Module Information

Module Identifier
IP38020
Module Title
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND MODERNITY
Academic Year
2008/2009
Co-ordinator
Professor Howard L Williams
Semester
Intended for use in future years

Course Delivery

Delivery Type Delivery length / details
Lecture 11 Hours. (11 x 1 hour)
Seminars / Tutorials 11 Hours. (11 x 1 hour)
 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment Essay: 1 x 3,000 words  40%
Semester Exam 2 Hours   60%
Supplementary Exam Students may, subject to Faculty approval, have the opportunity to resit this module, normally during the supplementary examination period. For further clarification please contact the Teaching Programme Administrator in the Department of International Politics. 

Learning Outcomes

The objectives of this module are:

- to develop in students an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments of key modern political theorists
- to encourage students to evaluate critically their own views on politics in the light of the ideas of major theorists.


Brief description

A continuation and examination of the issues introduced in Year 1 Political Philosophy and Political Theory (Year 2 &3). Particular attention is paid to the Enlightenment and the issue of the nature of modernity.

Aims

The aims of this module are to take further the study of some principal texts in late modern political thought by looking closely at the main political writings of Marx, Hegel, Nietzsche, Foucault and Lyotard and to develop a critical awareness of the complexities and problems of modernity. The thinkers looked at will vary from time to time.

Content

The module will look at the ideas of civil society and state in the political theories of Hegel and Marx. Their political philosophies will be explored as accounts of the relation between individual and society, and Marx's understanding of the relation between modernity and capitalism will be critically evaluated. In the session 2007-8 the module will contrast the political philosophies of Hegel and Marx with those of the post-modernists M. Foucault and Jean-Francois Lyotard.

Transferable skills

This module will provide the opportunity for students to develop their oral, intellectual and communication skills. In the lectures emphasis will be placed on understanding, following the argument and summarizing it concisely. In the seminars emphasis will be placed on developing clear, cogent and persuasive arguments. The seminars offer the opportunity for students to show independent reasoning and judgement. Essay writing will encourage students to carry out research on their own initiative and to develop their IT presentation skills. The examination will test knowledge retention, comprehension and skills of analysis under conditions of time constraint.

10 ECTS Credits

Reading List

Recommended Text
H Williams/D Sullivan/G Matthews Francis Fukuyama and The End of History Primo search Hegel, G.W.F. (ed A.Wood) Philosophy of Right LUP Primo search Immanuel Kant (1999) What is Enlightenment in Kant's Practical Philosophy Cambridge University Press Primo search Lawrence and Wishart Karl Marx 1818-1883. Selected Works in One Volume - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Primo search

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6