Spring 2020 PHIL-P145 30745 Liberty and Justice

Course Overview

In this class, we will investigate many fundamental questions in the discipline known as social and political philosophy about the nature of political states and our relationship to them, the justice of a state’s laws and practices, and the liberties that societies should foster, defend, or preserve. The course is broken up into three main parts:

The State and Its Laws. In our first part, we will take a journey through some classics in political philosophy to raise its most fundamental questions. We will start with works by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke which seek to explain what justifies our living under a state rather than under what they call a state of nature. In doing so, we will examine questions such as: what justifies a state? What rights do individuals have, if any, independent of a state? What is rational for individuals to do? What underlies human motivation? We then consider the thought from Locke that the justification of a state or its practice depends in some sense on a contract between individuals, and criticisms by David Hume of this idea. Then, we will consider the question: what justifies our following the laws, even if or when we disagree with them? We will look at somewhat different answers from Plato and Martin Luther King, Jr. As we will see, King tells us that “an unjust law is no law at all.” But what makes a law just? We will close this part of the course by studying two competing general answers from Jeremy Bentham and John Rawls.

Questions of Justice. In this second part of the course, we will focus more closely on John Rawls’ views in order to zero in on important questions about justice. We will first focus on his views on distributive justice – his views on what counts as a just distribution of goods and resources. We will then look at libertarian and egalitarian views on distribution which oppose Rawls’. In doing so, questions about the justice of capitalism and socialism will come up. We will also examine issues of racial and gender justice and injustice and consider whether or not we can explain them given the resources of Rawls’ work.

Liberty and the Individual. A common thread through our readings in the first and second parts of the course is that individual liberty is of fundamental importance.  John Stuart Mill takes this thought quite seriously, arguing in effect that the only justification for interference in individual liberty is to prevent harm to others. So, in the third part of the course, we will look at Mill’s book On Liberty in close detail. In defending the liberty of individuals, Mill defends very strong freedom of speech protections and the view that individuals have a substantial amount of freedom to live life as they see fit. We will critically examine Mill’s views and see if alternative views on the liberty of the individual and freedom of speech in particular are defensible, and how those views mesh with an emphasis on tradition and morality in society from a (roughly speaking) conservative perspective. We will then test Millian ideas about liberty and freedom of speech in particular by looking at the case of pornography from a (roughly speaking) feminist perspective.

Schedule as planned before COVID-19 required changes

Part 1: The State and Its Laws

Week 1: Jan 14th and 16th: Introduction and Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, excerpts

Week 2: Jan 21st and 23rd: The State and the State of Nature 

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, excerpts.  John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, Chapter II

Week 3: Jan 28th and 30th: The State, Rights, and the Social Contract

Locke continued, Second Treatise on Government, Chapter VIII, Sections 95-100. The Declaration of Independence. David Hume, “Of the Original Contract.”

Week 4: Feb 4th and 6th: When Should You Follow the Law?

Plato, “Crito.” Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Paper 1 on Civil Disobedience assigned

Week 5: Feb 11th and 13th: What Makes for Just Laws?

Jeremy Bentham, “Principles of Morals and Legislation,” selections. John Rawls, “Justice as Fairness,” 1957 paper. Paper 1 on Civil Disobedience due

Week 6: Feb 18th and 20th

Rawls and Bentham continued, review for Exam 1. Thursday: Exam 1

Part 2: Questions of Justice

Week 7: Feb 25th and 27th: Rawls’ Theory

Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Re-statement, Chapters 1 and 2

Week 8: Mar 3rd and 5th: Libertarian Distributive Justice and Capitalism

Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, selections. Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, selections.

Week 9: Mar 10th and Mar 12th: Egalitarian Distributive Justice and Socialism

G.A. Cohen, Why Not Socialism?, selections. Paper 2 on Distributive Justice assigned

Spring Break

Week 10: Mar 24th and 26th: Racial Justice

Charles Mills, “Retrieving Rawls for Racial Justice? A Critique of Tommie Shelby.” Tommie Shelby, “Racial Realities and Corrective Justice: A Reply to Charles Mills.” Paper 2 on Distributive Justice due

Week 11: Mar 31st and April 2nd: Gender Justice

Susan Moller Okin, Justice, Gender, and the Family, selections.

Part 3: Liberty and the Individual

Week 12: April 7th and April 9th: Mill and the Liberty Principle

John Stuart Mill On Liberty, Chapters 1 and 2

Week 13: April 14th and April 16th: Freedom of Speech

Mill On Liberty, Chapter 2. continued. Joel Feinberg, The Offense Principle, selections. Paper 3 on Free Speech assigned. 

Week 14: April 21st and April 23rd: Freedom of Speech and Living: Offense and Tradition

Mill, On Liberty, Chapters 3, 4 and 5, selections. Paper 3 on Free Speech due. Lord Devlin, “The Enforcement of Morals.” 

Week 15: April 28th and April 30th: Freedom of Speech and Living: Pornography

Jennifer Hornsby and Rae Langton, “Free Speech and Illocution.” Review for Exam 2.

Final Position Paper due noon Monday May 4th 

Final Exam: 2:45-4:45 p.m., Mon., May 4