PER6025 - Political Philosophy

Objectives:

Assessment tasks are designed to enable students to demonstrate the Learning and Employability outcomes for the relevant level of study. Level Learning Outcomes are embedded in the assessment task(s) at that level. This enables a more integrated view of overall student performance at each level.

Content:

This module explores the fundamental philosophical concepts, arguments and debates which underpin and shape Western Politics. A range of content will be explored drawing from thinkers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle; Locke, Rousseau and Hobbes; Sartre, Kafka, and Zizek. Where possible, contemporary political issues will be analysed in relationship to these philosophical principles. This will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the theory behind political thought and action, and an awareness of the motivations and goals of contemporary political movements and events. Students will reflect on questions like: what is justice, should we have private property, do we have the right to bare arms, and what does global peace and conflict look like?

The module will encourage students to critically examine the society they live in and the assumptions that ground our assumptions about what is best. The module will do this by applying the theoretical frameworks studied to current issues in politics and society. This module will furnish students with the skills and knowledge required to examine our assumptions about core political and social themes like power and justice.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Sessions will be run in an interactive manner in order to facilitate open dialogue between students and lecturer, as well as among students themselves, and therefore there is not a strict separation between lecture and seminar.

You will be taught using LTU’s multimodal approach to teaching. Your learning will be divided into three stages:

Preparation: You will be given clear tasks to support you in preparing for live, in-person teaching. This may include watching a short, pre-recorded lecture (or other open educational resource), reading a paper or text chapter, finding resources to discuss with your peers in class, reading and commenting on a paper or preparing other material for use in class. Your Module Tutor will give you information to help you understand why you are completing an activity and how this will be built on during live, in-person teaching.

Live: All your live, in-person teaching will be designed around active learning, providing you with valuable opportunities to build on preparation tasks and interact with staff and peers, as well as helping you to deepen your understanding, apply knowledge and surface any misunderstandings.

Post: Follow-up activities will include clear opportunities for you to check understanding and apply your learning to a new situation or context. These activities will also be a source of feedback for staff that will inform subsequent sessions.

Lectures/Seminars
Hours: 24
Intended Group Size: 30

Guided independent study
Hours: 126

Further details relating to assessment
Essay: students will complete a 2,500-word essay on a question of their design (to be approved by the lecturer; this will be done in seminar sessions scheduled during the semester). Students will be expected to make a clear argument for a position on one of the questions examined in the module. They should draw on at least one text from the module but will also be expected to conduct their own independent research on the topic.

Assessment:

001 Essay; 2,500 words; end of semester 2 100%

Fact File

Module Coordinator - David Ellis
Level - 6
Credit Value - 15
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered - 6S2

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