PHIL 2345: SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORIES
DEPARTMENT
OF PHILOSOPHY
THE
Semester
II 2008-09
Course Coordinator: Dr Alexandra Cook
Telephone: 2219 4335
Email: cookga@hku.hk
Special request: Mobile
phones ought to be OFF during lectures and tutorials! Please refrain from talking while others are
speaking.
TUTORIALS:
Essay draft tutorials are mandatory; other tutorials
may be held on an as-needed basis.
INTRODUCTION:
This course introduces students to social contract theories
in Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, John
Locke’s Second Treatise of Government,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s On the Social
Contract, and John Rawls’s A Theory
of Justice.
It is crucial that you read the assigned texts. Always bring your copies of the texts to
class. Read as much as you can!
Required texts (all books are available in the HKU
book shop, Dept. library and Main Library reserve):
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (
John Locke, Second
Treatise of Government, introduction by C.B. MacPherson (Indianapolis, IN:
Hackett, 1980).
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice
(Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1971).
J.-J. Rousseau, The Social
Contract and other later political writings, trans. and ed. V.
Gourevitch (Cambridge UP, 1997).
Any other readings will be on reserve in the
Department of Philosophy, or will be supplied as handouts.
ASSESSMENT
Assessment has THREE
components:
1. Participation (30%):
(1) one or
more questions for the class posted to the class discussion board no less than
24 hours before the class; a sign-up sheet will be handed out in class;
(2)
participation in class discussion;
(3)
participation in the essay revision tutorial (see 3(a) below).
2. Quiz (25%) 12 March: short essays and/or questions on Hobbes and Locke.
3a. Essay, first version due 20 April: (mandatory, but no marks;
failure to submit will result in a ‘0’ for the essay):
Students are required to submit a draft, comment
on peers’ drafts and ATTEND the essay revision tutorial.
This first
version receives no mark and it is expected that you will revise it. The teacher and 2-3 peers shall read your
essay and comment on it in a small group discussion. Participation in this exercise counts toward
your participation grade.
Guidelines for commenting on peers’ essays will be
distributed beforehand.
**VERY IMPORTANT**: Essay drafts must be distributed
to the course coordinator and members of your tutorial group by no later than
noon, 20 April; email to peers is acceptable with their consent, BUT please
provide hard copy to the teacher.
Also VERY
important: essays must competently quote AND reference Rousseau’s writings as evidence in order for essays to achieve
a passing mark (referencing instructions will be handed out in class).
3b. Final
Essay (45%) due 7 May:
The
improvements in your revision will be taken into account in the final essay
mark.
Penalty for late submissions: 1 mark per day, including weekends
Plagiarism: unacknowledged
use of the work of others constitutes plagiarism (another word for theft of
intellectual property). You must reference your work
correctly. See guidelines posted on the
course web page and at this link: http://www3.hku.hk/philodep/ugrad/citation.php. I shall also distribute a
one-page document outlining the basics of proper referencing.
Course website:
The course
website will provide you with information, lecture notes and course handouts: http://www3.hku.hk/philodep/ugrad/courses.php.
Course discussion board:
The
discussion board is found at: http://www.hku.hk/discuspro/messages/board-topics.html;
this course is found under “
COURSE PLAN:
Part I: Hobbes: Order above all
15 January: Hobbes, Pt I, chs.
13-14
Part II: Locke: property as the basis for civil society
and the state
Locke, Second Treatise of Government, entire, esp. chs. 1-5, 7-11
Basic law of HK, http://www.info.gov.hk/basic_law/fulltext/index.htm
19 February: Locke, ch. 9-12
24 February: Locke, chs. 13-14, 19
26 February: Hobbes and Locke, conclusion
10 March: Quiz review
session
12 March:
Quiz
Part III:
Rousseau’s Political Association
17 March: On
the Social Contract (‘SC’), Book I, chs. 1, 4
19 March: SC, Book I,
chs. 6, 7
24 March: SC, Book
II, chs. 1-3, 5, 7-8, 11 (par. 1)
26 March: SC, Book
III, chs. 4-5, 15, 16
31 March: SC, Book
IV, chs. 1, 3-4, 8
Part IV: John Rawls’ just
society
2 April: Rawls, pp.11-27
7 April: Rawls, pp. 60-75
9 April: Rawls, pp. 75-90, 108-17
14 April: Rawls, pp. 136-61
16 April: Rawls, pp. 251-7, 453-62, 554-60
21 & 23
April: Essay Revision tutorials
7 May: Essays due:
congratulations—you’re done!