Prof Emmanuel Voyiakis

This course is available on the BA in Anthropology and Law, BSc in Philosophy and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (with a Year Abroad), BSc in Politics and Philosophy and LLB in Laws. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is available to General Course students.

The course aims to introduce students to philosophical thinking about the justification of state authority and coercion, to familiarise students with the main methodological, conceptual, and normative issues in the study of political obligation, to provide students with knowledge of some of the most influential political philosophers and their theories of the state, to encourage and enable students to think critically about the role of ideas such as consent, natural rights, or associative obligation following ideas in justifying political authority, and to help students to develop advanced reasoning skills by training them in abstract, philosophical arguments. The themes that the course covers include: anarchism; libertarianism; perfectionism; the consent or social contract tradition; the associative obligation tradition; and democratic and critical (Marxist) theories of the state.

This course will have a minimum of two hours of teaching content each week in Winter Term in the form of a lecture (every week) and one hour class. This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Students will be expected to write one essay in the term.

Students are provided with outlines and readings for topics discussed. For some introductory and background reading see: Simmons A.J., Moral Principles and Political Obligations (1980); Klosko, Political Obligations (2005); Wolff, In Defense of Anarchism (1970); Nozick R., Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974); Rawls J., Political Liberalism (1993).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes) in the spring exam period.