Political Philosophy (PHIL 370.001)

This course is an advanced discussion of central topics and arguments in political philosophy. We’ll examine contemporary debates in political philosophy on the topics of justice, liberty, equality, liberal neutrality, democracy, rationality, human rights and methodology in political theory. Before we get there, we’ll spend, at least, the first half of the course carefully examining selected arguments from (1) key figures in the social contract tradition (Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau), (2) the classical liberal tradition (Adam Smith and J.S. Mill), (3) Karl Marx’s critique of political economy, and (4) John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice.

Daniel Moseley’s webpage