The Political Animal

6 ECTS credits
150 h study time

Offer 2 with catalog number 1020812AER for all students in the 1st semester at a (A) Bachelor - preliminary level.

Semester

1st semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Possible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Taught in

Dutch

Faculty

Faculty of Languages & Humanities

Department

Philosophy - Moral Sciences

Educational team

Emiliano Acosta (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

25 contact hours Lecture
14 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
130 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

In this course, the most relevant political theories in the history of philosophy from Antiquity to the present are discussed, with a focus on the human concept that underlies these theories. The guiding principle of the course is the originally Aristotelian concept of man as a political animal where language plays a decisive role.
The following topics will be discussed in the lectures:
- political ontology;
- tension between philosophy, politics and religion;
- theories of government and political subjectivity;
- legitimacy of violence and power;
- social contract, sovereignty and recognition;
- the relationship between freedom, equality, happiness and justice as principles of the state;
- political, legal and economic cosmopolitanism;
- consensus and agonal democracy;
- liberal democracy and populism;
- gender and biopolitics.
The following authors will be discussed during the course:
- Philosophy of Antiquity and Middle Ages: Protagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Al-Farabi;
- Early modern and Enlightenment philosophy: More, Machiavelli, Grotius, Hobbes, von Pufendorf, Spinoza, Locke, Anderson and Rousseau;
- Modern philosophy: Kant, Burke, Paine, Godwin, Schiller, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Marx;
- 20th century and contemporary philosophy: Foucault, Rawls, Habermas, Laclau, Mouffe, Butler and Preciado.

Course material

Digital course material (Required) : Readings, documents for practical exercises, slides, Canvas
Digital course material (Recommended) : Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://plato.stanford.edu/ and Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://www.iep.utm.edu/category/value/political/, https://plato.stanford.edu/ and Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://www.iep.utm.edu/category/value/political/

Additional info

Attendance to the lectures is strongly recommended, since there is no handbook as support for the lectures.

Attendance to the practical exercises are compulsory, since these are the evaluation moments.

Facilities for exchange students, non-Dutch native speakers and students who have applied for special facilities.

Learning Outcomes

General competencies

1. Students can explain and express with their own words the similarities and differences between the views of democracy of Protagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant, Fichte, Marx, Habermas, Laclau, Mouffe and Foucault.

2. Students can explain and express with their own words the similarities and differences between the views of the relationship between religion and politics in Plato, Al-Farabi, Hobbes, Spinoza, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx and Habermas.

3. Students can explain using the technical termonology and with their own words the similarities and differences between the theories discussed in the lectures about recognition, sovereignty and social contract with the authors' terminology.

4. Students can explain with their own words and the terminology of the discussed philosophers the central arguments of consensus theory, the theory of hegemony and the notion of agonal democracy with the terminology of these philosophers.

5. Students can explain and express with their own words the central arguments of contemporary theories of gender and biopolitics with the terminology of the respective philosophers.

6. Students can analyze short philosophical texts in group and make a report og their discussion and outcomes.

7. Students can reproduce arguments of the philosophers discussed during the lectures in individual written assignments in a clear and terminologically correct manner

8. Students can explain the concept of the political animal using as example one of the philosophers discussed in the lectures.

9. Students can reproduce the content of the lectures in the seminars and apply them critically and idiosyncratically to current political debates and issues.

10. Students can evaluate each other in a sincere way.

11. In their interventions during the seminars and in the individual written assignments, students show a critical, reasonably idiosyncratic, open and cosmopolitan attitude with interest in free research.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
LEC Paper determines 30% of the final mark.
PRAC Teamwork determines 20% of the final mark.
PRAC Practical Assignment determines 30% of the final mark.
PRAC Report determines 20% of the final mark.

Within the LEC Paper category, the following assignments need to be completed:

paper with a relative weight of 30 which comprises 30% of the final mark.

Note: Four short individual papers (max. 1500 words) on the content of the lectures

Within the PRAC Teamwork category, the following assignments need to be completed:

group work with a relative weight of 20 which comprises 20% of the final mark.

Note: Peer assessment

Within the PRAC Practical Assignment category, the following assignments need to be completed:

active participation with a relative weight of 30 which comprises 30% of the final mark.

Note: Participation on the octavian discussions

Within the PRAC Report category, the following assignments need to be completed:

report on discussion with a relative weight of 20 which comprises 20% of the final mark.

Note: Four reports on group discussion and outcomes of the discussion

Additional info regarding evaluation

The final grade results from the individual papers (30% of the grade), active participation in the practical exercises (30%), reports group work (20%), peer assessment group werk (20%).

Evaluation for the second session exam period: individual papers (20% of the grade), written examen consisting of open questions about the content of the lectures and literature used in the practical exercises (80%).

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context