Advanced Political Philosophy:
Violence, Political Action & Justice
Thomas
Bowen
|
I. |
Course Prefix |
Course Number |
Course Name |
Credit |
Lecture |
Lab |
|
|
PHL |
290 |
Topics in Philosophy: Advanced Political
Philosophy |
3 |
3 |
0 |
Honors or instructors consent
Students will be able to:
·
read
and critique major philosophical works
·
assess
the relevance of philosophical works to their own lives and contemporary social
problems
·
demonstrate
their understanding through philosophical writing and through class
participation
·
subject
their own views and the views of others to rigorous philosophical examination
Students and employees at
· cheating,
· plagiarism (turning in work not
written by you, or lacking proper citation),
· falsification and fabrication (lying
or distorting the truth),
· helping others to cheat,
· unauthorized changes on official
documents,
· pretending to be someone else or
having someone else pretend to be you,
· making or accepting bribes, special
favors, or threats, and
· any other behavior that violates
academic integrity.
There are serious consequences to violations of the academic
integrity policy. Oakton’s policies and procedures provide students a fair
hearing if a complaint is made against you. If you are found to have violated
the policy, the minimum penalty is failure on the assignment and, a
disciplinary record will be established and kept on file in the office of the
Vice President for Student Affairs for a period of 3 years.
Details of the Code of Academic Conduct can be found in the
Student Handbook.
This
course explores the question of violence, its role in political life and its
relation to conceptions of justice. It brings together a wide,
interdisciplinary and rather eclectic collection of readings to fuel our thinking
on this broad and difficult topic. One of the problems we shall repeatedly
revisit is how we should ask the “question of violence.” The following outline
of topics sketches a provisional path through the readings and issues that I have
encountered in my own explorations of this topic. Also listed are tentative
dates for the journal collections, short papers, research papers, and mid-term
and final exam (don’t be alarmed—see the Method of Evaluating Student Progress
below).
This course is structured primarily as a seminar. One of the
key objectives of this course is for participants to share their careful, clear
thinking about the readings, ideas, topics, and themes developed over the
course of this seminar with one another.
Participants are expected to attend every class. Do the
readings with care and reflection, and participate in the course
discussion—asking questions, posing interpretations, answering questions posed
by other participants, etc.
Violence and its Alternatives: An
Interdisciplinary Reader, eds. Manfred B. Steger and Nancy S. Ling. (St. Martin’s Press, 1999
(2008)).
The above
text contains the majority of the readings we will be doing in the course. It
was not ordered through the Oakton bookstore, so must be purchased outside of
Oakton. Amazon.com carries the book and usually delivers within a few days
(new: $44, used from $10—though used books often take longer to arrive). The
Seminary Co-op also carries the book and will ship it to people. (Seminary
Co-op: http://semcoop.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp;
phone: 1-800-777-1456.)
Finally,
all other readings will be provided by the instructor. As of now, however, it
looks as if we will be reading selections from the following texts if you are
interested in purchasing them directly:
“Violence and the Word,” (from Narrative, Violence and the Law: The Essays of Robert Cover),
Robert Cover
Society Must Be
Defended
(selections), Michel Foucault
Precarious Life (selections), Judith Butler
“Imitation and Gender Insubordination” (from Inside Out), Judith Butler
Giving an Account of
Oneself
(selections), Judith Butler
“Five Faces of Oppression,” (from Justice and the Politics of Difference), Iris Marion Young
“Ethics as First Philosophy,” “Substitution,” (The Levinas Reader) Emmanuel Levinas
“Freedom & Command,” “Humanism & An-Archy,” (Collected Philosophical Papers) Emmanuel
Levinas
I must stress that there is reason to believe we may not be
able to read the full scope of the material outlined here. So, while I
recommend the texts above as general reading, you may want to forgo purchasing
them until we have a better sense of how much we can accomplish.
Course participants who are interested in receiving a grade
and credit for the course will be evaluated on the following basis:
20% of the final grade will be based on participation in
class discussions. As noted above, this course will depend a great deal on
participation and discussion. Thus it is absolutely essential that everyone
come to class having read the material and thought carefully about it. Every
day each participant will be responsible for responding to the readings, for
answering questions, for posing their own questions about the reading, and for
engaging with questions from other students.
You will be graded on your participation in class
discussion. Every class each student will receive an A, B, C, or F for their
participation in the discussion. The grades will be assigned as follows:
“A” – You always respond clearly and thoughtfully to the
readings, as well as questions and ideas posed by your colleagues, such that
you demonstrate a high level of engagement with the texts and your peers. You
also consistently raise interesting questions about the material. Finally, you
creatively link your interpretations, questions, and ideas to specific passages
or images in the text(s), as well as make significant connections between
texts, writers and themes under discussion to contemporary issues involving
justice, political action and violence.
“B” – You respond thoughtfully to the reading, such that you
demonstrate significant engagement with the texts and your peers. You raise
some interesting questions about the material and generally are able to link
your interpretations, questions, and ideas to specific passages or images in
the text(s), as well as make relevant connections between texts, writers and
themes under discussion to contemporary issues involving justice, political
action and violence.
“C” – You respond to some questions and participate in
activities, but fail to demonstrate that you have read and prepared for class
very carefully. You have difficulty raising interesting questions about the
material and cannot clearly link your interpretations, questions, and ideas to
specific passages or images in the text(s), nor are you able to make meaningful
connections between texts, writers and themes under discussion to contemporary
issues involving justice, political action and violence.
“F” – You cannot respond to questions or participate
meaningfully in activities, such that you clearly demonstrate a lack of
engagement with the texts and your peers. You fail to raise interesting
questions based on the course materials, or you do not speak at all during
class.
Please note: you will receive an “F” for
participation for any class from which you are absent (independently of the
reason for your absence), and you cannot receive more than a “B” for any class
to which you arrive late or from which you leave early. Anyone who must miss a
class for religious reasons can request an extra-credit assignment to make up
the lost grade.
Each participant interested in receiving a grade/credit for
the course can choose from the following options in assigning the remaining 80%
of their grade.
Basic
requirements: one entry for each day of the course (14 days). Each entry should
be a thoughtful reflection on the readings and discussions that we have done in
the class, at minimum. Each entry should be no less than 2 typed pages. They
will be collected at the mid-term and final classes, or as requested.
Basic
requirements: the idea here is to prepare a selected text for discussion. The
week before the text is to be discussed you should hand out a list of
reading/discussion questions. On the day of discussion you will start of the
discussion of that text. Finally, a one page summary of your thoughts about the
text should be turned in to the instructor.
Basic
requirements: students will complete an in-class exam (taken in the testing
center) that covers the material discussed and read during the first part of
the class. The mid-term will be an essay exam with 3-4 questions.
Basic
requirements: students will complete an in-class exam (taken in the testing
center) that covers the material discussed and read during the second part of
the class. The final will be an essay exam with 3-4 questions.
Basic
requirements: these should be short (4-6 pages) essays that deal with specific
issues, questions, themes that arise from the readings or topics under
discussion. They should not require any extra reading or research. The instructor
will provide suggestions for topics/questions to which the participants should
respond. These papers should display college level writing skills. A schedule
of due dates will be provided for those interested in writing short papers.
Basic
requirements: talk to me about this---particularly if you want it to count for
the remaining 80% of your grade.
Participants must decide the distribution of the remaining
80% of their grade by Feb. 3rd. They must turn in the signed form
(see below). The choice is final and cannot be revised.
|
Example One Participation: 20% Journal: 30% Short Papers: 2 @ 25% = 50% |
Example Two Participation: 20% Journal: 20% Text Presentations 2 @ 10% = 20% Final Exam: 40% |
Example Three Participation: 20% Short Papers: 4 @ 20% = 80% |
A. Disabilities
If you have a documented learning, psychological, or
physical disability you may be entitled to reasonable academic accommodations
or services. To request accommodations or services, contact the ASSIST office
in the
B. Discrimination
The Oakton Community College Catalog states:
In keeping with this policy of tolerance and
non-discrimination, in this class all of us (myself included) should strive to
listen and give careful consideration to all ideas expressed in class,
especially those that are different from our own, without attacking or
demeaning the people who have those views.
We should also strive to avoid using insulting terms or telling
offensive jokes when talking to or about individuals or groups.
C. Instructor
information
·
Office
and office hours: 2807 (tba)
·
Phone
(847) 376-7084
·
Email
and website tbowen@oakton.edu & http://www.oakton.edu/user/~tbowen/