Course Syllabus
Philos 290-7: Equality and Rule
URL: https://bcourses.berkeley.edu/courses/1488901
Please email kolodny@berkeley.edu to be added to the bCourses site!
To join by Zoom: https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/374690237
Thursdays, 10am-12pm
234 Moses Hall
Niko Kolodny
Email: kolodny@berkeley.edu
Office hours: Fridays, 3-4, but please sign up online for an appointment.
This seminar will work through a draft of a book in political philosophy, tentatively entitled Equality and Rule. Topics include: the justification of the state, coercion, liberalism, economic inequality, equality of opportunity, discrimination, corruption, republicanism, and democracy.
A great thing about our graduate seminars, but at times an awkward thing about them, is that they usually have two rather different kinds of participants. On the one hand, there are more advanced graduate students (and sometimes visiting scholars and faculty), who aren't taking the course for credit, who are generally familiar with the debates in general philosophical area A, and who are interested in learning more about specific subject S, or recent work on it, or the seminar convenor's take on it. On the other hand, there are beginning graduate students (and sometimes advanced undergrads), who are taking the course for credit, who are less familiar with the debates in general area A, and who are more interested in the lay of the land in A than in specific subject S, or recent work on it, or the seminar convenor's take on it.
In the case of this graduate seminar, the general area A is: political philosophy. The specific subject S is something like: my book and its preoccupations.
The assigned reading will be my book, and the seminar discussion, I presume, will be about its preoccupations. So, to this extent, the seminar is geared toward the first sort of participant: advanced graduate students.
However, I hope that this seminar can also serve the second sort of participant: beginning graduate students. If you are relatively new to political philosophy, the book will introduce you (albeit idiosyncratically and with a certain monomania) to a wide range of questions in the general area: What, if anything, can justify the state? What, if anything, justifies democracy? When, if ever, may the state interfere with bad life choices? What makes discrimination wrong? Is there any difference between not being free to do something and just being too poor to do it? Etc. My hope is that if you're taking the course for credit, you'll get interested in one of these questions. You can then explore this question further, by following up some of the work cited in the manuscript, and make it the topic of your term paper. Your term paper absolutely doesn't need to discuss my book! I hope that, in this way, the seminar can do double service as a kind of survey course in political philosophy.
Readings
The only required reading will be a 35-40-page chunk of my book manuscript each week. A PDF of each chunk will be uploaded to the syllabus one week in advance.
If you want to read ahead, or view the table of contents, here's the current draft.
There will also be some optional background reading (often very brief) by others. I stress that this is optional.
Requirements for credit
- Preparation (=reading), attendance, and active participation in seminar
- Individual meeting to discuss term paper topic
- Term paper outline of 1-2 pages
- Term paper draft of 10 pages
- Individual meeting to discuss term paper draft
- Final term paper of 15-20 pages
Provided that all of the requirements for credit are satisfied, the grade for the course will be the grade for the final term paper, in rare cases bumped up a step for exceptionally constructive engagement, or bumped down a step for significant disengagement.
Schedule
1. January 23
No reading
2. January 30
Main reading: Chunk 1, which includes:
Introduction
Ch. 1: Elements
Ch. 2: Justifying the State: Force (up through 2.5)
Optional background, including:
Rawls, A Theory of Justice, sect. 3
Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia, p. ix
Cohen, Why not Socialism? pp. 12-32
Scanlon, What We Owe to Each Other, ch. 6, sect. 2-3
3. February 6
Main reading: Chunk 2, which includes:
Ch. 2: Justifying the State: Force (from 2.6)
Ch. 3: Justifying the State: Threat
Ch. 4: Justifying the State: Loose Ends
Optional background:
Rawls, Political Liberalism, pp. 134-137
Simmons, "Justification and Legitimacy"
Raz, The Morality of Freedom, ch. 6, Sec. 4 ONLY
4. February 13
Main reading: From last time, Ch. 3 & Ch. 4.2 + new material, Chunk 3, which includes:
Ch. 5: Liberalism
Optional background:
Raz, The Morality of Freedom, ch. 14, sect. 1 ONLY; ch. 15, sect. 2-3 ONLY
No class February 20
5. February 27
Main reading: Chunk 4, which includes:
Ch. 6: Corruption
Ch. 7: Democracy: Preliminaries
Ch. 8: Democracy: Correspondence
Ch. 9: Democracy: Positive Influence
6. March 5
No new chunkage! Still trying to catch up...
7. March 12
Of the material from last time that we did not cover, let's focus on:
Ch. 7: Democracy: Preliminaries
Ch. 8: Democracy: Correspondence
(Skipping Ch. 9: Democracy: Influence)
Main new reading: Chunk 5 =
Ch. 10.1: Equal basic liberty
Ch. 10.4: Discrimination,
Ch. 10.5: Equal Treatment, by the State and by Officials
(Skipping Ch. 10.2-10.3: Formal and Substantive Equality of Opportunity)
Optional background
On liberty vs. money: Cohen, "Freedom and Money"
On discrimination: Hellman, When is Discrimination Wrong? ch. 1
On equal treatment: Scanlon, Why Does Inequality Matter? ch. 2
Schedule a meeting March 16–19 to discuss term paper topics
8. March 19
Main reading: Chunk 6, which includes:
Ch. 11: Claims Against Inferiority
Term paper outlines (1-2 pages) due March 30
9. April 2
Main reading: Chunk 6 + 7, which includes:
Ch. 10.5: Equal Treatment, by the State and by Officials
Ch. 11: Claims Against Inferiority
Ch. 12: Office
10. April 9
Main new reading: Chunk 8, which includes:
Ch. 13: Democracy, Revisited
Ch. 14: Consideration
Ch. 15: Equality as a Citizen
11. April 16
No new chunkage! Still trying to catch up...
Term paper drafts (10 pages) due April 20
12. April 23
Main reading: Chunk 8 + 9. This will be the last chunk of the seminar, since there's more than enough material for two sessions. Half of Chunk 8 + 9 is old. It's the left-over material from last time (but dropping Ch. 13 Democracy, Revisited). The other half is new. It takes material from:
Ch. 17: Reduction
Ch. 18: Neighboring Values
Ch. 19: Domination
Conclusion: Equality, not Liberty
Schedule a meeting April 27–April 29 to discuss term paper drafts.
13. April 30
Continued discussion of Chunk 8 + 9.
Term papers (15-20 pages) due May 15
Course Summary:
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