Admission requirements
Admission to (one of) the programme(s) listed under Part of in the information bar on the right.
Description
Many of the most pressing challenges of our time are global. Examples include poverty, climate change, refugee crises, financial and economic crises, the rise of nationalist movements, and terrorism.
Most agree that these challenges require global solutions. But the quest for solutions is fraught with disagreement. Much disagreement is about what constitutes effective and efficient solutions. Thinking through such disagreement is primarily a task for the natural and social sciences. But, often, what on the surface seems to be a technical disagreement turns out, upon reflection, to stem from a deeper moral disagreement about the nature of the problem and the justice of the solutions. Thinking about the moral problems associated with these challenges is primarily a task for philosophy. Philosophy can help us make the underlying issues explicit; it can also help us in assessing the comparative moral desirability of the different solutions and the associated moral cost.
Contemporary political philosophy has for the most part focused on problems that arise within political communities such as nation-states. But the global challenges we face raise unique problems. And, over the past two decades or so philosophers have been dedicating sustained and increased attention to the implications that globalization has for political theorizing.
This course explores some of the key philosophical debates that deal with topical global challenges. This is a broad remit that we will explore by investigating analytic and continental philosophical contributions to thinking about a number of highly contentious ‘problems’ of our time, such as mass migration, cultural appropriation, the limits of free speech, justice between generations, global justice, historical injustice and reparations, national collective responsibility, minority rights, political activism, and cultural relativism.
Course objectives
Students who successfully complete the course will be able to:
critically evaluate philosophical contributions on the interplay and tensions between identity, culture and community, and with respect to particular contentious ‘problems’ of our time;
contribute successfully and constructively to class discussions that advance the group’s understanding of complex issues;
research an important problem in the area of the course; identify an appropriate philosophical approach to framing and addressing it, systematically develop and justify an answer of their own;
provide constructive peer feedback on writing to fellow student and successfully incorporate peer and instructor feedbck on intermediate writing stages.
Timetable
The timetables are available through MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar.
Assessment method
Assessment
Participation and intermediate writing assignments 50%
Final paper 50%
Weighing
The final mark for the course is determined by the weighted average of the grades for each assessment.
Resit
The resit consists of 1) a paper proposal (20%) and 2) a 10.000 word research paper (80%), replacing all other elements of the final grade. Students who have obtained a satisfactory grade for the first examination cannot take the resit.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Will be made available to the students on Brightspace.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the information bar on the right.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga.