Political Philosophy

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2025-2026/W_BA_PP

Course Objective

At the end of this course, the student has achieved the following goals: Knowledge and understanding: 1. Knowledge and understanding of the contemporary political and political-philosophical landscape: you are able to recognize the most important viewpoints/political ideologies within contemporary political philosophy and the contemporary political landscape, you can indicate the core convictions of each of them and how each ideology relates to the other ones. 2. Philosophical analysis: you can identify and understand the underlying presuppositions of the various schools of thought and critically analyze these presuppositions. 3. Getting acquainted with "famous texts": for each movement you can indicate why a particular text fragment from the tradition of political philosophy is typical or foundational for a particular political-philosophical movement. 4. Analysis of current ‘hot topics’ in the public-political sphere: you will study a number of current social themes and learn to recognize how different schools of thought think about these issues. You will also learn to formulate and argue your own point of view, in an interdisciplinary context with students from other VU-faculties. Skills: 5. Learning to identify key points in the study material: every week you write a short reflection on readings. 6. Debating skills: a round of debates is held every week in which we try to determine the 'solving potential' of a particular school of thought for an urgent social problem. You will make a brief analysis of this problem on the basis of internet, newspapers and magazine articles and statistical data and you will learn to introduce the results of your analysis briefly and (hopefully) convincingly in a debate. 7. Dialogue and reflection: In the VU-wide Broader Mind Course associated with this course you learn to approach personal and social themes from various disciplinary perspectives, to reflect on them and to discuss these themes with students from very different disciplinary and cultural backgrounds.

Course Content

Political philosophy or political theory (often used interchangeably) deals with hot topics in today’s society. Together we explore the ideas and visions that people use when designing, redesigning or assessing the way their society is organized. In this course you get to know the most important past and contemporary ideologies within the modern political spectrum, such as liberalism, socialism, feminism, ecological thinking. We also look
- particularly during the lectures
- at the historical-cultural background of these ideologies: where do they come from, what are the core ideas? And we practice as well public debates, and reflecting on your own opinions, together with people from very different backgrounds. Listening is as important as talking. This is partly done in the lectures, partly in the university-wide Broader Mind Course, which is associated with this course. We always try to do this in an informed, academic way: arguments are key. But in the selection of arguments political ideologies are important maps for people. In the past, from Plato, but certainly in modern times, all kinds of ideas and visions have been formed that inspire people and on which people rely on in dealing with issues in society. The course has two parts. The main part will be offered in Period 1. Next to this you will participate, with your philosophical background acquired in Period 1, in the university-wide offered Broader Mind Course, which is organized in the spring (period 4 and 5, in total 40 hours), in which you will meet students from all faculties of the VU and together work on and discuss themes that focus on personal development and societal challenges (and the relations between those). Through a smart mix of online assignments and carefully scheduled meet-ups is the Broader MInd Course organized in such a way that it can be very well combined with other courses. In the main course, we will study poltical ideologies and apply these already to current societal issues as well as to some themes that will be discussed as well in the Broader Mind Course. What do the various political ideologies have to say on inequality, on climate change, on abortion rights, on drugs use, on education? You may self choose the topic that you want to explore and discuss. them. Discussions will take place as 'talkshows'.

Teaching Methods

In Period 1: Watching videoclips on the main materials, class discussions and collective readings, debates/talkshows. The Broader Mind part consists of 'blended learning': online assignments, to be fullfilled at a time of your own choosing, and offline meetups in interdisciplinary groups of 25 students, working together on experience-based learning assignments. In total the Broader MInd part will take about 40 hours, over 4 months, so about 2,5 hours per week, no activities in exam periods. If for certain reasons it really is not possible to take the Broader Mind Course in the Spring, there is a special Autumn group that can take this course simultaneously the current couse in the first semester.

Method of Assessment

Written assignments and participation in talkshows (both: pass/ fail), meant to practice goals 4,5, 6Written exam that will determine your grade (Goals 1,2,3)Broader Mind certificate which will validate your grade (achieving goals 4,6,7)

Literature

Key reading is Andrew Heywood, Political Ideologies. An Introduction. London: Palgrave Macmillan (7th edition)
- almost the entire book. fragments of "classical" texts or source texts of a certain ideology. (on Canvas)

Target Audience

BA2-students Philosophy, track English

Additional Information

If you want to have a preview of the Broader Mind Course, see https://vu.nl/en/student/extra-challenge/broader-mind-course

Recommended background knowledge

It may help when you have already taken the introductory Ethics Course and the course on social & cultural philosophy but this is not a formal entry requirement.