University of Stirling

Philosophy

Current Students: Undergraduates

 

Core modules and Options at Level 10

PHI9PH Politics, Law and Society

In this course we investigate some basic questions in legal and political philosophy, including: what is the nature of law? What human rights might we have? Should there be special rights for minorities? Can a state ever justly go to war? When is civil disobedience morally justified?

 

Reading

The textbook is: Aileen Kavanagh and John Oberdiek (eds), "Arguing About Law", Routledge, New York, 2009. It is worth purchasing a copy of this book (paperback - not the expensive hardback), as the library's copies are also used by the law faculty and may be hard to get hold of. If you want to save some money, a good idea is to share one copy between two or three classmates.

There will also be a coursepack of readings that you should purchase from the departmental office.

Availability:

 Honours semester 6/8, BA in Philosophy or the General degree

Prerequisite:

 PHI9CA or PHI9CB

Assessment:

Coursework (one required essay) 50%; examination (3 questions in 3 hours) 50%. Students may choose to submit a second essay to improve their coursework grade.

Teaching Pattern:

 Each week there will be two one-hour lectures and one one-hour seminar

Regulation:

For the purposes of the University’s attendance regulation 14, seminars are prescribed classes. The rationale for prescribing these classes may be found in the Philosophy Student Handbook, section F. This section also contains regulations relating to the submission of essays, and other matters.

 

If you would like to know more about this module please contact Simon Hope.