Syllabus: Course Description

Liberalism has long been the dominant theoretical tradition in contemporary political philosophy in both North America and Europe. It is therefore unsurprising that liberalism has been the subject of severe criticism. In this course we will explore: 1) some of the major theoretical and cultural origins of modern liberal theory; 2) some of the foremost work in contemporary liberal theory; and 3) some of the most influential and troubling criticisms of liberalism that have been voiced over the past few decades. For (1) we will begin with a brief tour through the most important sections of John Stuart Mill’s (1806-1873) classic On Liberty. For (2) we will focus primarily on John Rawls’s (1921-2002) political liberalism and we will also spend a little time with works representative of Friedrich Hayek’s (1899-1992) free-market liberalism and Richard Rorty’s (1931-2007) pragmatist liberalism; the idea is to gain a solid understanding of the breadth of liberal theory as it informs contemporary political discourse across the spectrum from Left to Right. For (3) we will consider Michel Foucault’s (1926-1984) genealogical criticisms of certain assumptions which have been made about liberalism as well as Iris Marion Young’s (1949-2006) influential feminist criticisms of certain aspects of liberalism. We will stick mostly to the primary texts, but I will also make useful secondary readings available online for those who are interested. Primary books (Mill’s On Liberty, Rawls’s Justice as Fairness, Young’s Justice and the Politics of Difference, and Foucault’s Discipline and Punish) are available at the Literary Guillotine while other readings will be available on eRes.