Political Philosophy (Level 5)

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 5
• Convenor: Professor Robert Northcott
• Assessment: a 1000-word essay (40%) and 1500-word essay (60%)

What is the best way to organise society? What form of government is best? What should be the role of social institutions?

In this module, we consider a range of issues around these core themes, and the thousands of years of discussion of them. These issues may include central concepts, such as power, liberty, justice, the state, democracy and freedom of speech, as well as political ideologies, such as liberalism, socialism, conservatism and others. 

Indicative syllabus

• Defining democracy
• Justifications of democracy
• Liberalism and democracy
• Majority rule
• Freedom of speech
• Deliberative democracy
• Epistocracy
• Political ignorance

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate detailed knowledge of well-established accounts of democracy (such as majority rule and self-government) and liberalism (such as political and cosmopolitan liberalism)
• demonstrate an awareness of different ideas, contexts and frameworks deployed by contributors to debates over democracy and liberalism, and recognise some of their strengths and weaknesses
• analyse and compare different justifications of democracy and liberalism, including instrumental justifications and appeals to political equality and rationality
• select appropriate criteria to evaluate philosophical accounts of the relationship between democracy and such concepts as majority rule, deliberation and self-government; and between liberalism and such concepts as scepticism and autonomy.