Philosophy

Political Philosophy II

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Political Philosophy II PHIL/HIST/PSCI 0815 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Seminars History Philosophy Political Science Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

Each seminar runs only subject to sufficient student demand. This seminar explores western political thought at a crucial period in its development, between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. It centres on readings from key texts in political thought, informed by consideration of the wider historical and intellectual context. Among the major themes of the era were the religious strife generated by the Reformations, the intellectual aspiration for rationality, and the increasingly intensive governments developed by western European states, including their colonial ventures. (Foreign language texts are read in English translation: there is no language requirement for this course.)

Sample Syllabus

The Renaissance background
More and Erasmus
Reformation Political thought: Luther & Calvin
Jean Bodin
Thomas Hobbes
John Locke
David Hume, Political Essays
Adam Smith
Voltaire, Political Writings
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality and The Social Contract

Augustine of Hippo

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Augustine of Hippo RELI 0050 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials History Philosophy Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

This course examines the life and thought of one of the giants of Western Church, Augustine of Hippo (died 430). Born into a landowning family in Roman Africa, Augustine had the upbringing of his class, including a period as a member of the Manichean sect, various relationships, and a glittering career as a professor of rhetoric. After a mystical experience and under the influence of Bishop Ambrose of Milan, Augustine converted to Catholic Christianity, becoming a bishop within ten years just as the Roman Empire was noticeably disintegrating. His surviving works cover a huge range from doctrinal theses, sermons and Biblical exegesis to attacks on heretics and his Confessions (which has been hailed as the first Christian autobiography). The subtlety, power and timing of his writing ensured that Augustine was profoundly influential in every age of the Western Church from his day to this.

Sample Syllabus

‘Christian Autobiography’: The Confessions
Living the Christian Life: Augustine’s Rules
Philosophy and True Happiness: The Happy Life
Expounding the Gospel: Homilies on the Gospel of St John
Teaching the Preachers: On Christian Doctrine
Refuting Heresy: Against the Donatists
Loyalties: The City of God against the Pagans
Hipponiensis: The Long Shadow of Augustine

Introductory Reading

Chadwick, H., Augustine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986
Brown, P., Augustine of Hippo: a Biography . London: Faber, rev’d edn, 2000
Bonner, G., St Augustine of Hippo: Life and Controversies. Norwich: Canterbury Press, 3^rd edn, 2002
Markus, R.A., Saeculum: History & Society in the Theology of St Augustine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2^nd edn, 1988
Augustine, Confessions. Many translations, including by H. Chadwick, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 etc.
Augustine, Concerning the City of God against the Pagans. Many translations, including by H. Bettenson, London: Pelican, 1972 etc.
Augustine, On Christian Teaching. Many translations, including by R.P.H. Green, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997

Nineteenth-Century Political Thought

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Nineteenth-Century Political Thought PSCI 0060 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials History Philosophy Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

The legacy of nineteenth-century political thought is long and enduring, having shaped the contours of twentieth and twenty-first-century political theory and practice. This course examines nineteenth-century political thought. It explores how the advent of democracy, and the competing visions of it, shaped fundamentally the preoccupations of nineteenth-century political thinkers defining the way they understood concepts such as equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, tyranny, and revolution.

Sample Topics:

Benjamin Constant, Political Writings

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

J.S. Mill, On Liberty

J.S. Mill, Subjection of Women

Robert Owen, A New View of Society

G.W.F. Hegel, Elements of Philosophy of Right

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Enlightenment Political Thought

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Enlightenment Political Thought PSCI 0050 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials History Philosophy Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

The legacy of Enlightenment thinkers has left an indelible mark on Western political thought. This course aims to introduce students to the main intellectual and political currents of the Enlightenment. It begins with an analysis of philosophical and political rationalism. It examines debates pertaining to concepts such as rights, obligations, power, progress, refinement, liberty, equality and political sovereignty. It traces the development of political ideas and practices through the eighteenth century and shows how Enlightenment political thought served as the impulse to the political radicalism of revolutionary Europe.

Sample Topics:

David Hume, Political Essays

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

Denis Diderot, Political Writings

Voltaire, Political Writings

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

J.-A.-N.C. Marquis de Condorcet, Sketch on the Progress of the Human Mind

Immanuel Kant, What is Enlightenment?

Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Renaissance Political Thought

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Renaissance Political Thought PSCI 0040 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials History Philosophy Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

This course presents a detailed historical survey of political thinking in the Renaissance. It was during this period that many important and influential political concepts, such as virtue, liberty, equality, power, republics, kingship, and tyranny began to assume the forms that remain familiar to us today. The course analyses the philosophical underpinnings of those concepts, their historical contexts and development, and their changing constellations.

Sample Topics

Dante Alighieri, Monarchy

Marsilius of Padua, Defender of the Peace

Leonardo Bruni, The New Cicero

Coluccio Salutati, On Tyranny

Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier

Francesco Guicciardini, Dialogue on the Government of Florence

Nicolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Nicolo Machiavelli, The Discourses

Ancient and Medieval Political Thought

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Ancient and Medieval Political Thought PSCI 0030 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials History Philosophy Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

This course explores the development of western political thought from its Greek foundations through to the late Middle Ages. A historical overview of the progress of central political concepts is allied to a close reading of particular authors, with reference to the ways in which political thought related to broader philosophical, cultural and religious concerns.

Sample Topics:

Plato, Republic
Aristotle, Politics
Cicero, De Re Publica, De Legibus
Augustine, City of God
John of Salisbury, Policraticus
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae
Dante, De Monarchia
Marsilius of Padua, Defensor pacis

Classical Political Thought

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Classical Political Thought PSCI 0020 / CLAS 0020 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials Classics History Philosophy Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

This course covers the political thought of the ancient world, from Classical Athens to the Roman Empire. This period saw the formulation of fundamental elements in political thought: the state, justice, citizenship, notions of democracy, aristocracy and monarchy, and the concept of politics in itself. At the end of the period, Augustine of Hippo integrated elements of classical political thought into his Christian theology. Key thinkers are explored with reference to their historical and intellectual context.

Sample topics

Plato, The Republic

Plato, The Laws

Aristotle, Politics

Epicurean political thought

Cicero’s political thought (On Duties and other texts)

Seneca’s political thought

Augustine, The City of God

Western Political Thought

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Western Political Thought PSCI 0011 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials History Philosophy Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

This course explores central themes in the history of western political thought, from Plato to Rousseau. It focuses on the major works by key thinkers. This allows key themes (such as justice, the nature of the state, citizenship, and the role of religion) to be explored across the long-term development of western political thought.

Sample topics:

Plato, The Republic

Aristotle, Politics

Augustine, City of God

Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

Machiavelli, The Discourses

Hobbes, Leviathan

Locke, Two Treatises of Civil Government

Rousseau, The Social Contract

Jurisprudence

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Jurisprudence PHIL 0220 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials Philosophy Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

Jurisprudence demands thinking in an analytical and critical way about the nature and the importance of legal norms, legal institutions, and legal reasoning. This course provides students with an opportunity to read some contemporary classics in jurisprudence, and use them to reflect upon foundational questions about law. In particular, the structure of the course requires students to read all the chapters, and the Postscript, of H.L.A. Hart’s The Concept of Law – one of the most important works of 20th century legal philosophy.

The reading list and the essay questions are devised to help students to critically engage with Hart’s three “three recurrent issues”: (i) how does law differ from, and how is it related to, orders backed by threats?; (ii) how does legal obligation differ from, and how is it related to, moral obligation?; and (iii) what are rules and to what extent is law an affair of rules?

The eight tutorials focus on the following connected topics: (1) Laws and commands; (2) Law and coercion; (3) Law and the internal point of view; (4) The foundations of a legal system; (5) Hard cases and judicial discretion; (6) Theoretical disagreements about law; (7) Law and morality; and (8) What is law?. The order of the tutorials is designed to facilitate students’ reflection upon the interplay between specific problems of jurisprudence and the so-called “methodology problem” in jurisprudence.

Philosophy of Mind

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Philosophy of Mind PHIL 0170 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials Philosophy Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

Philosophers of mind explore the nature of mental phenomena and the relationship they bear to the rest of reality. This course considers a variety of theories about the relation between the mind and body, as well as philosophical issues concerning the nature of consciousness, perception, imagination, emotion and intentionality. Alongside this there is an opportunity to consider epistemological questions, such as: how do we acquire knowledge of other people’s minds? Do we have privileged knowledge of our own minds?

Sample reading:

Quassim Cassam, ed., Self-Knowledge (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994)

David Chalmers, The Conscious Mind (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)

Tim Crane, Elements of Mind (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)

René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy

John Heil, Philosophy of Mind: A Guide and Anthology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)

Anthony Kenny, Action, Emotion and Will (London: Routledge, 1963)