| CODE | PHI3062 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Virtue Politics and Communitarianism | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Philosophy | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Both virtue politics and communitarianism emphasize the importance of community and shared values in the political realm. While virtue politics places a specific focus on the moral character of individuals, and in particular political leaders, the position of communitarianism is that of achieving a balance between individual rights and communal responsibilities in order to achieve a just society. Study-Unit Aims: The aim of this study-unit will be to articulate and explore the interconnections between virtue politics and the political views held by communitarian philosophers. This will serve to help students understand society as an interconnected web of relationships where one must speak not only of public goods but also of common goods. It will also help students see the relevance and importance of virtues in the public political sphere. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - investigate a communitarian position is a response to neo-liberal and utilitarian political views - analyse how virtue politics are a response to monadic, individualistic, self-interested views of human political behaviour - evaluate how communitarian and virtue political views could together speak to contemporary political and economic spheres 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - articulate an understanding of virtue politics which can speak to the contemporary philosophical scene - defend a communitarian view that could be comprehended and appreciated by contemporary political praxes - articulate interconnections between virtue politics and communitarianism Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Hankins James, Virtue Politics Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy, Harvard University Press 2023.. - Pabst Adrian, Postliberal Politics: The Coming Era of Renewal, Polity, 2021. - Sandel, M., Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition, 1998. - Snow, Nancy (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Virtue, New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Supplementary Readings: -Blond Philip, Red Tory: How the Left and Right have broken Britain and how we can fix it,, Faber and Faber 2010. - Calhoun, Cheshire, 2000, “The Virtue of Civility,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 29 (3): 251–275. - Dworkin, R., 1989, “Liberal Community”, California Law Review, 77: 479–504. - Foot, Philippa, 1978, Virtues and Vices, Oxford: Blackwell. –––, 2001, Natural Goodness, Oxford, Clarendon Press. -Glasman Maurice ,Blue Labour: The Politics of the Common Good, Polity 2022. - Nussbaum, Martha C., 1990, “Aristotelian Social Democracy,” in R. Douglass, G. Mara, and H. - Richardson (eds.), Liberalism and the Good, New York: Routledge, pp. 203–52. –––, 1993, “Non-Relative Virtues: An Aristotelian Approach,” in The Quality of Life, Martha C. Nussbaum and Amartya Sen (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 242–70. –––, 2006, Frontiers of Justice, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. - Rogers, Tristan, 2020, “Virtue Ethics and Political Authority,” Journal of Social Philosophy, 51: 303–321. - Sandel, M., 1998, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition. –––, 1996, Democracy’s Discontent, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. - Slote, Michael, 1993, “Virtue Ethics and Democratic Values,” Journal of Social Philosophy, 14: 5–37. - Smith, Nicholas R., 2017, “Right-Makers and the Targets of the Virtues,” Journal of Value Inquiry, 51: 311–326. –––, 2018, “Right Action as Virtuous Action,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 96: 241–254. - Snow, Nancy, 2010, Virtue as Social Intelligence: An Empirically Grounded Theory, New York: Routledge. - Taylor, C., 1999, “Conditions of an Unforced Consensus on Human Rights”, in The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights, J. R. Bauer and D. Bell (eds.), New York: Cambridge University Press. - Walzer, M., 1994, Thick and Thin, Notre-Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. –––, 1983, Spheres of Justice, Oxford: Blackwell. |
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| LECTURER/S | Mark Sultana |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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