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political science 404 & 515 Contemporary Political Philosophy: Thinking about Public Goods
winter term, 2010-11
Tuesday evenings, 6-9 pm
email: Don.Carmichael@ualberta.ca |
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This
seminar will draw on some of the principal recent works in “normative” political philosophy as a
basis for addressing questions about the possible value and meanings of
public goods and public space. The
expression ‘normative political philosophy’ is somewhat clumsy and
approximate but I use it to designate work in contemporary political theory
that addresses value questions of political life in terms that stress careful
analysis, justification, and clarity.
A great deal of this work focuses on issues of the social-democratic
liberal state (eg, freedom, equality, justice) -- but the field also includes
many radical and revolutionary theorists who reject the liberal democratic
state. The field is politically
wide-open. It is characterized by a commitment to clarity in explanation and
justification, not by political beliefs. The
course will attempt, somewhat ambitiously, to provide an overview of the
field (introducing students to the leading theorists and issues). On the
basis, the seminar will draw on Charles Taylor’ work on practical reasoning
in considering how basic goods might be valued in a political context. The
Work The
purpose of this seminar is not to ‘instruct’ students, but rather to provide
a format in which they can read and discuss some core works of the
field. Clearly, only some of the
core works can be covered. Consequently,
I invite participants to suggest revisions to the course topics and work load
as the seminar proceeds Students
taking the course for credit will be asked to do three short “positional”
papers, two during the term and one at the end of the term. One of the papers done during the
term will be discussed in the seminar. In addition all
participants (including auditors) will be expected to contribute to the
seminar discussions and to prepare for these discussions by careful reading
of the assigned material. Brief
pop quizzes (generally on the main point of the articles) will be used each
week to test and reward preparation. Readings and Texts On-line
articles will be used extensively, in addition to a course pack of readings (Pol S 404/515 course reader)
available in SUB Bookstore. The course pack contains extensive selections from Charles Taylor’s Sources
of The Self. Students may
want to order this directly (it is available in a reasonably priced paper
edition from the various on-line booksellers). 404 515 Essays: (3 @ equal weight) 70% 80% Commentary* 10% --- contributions
to the seminar** 10% 10% pop
quizzes 10% 10% * Most graduate
students will not do commentaries.
In such cases,
“contributions to the seminar” will be worth 20% *** Seminar contributions
will be evaluated by the quality of oral contributions, including
questions. One can contribute
effectively to the quality of a seminar without speaking much, or even at
all. Students who are
uncomfortable speaking in public are invited to discuss alternative forms of
seminar contribution with me. All essays should be terse, analytical, and
"positional" -- arguing a definite thesis in relation to some
aspect of the readings. Students are encouraged to develop their own views in
these essays -- eg, by contesting a specific claim made by Aristotle, or by
arguing a rival thesis on the topic, or (in certain cases) by writing a
critical response to a fellow student in the seminar. The only requirement is
that the essay argue a specific and explicitly stated thesis ("In this
essay I will argue that... "). NB: This
is a specific style of essay writing. For students (if any) who are
unfamiliar with this style, there will be a short seminar on Friday afternoon
in the first week of classes. Essay Deadlines Undergraduate students
(404) will present one of their two term papers as a seminar paper (distributed
to and discussed by the other students in the seminar). This paper will be due on the
deadlines established in the seminar (though it may be revised for grading
after that date). Apart from
this paper, essays will be due on (1)
Thurs, Feb 17th ; (2)
Thurs March 24th ; and (3)
Fri, April 22nd
. - All readings are required. Readings indicated as “web” are available online (the “on line readings” link at the course web page). All other readings are in the course pack. A rough guide to length is indicated beside each article. [*515] designates the work for special attention in
the graduate discussion section Jan 11
– Introduction and
Organizational Meeting Selections from Jencks, “Justice and Equality of
Opportunity” Jan 18 – Background:
Problems of Liberty & Democracy 40 Swift,
“Democracy” 12 Macpherson,
“Old and New Dimensions of Democracy”
8 Berlin,
"Two Concepts of Liberty" 26 Skinner, “The
Paradoxes of Political Liberty”(web) 8 illustration:
Decisions of the Supreme Court in Rodriguez v BC (euthanasia) (web) 94 Jan 25 – John
Rawls (1): The Classic Work -- A Theory of Justice 28 pp
1-28 (stop here) of Freeman, “John Rawls” in The Cambridge Companion to
Rawls (web) 20 Rawls,
selections from A Theory of Justice (sections 1-4, 11, 26) 23 Nagel,
“Rawls and Liberalism”, Cambridge Companion, 62-85 (web) 8 Barry, “Why
Equal Opportunity?” (ch 4 in Why Social Justice Matters) 79 seminar:
Riley
Maggs commentary:
Leonard Halladay Feb 1 – Criticisms
(1) : Libertarianism and Communitarianism 14 Nozick,
“Distributive Justice”
[*515] 8 Sandel,
“The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self”@ [*515] 25 pp 85-106 of
Kloppenberg, “From Universalism to Particularism” (Reading Obama, ch
2) (web) 23 Judt, selections from Ill Fares the Land 70 for
discussion in the seminar section: R. v. Sharpe
(possession of child pornography) Feb 8 – Criticisms
(2) : Capabilities and Care 3 pp
217-20 of Sen, “Equality of
What?” (web) [*515] 13 Nussbaum,
“Capabilities and Social Justice”(web) [*515] 15 pp 141-48 (ss 1-3) of Virginia Held,
“Care and Justice in the Global Context” (web) 12 Gottlieb, “The Tasks of Embodied Love” (web) 43 seminar:
Warren Beck commentary:
Riley
Maggs Feb 15 – Rawls
(2): Later Work – ‘Public Reason’ ►paper # 1 due Thurs, Feb 17th
8 Freeman,
“Public Reason”, pp 37-44 in Cambridge Companion (web) 12 Larmore,
“Public Reason”, Cambridge Companion, pp 380-91 (web) 44 pp
106-49 of Kloppenberg, (Reading Obama, ch 2) (web) Recommended:
Rawls, Justice as Fairness, A Restatement: s 9, 10, 26 (pp 26-32, 89-94) 64 seminar: Etienne Rainville commentary:
Samuel Baron Feb 22 – Reading Week Break Mar 1 – Global
Justice (1) 8 Freeman, “The
Law of Peoples”, pp 44-51 in Cambridge Companion (web) [*515] 4 Peter Singer, “The Singer Solution
to World Poverty”, (web) 16 Nussbaum, “Beyond the social contract: capabilities and global
justice” (web) [*515] 9 Nussbaum,
“Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism” 16 Nussbaum, pp 78-85 of “Towards a Globally Sensitive Patriotism” (web) 53 seminar: Bren Legault commentary: Warren Beck Mar 8 – Global Justice (2):
Rights and Human Rights 3 Carmichael,
“Rights and Human Rights” 13 Jones,
“Forms of Right” 20 Beitz,
“What Human Rights Mean” (2003) (web) 10 Pocklington,
“Against Inflating Human Rights”
(web) [*515] 10 Benhabib,
“The Legitimacy of Human Rights”
(web) 56 seminar:
Leonard Halladay commentary:
Ian Burch Part 2: -- The Good
Society: Split Sessions on Charles Taylor and ‘Public’ Values In the remaining sessions we
will work our way carefully through some of Charles Taylor’s work and also
take up issues concerning public valuation.. In the first part of each session we will discuss a short
selection by Taylor, usually for 30-45 minutes. Then we will turn to the main topic. You should see these as split
sessions: there will usually be little direct relation between the Taylor
selection and the main topic (although the hope is that such relations
will emerge over time)
Mar 15 – Arendt
57 Arendt,
“The Public and the Private Realm” (ch 2 of The Human Condition) [*515]
seminar:
Samuel Baron commentary:
Divine
Ndemeye Mar 22 – Social Goods v Market Goods ►paper # 2 due Thurs, March
24th 18 Taylor,
Sources of the Self, sections 1.1 - 1.3, and 1.5 (pp
3-14, 19-24) 12 Taylor,
“Irreducibly Social Goods”, pp 127-30, 137-45 (web) [*515] 16 Sandel,
“Limits of Markets” (lecture 1: pp 89-105) (web) 56 Recommended:
Sandel, “Limits of Markets” (lecture 2) (web) seminar: Aaron Aitken commentary: Bren Legault Mar 29 – Equality, Market Choice and Public Goods21 Taylor,
Sources of the Self, sections 2.2 and 2.3 (pp 32-52) [*515] 11 Chaoulli
v Quebec (Supreme Court decision on private health insurance) (web) 24 Barry,
“Education” (s 5, pp 46-69 in “Equality of Opportunity”) 46 seminar:
Gillian Wasney commentary:
Etienne Rainville Apr 5 – Multiculturalism 13 Taylor,
Sources of the Self, section 3.2 (pp 63-75) 14 Taylor,
“The Politics of Recognition”
[*515] (web) 14 Kymlicka,
“Freedom and Culture” (web) 15 Barry,
on Kymlicka and Taylor (The Politics of Multiculturalism, pp 279-84 and
308-317) (web) 56 seminar:
Ian Burch commentary:
Gillian Wasney Apr 12 Religion
and Spiritual Aspiration vs Liberal Values and Public Citizenship: a problem? 28 Taylor,
Sources of the Self, sections 3.3, 4.1 and 4.2 (pp 75-103) 11 Rawls
on public reason: Justice as Fairness, A Restatement: ss 9, 10, 26 (pp 26-32,
89-94) 39 review:
readings on Rawls’ ‘public reason’ 515
students: Sources of The Self, ch 25 (26 pp) (web)
[*515] Recommended:
pp 197-47 of Kloppenberg, (Reading Obama, ch 3) (web) Recommended:
Sources of The Self, ch 25 (26 pp) (web) Recommended:
Petit, The Contribution of Analytic Philosophy (web) seminar:
Divine
Ndemeye commentary:
Aaron Aitken ► essay # 3 due: Friday, April 22nd |
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