SGIA3561: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

• Any SGIA Level 1 or 2 political theory module OR any SGIA Level 2 module together with a political philosophy or political theory module from another department

• None.

• None.

• The module aims to further develop student's skills in critical normative theory through the exploration of selected issues in contemporary social and political philosophy.
• The module builds on the theoretical knowledge and skills gained at levels one and two.
• The central focus will be on exploring and applying accounts of injustice and the ethics of political action. During the course insights from normative theory will be utilised to explore and elucidate public policy problems.

• The module challenges students to think normatively and critically about public policy dilemmas.
• It introduces students to selected philosophical debates concerning social justice and the ethics of political action.
• It teaches students how to use normative theory to defend particular public policies objectives, social institutions, norms and political actions.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• During the module students should develop a strong understanding of contemporary debates in social and political philosophy. Including:
• the normative assumptions behind disagreements regarding public policy approaches and objectives.
• competing theories of social justice and accounts of what constitutes injustice.
• central approaches to ethics from moral philosophy.
• relevant methodological and meta-ethical disputes in normative theory.
• elements of the history of political thought that bear on the issues in question.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students should develop important subject specific skills, such as:
• How to use normative theories to critically evaluate public policies, political institutions and social movements.
• How to formulate reasoned arguments in favour of particular policy proposals, institutions and interventions.
• How to analyse and evaluate competing conceptions of justice.
• How to spot common fallacies and invalid reasoning in normative argumentation.
• How to plan and execute normative research projects.

Key Skills:

• Students should also enhance key skills, including:
• Project design and management at both individual and group level, the latter involving teamwork.
• Finding and retrieving appropriate resources to utilise competently and confidently in their own work.
• Basic logic and reasoning skills.
• Flexibility in applying knowledge to new areas and problems while working to deadlines.
• Effective communication of knowledge.
• Planning and completing successfully written assignments.
• Presenting work in a well-structured, clear and coherent manner.
• Using C and IT to retrieve relevant sources and present their work in an appropriate manner.

• Teaching and learning are via a combination of lectures and seminars. Lectures provide for the delivery of subject specific knowledge and enable staff to highlight key areas of dispute in the field. Smaller-group seminars enable students to explore the subject in more depth and discuss competing evaluations and assessments of the theories and debates covered in the module. They also offer an opportunity for students to structure and communicate knowledge in response to the dynamics of the class.
• Formative assessment takes the form of a participation in a team debate. The debate gives students practice at constructing arguments, as well as identifying and replying to objections, in advance of summative assessments which takes the form of argumentative essays. This formative allows students to set out their knowledge of the field as well as to develop and defend in a suitably structured and rigorous fashion a response to a set proposition. This form of formative assessment offers students an opportunity to practice the kind of skills necessary for their summative essay and to receive feedback on the development of their knowledge and understanding, and their subject specific skills. In particular, the team debate contributes to the students ability to develop new skills in normative research, it also enables students to develop their writing, reading and research skills and tests their ability to independently identify, assess and organise resources in support of a consistent academic argument, by a deadline, requiring students to take responsibility for their own learning.
• Summative assessment is in the form of one 2,000 word and one 3,000 word research essay. The essays provide an opportunity to develop research skills beyond the reading list; analysing and applying a wide-range of knowledge to produce a critical assessment of a theory or theoretical issue. They test students' ability to plan a more substantial piece of work, identifying and retrieving sources and selecting and displaying appropriate subject specific knowledge and understanding. It tests the ability to develop an extended discussion which utilises concepts and examines competing interpretation and analysis. They also develop key skills in sustaining effective written communication and information presentation to high scholarly standards.

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