PY437-5-SP-CO:
Modern Social and Political Thought
2022/23
Philosophy
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 5
Current
Monday 16 January 2023
Friday 24 March 2023
15
20 May 2022
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BA LV25 Philosophy and Politics,
BA LV26 Philosophy and Politics (Including Placement Year),
BA LV2H Philosophy and Politics (Including Foundation Year and Year Abroad),
BA LV2M Philosophy and Politics (Including Year Abroad),
BA LV8M Philosophy and Politics (Including Foundation Year),
BA V5M8 Philosophy with Human Rights (Including Foundation Year),
BA V5M9 Philosophy with Human Rights,
BA V5MX Philosophy with Human Rights (Including Year Abroad),
BA V6M9 Philosophy with Human Rights (Including Placement Year),
BA VLM8 Philosophy with Human Rights (Including Foundation Year and Year Abroad),
BA V5L5 Philosophy, Ethics and Sustainability,
BA V5L6 Philosophy, Ethics and Sustainability (Including Foundation Year),
BA V5L7 Philosophy, Ethics and Sustainability (Including Placement Year),
BA V5L8 Philosophy, Ethics and Sustainability (Including Year Abroad)
This module will introduce students to key debates in modern social and political thought, through a close examination of seminal texts by Thomas Hobbes, Baruch de Spinoza and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
The module will give students a deeper understanding of our intellectual and socio-political history, as well as a more profound perspective on the still active debates stemming from the positions taken by these philosophers – principally, concerning the nature of freedom, power, and democracy, and the role of the state.
Questions we will be considering include: from where does the state get its authority? Is democracy a natural form of political organisation for humans? Does the state encroach upon our freedom, or make us free? Is inequality an inevitable consequence of society?
We will analyse critically the different answers given to these questions by Hobbes, Spinoza and Rousseau, and consider whether their philosophical accounts of the state and society provide us with a useful means of engaging with contemporary social and political issues.
The aims of this module are:
• to appreciate the key contributions that Thomas Hobbes, Baruch de Spinoza and Jean-Jacques Rousseau have made to our modern understanding of society and politics.
• develop an understanding of key political concepts like democracy, authority, sovereignty, freedom, power, equality and tolerance and the ability to critically scrutinise different conceptualisations of these ideas.
• to develop and understanding of the extent and the ways in which these modern conceptual innovations still shape contemporary political life.
• to be able to assess whether and how these conceptual innovations can still underpin social and political critiques of contemporary society.
By the end of the module students should be able in their written and oral work:
• to summarise in their own words and critically assess the philosophical ideas and concepts at work in the main texts examined the course;
• to explicate the central social and political theories presented in these texts, and relate them to important political events in historical period in which they were written;
• to compare and evaluate these social and political theories, making use of selected secondary literature;
• to demonstrate an understanding of the influence these theories have on our contemporary understanding of politics, making reference to contemporary political phenomena and/or theory.
By the end of the module, students should also have acquired a set of transferable skills, and in particular be able to:
• define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant;
• seek and organize the most relevant discussions and sources of information;
• process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments;
• compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure;
• write and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications;
• be sensitive to the positions of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to them;
• think 'laterally' and creatively - see interesting connections and possibilities and present these clearly rather than as vague hunches;
• maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position if shown wrong;
• think critically and constructively.
Incoming Study Abroad students must have already taken an introductory module in Philosophy at their home institution.
1 x 2-hour lecture and discussion session each week, followed by a one-hour discussion seminar at which issues covered in the lecture will be discussed. Week 21 is a Reading Week.
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Essay Plan (700 Words) |
|
25% |
| Coursework |
Essay (2000 Words) |
|
50% |
| Practical |
Presentation |
|
25% |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Mr Plamen Andreev, email: pa17811@essex.ac.uk.
phiquery@essex.ac.uk
Yes
Yes
Yes
Dr Josiah Saunders
Durham University
Associate Professor
Available via Moodle
Of 27 hours, 25 (92.6%) hours available to students:
2 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
Philosophy
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