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 161-046 Political Philosophy

Note

Formerly available as 161-443. Students who have completed 161-443 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Credit Points

12.5

HECS Band

1

Coordinator

Prof C A J Coady

Prerequisites

Admission to the Postgraduate Diploma or Fourth Year Honours in Philosophy.

Semester

1 (view timetable)

Contact

A 2-hour lecture/seminar per week

Subject Description

The subject examines difficult questions of ethics and morality raised by the phenomena of violence, particularly that awesome and wholesale deployment of violence known as war. Yet such is the extraordinary nature of war (in spite of its age-old familiarity) that many doubt whether morality can apply to it at all. In this course we shall examine this scepticism and the classical tradition of the just war to see what moral outlook (if any) is appropriate to the employment of major political violence. Topics will include the nature of violence, terrorism, mercenary war, the ideal of peace, humanitarian intervention, and weapons of mass destruction.

Assessment

Written work totalling 5000 words.



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