Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

To introduce students to prominent schools of thought and representative thinkers in contemporary political philosophy.

To provide students with a thorough knowledge of a range of arguments drawn from this literature on important political issues around equality, diversity, and inclusion.

To advance the ability of students to analyse and assess complex normative arguments.

To help students improve their skills in developing sustained, logically coherent, and persuasive written arguments.

Outline Of Syllabus

This module explores questions about how the social and political world ought to operate, with a particular focus on equality, diversity, and inclusion. It considers questions such as: Ought we to restrict hate speech? Should we use affirmative action policies? Should we have a basic income? What kind of leave should be offered to parents? Should minority groups be granted exemptions from the law when it conflicts with their cultural or religious beliefs? The module examines such questions by considering prominent literature in normative political philosophy and exploring how to employ the tools of political philosophy to evaluate the merits of conflicting viewpoints with the aim of developing arguments about what a defensible account of justice requires.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

•       Knowledge of theories and perspectives on aspects of equality, diversity, and inclusion advanced by a range of prominent contemporary thinkers
•       Knowledge of the core disagreements between these theorists, particularly in terms of the foundational normative values and the political views they defend.
•       Knowledge of methods and arguments employed to reason about the plausibility of moral values.
•       Knowledge of how moral values can be used to support substantive conclusions on important political topics, such as liberty, dignity, discrimination, equal opportunities, multiculturalism, and distributive justice.

Intended Skill Outcomes

•       The ability to identify and explain the main tenets of the work of prominent theorists of justice.
•       The ability to break down their views into component parts, separating normative and empirical premises and identifying how they are connected to derive conclusions.
•       The ability to reason logically about the validity of the premises and arguments of these views.
•       The ability to construct sustained arguments about major political values and defend them against alternative views.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The function of lectures is to provide students with an overview of topics, introduce them to the main thinkers studied on the module, and elaborate on these matters in response to questions.

Small group teaching provides students with the opportunity to discuss and debate the issues with their peers, to deepen their knowledge through exchange of ideas about set readings, and to further understanding by raising questions.

A scheduled week on assessment planning (including a lecture and small group teaching) and an end-of-module assessment surgery will support students deploying what they have learned in their assignments and to ask any questions about how to do so.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Both forms of assessment are designed to encourage students to verse themselves in the relevant reading material, present lines of disagreement and debate, and consider how particular positions can be systematically defended and criticised. The essay is used to ensure students can take a specific topic and work through it in considerable depth, while the exam provides a scenario in which students have been pushed to build a knowledge of the various topics on the module that can be recalled and applied in a set timeframe.

General Notes

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