Bachelor
2020/2021
Philosophy
Category 'Best Course for New Knowledge and Skills'
Type:
Compulsory course (HSE University and University of London Parallel Degree Programme in International Relations)
Area of studies:
Public Policy and Social Sciences
Delivered by:
Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs
When:
1 year, 2 module
Mode of studies:
distance learning
Open to:
students of one campus
Instructors:
Alexander Koryagin
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
4
Contact hours:
56
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This one semester course provides an Introduction to Social and Political Philosophy for first year International Relations students. The objective of the course is to familiarise the students with the main ideas and themes of Western Philosophy from the Ancient Greeks to the present day with a special focus on moral, social and political problems. The course also touches upon the ideas in metaphysics, ontology and religious philosophy, but only to extent that these conceptual areas illuminate moral and political issues. The course aims to broaden the students background to help prepare them for more advanced courses, including the second year course Modern Political Theory and third year course in International Political Theory.
Learning Objectives
- provide an introduction to the great texts of modern political theory;
- examine the meaning and justification of important concepts such as sovereignty, freedom, equality and rights;
- explore rival theoretical frameworks such as natural law, utilitarianism, egalitarianism, communitarianism and Marxism, through the analysis of classic texts;
- develop critical skills necessary to examine and assess complex theoretical arguments and assess their strengths and weaknesses;
Expected Learning Outcomes
- To characterise the key ideas of Greek thinkers from Thales to Aristotle, including: the debate around virtue, justice, truth and the possibility of rational explanation of the universe.
- To characterise the key ideas of the Renaissance; the Rationalist Tradition including the epistemological positions of Descartes; the major British Empiricists, including the epistemological positions of Hobbes and Locke.
- To characterise the key ideas of Hume and Utilitarianism, Rousseau and the French revolution. To characterise the key ideas of the European Enlightenment, primarily of Immanuel Kant, including his contributions to epistemology and moral philosophy.
- To characterise the key ideas of Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche, including their contribution to moral and political philosophy, and to the emerging tradition of Social Theory.
- To characterise the key ideas of the major philosophical movements before and after the Second World War, including Poststructuralism and Postmodernism.
Course Contents
- Classical Greek and Roman PhilosophyWhat is philosophy? Classical branches of philosophy and their relation to moral, political and social philosophy. Sophists, Skeptics and Hedonists. Plato and Aristotle.
- Early Modern PhilosophyMachiavelli, Hobbes, Descartes, Grotius and Locke. Political realism. The new science: solipsism, scepticism, mechanicism, empiricism. Cogito ergo sum and the epistemological turn. State of nature, law of nature, right of nature.
- Philosophy of the EnlightenmentHume’s criticism of the social contract (consent) theories. Rousseau’s critique of Grotius, Hobbes and Locke. Kant’s Copernican Revolution, transcendental idealism, synthetic a priori, the categorical imperative, autonomy of the will.
- Philosophy in the XIXth centuryHegel and Hegelianism: burke and the value of tradition and prejudice; master and slave; left and right wing Hegelianism. Marx and Marxism: alienation, Gattungswesen, political and human emancipation, communism; base and superstructure. Nietzsche: the genealogical approach; God is dead.
- Philosophy in the XXth centuryWeber and the Critical theory: сulture industry and mass culture, formal and substantive rationality, reification. Habermas and Post-structuralism: сommunicative rationality and the public use of reason; facts and norms. Foucault: history of systems of thought; discourse and normalising judgement; power/knowledge; governmentality; hermeneutics of the subject and care for the self.
Interim Assessment
- Interim assessment (2 module)0.3 * Essay + 0.4 * Exam + 0.3 * Seminars participation
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- A History of Modern Political Thought: The Question of Interpretation / Browning, G — Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. — 439 с. — ISBN 9780199682287. — URL: https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682287.001.0001/acprof-9780199682287?rskey=ditXGf&result=1 (дата обращения: 30.08.2019). — Текст : электронный.
- History of Western philosophy, Russell, B., 1996
- Political Philosophy : An Historical Introduction / White, M — New York: Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2012. — 442 с. — ISBN 9780199860517. — URL: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=978154&query=political+philosophy (дата обращения: 30.08.2019). — Текст : электронный.
- The Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy / Klosko, G — Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. — 856 с. — ISBN 9780199238804. — URL: https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199238804.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199238804 (дата обращения: 30.08.2019). — Текст : электронный.
- The Primacy of the Political : A History of Political Thought from the Greeks to the French and American Revolutions / Howard, Dick — New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. — 417 с. — ISBN 9780231509756. — URL: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=908511&query=history+political+thought (дата обращения: 30.08.2019). — Текст : электронный.
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Hegel: Political Writings / Hegel, G — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. — 415 с. — ISBN 9780511152108. — URL: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=202387&query= (дата обращения: 30.08.2019). — Текст : электронный.
- On Liberty / Mill, J — New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013. — 263 с. — ISBN 9780300130164. — URL: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3420105&query=mill+on+liberty (дата обращения: 30.08.2019). — Текст : электронный.
- Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds : A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, Volume 2 / Adamson, P — Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. — 455 с. — ISBN 9780191043895. — URL: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=2101590&query=Adamson%2C+Peter (дата обращения: 30.08.2019). — Текст : электронный.
- Philosophy: the Basics / Warburton, N — London: Routledge, 2012. — 200 с. — ISBN: 9781317813026. — URL: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1356359&query=philosophy+reader (дата обращения: 30.08.2019). — Текст : электронный.
- The Communist Manifesto / Marx, K — New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012. — 229 с. — ISBN 9780300123012. — URL: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3420865&query=Marx%2C+Karl (дата обращения: 30.08.2019). — Текст : электронный.
- The Social Contract and The First and Second Discourses / Rousseau, J-J — New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. — 327 с. — ISBN 9780300129434. — URL: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3420030&query= (дата обращения: 30.08.2019). — Текст : электронный.
- Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration / Locke, J — New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. — 377 с. — ISBN 9780300129182. — URL: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3420119&query= (дата обращения: 30.08.2019). — Текст : электронный.