anthony Long. "Tribal Philosophies and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
7. Nielsen, Kai. "Radical Egalitarian Justice: Justice as Equality."

Test (Oct. 19) . . . . .  30 %

Paper (Dec. 5) . . . . . 35 %

Final exam  . . . . . . . 35 %

The main purpose of our meetings will be to make sure that you achieve your academic goals.  Learning is an activity that is best accomplished by actively participating in discussion, raising questions, and suggesting ways of understanding a text or solving a problem.  Instructors should facilitate this activity.  Current research demonstrates the importance of active learning, but this is indeed a very old idea, one that the great thinkers of the past already understood well.  Read, for instance, the first two pages of Plato’s Republic (Course KIT 2) and Ibn Khaldun’s excerpt from his Muqaddimah (in eClass).

To that end, each session will be divided into sections:  some of them will be devoted to lectures providing background information that may be needed to understand a text or a problem, and to explicate concepts or analyze arguments; others will be devoted to group discussion, and Q&A. Questions are always a welcome; I encourage you to interrupt lectures with any relevant questions you may have.

• Understand the origin and development of key ideas in social and political philosophy
• Appreciate developments in contemporary social and political philosophy
• Evaluate critically arguments related to the nature of society, justice, freedom, and equality.

• Write cogently and clearly about social and political issues.

Course policies

1. Academic honesty and integrity

In this course, we strive to maintain academic integrity to the highest extent possible. Please familiarize yourself with the meaning of academic integrity by completing SPARK’s Academic Integrity module at the beginning of the course. Breaches of academic integrity range from cheating to plagiarism (i.e., the improper crediting of another’s work, the representation of another’s ideas as your own, etc.). All instances of academic dishonesty in this course will be reported to the appropriate university authorities, and can be punishable according to the Senate Policy on Academic Honesty.

2. Turnitin

To promote academic integrity in this course, students will be required to submit their written assignments to Turnitin (via the course Moodle) for a review of textual similarity and the detection of possible plagiarism. In so doing, students will allow their material to be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database, where they will be used only for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University’s use of the Turnitin service are described on the Turnitin.com website.

3. Late policy

Assignments must be submitted on time.  No extensions will be generally granted for papers, other than in some officially documented exceptional circumstances (illness, bereavement, disability, special needs.)  Late papers will be penalized 5% per day.  There are no exceptions to this rule.

4. Copy Rights

Note that all lectures, both their content and recordings of them, are protected by copyright law:

1) the recordings should be used for educational purposes only and as a means for enhancing accessibility; 2) students do not have permission to duplicate, copy or distribute the recordings outside of the class (these acts can violate not only copyright laws but also FIPPA -Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.31); and 3) all recordings will be destroyed after the end of classes.