SYLLABUS

PHILOSOPHY 190R

SEMINAR ON JOHN RAWLS’ A THEORY OF JUSTICE

FALL 09

 

INSTRUCTOR: Clifford Anderson

OFFICE: Mendocino 3018               PHONE: 278-7289

EMAIL: andersonce@csus.edu       WEBSITE: www.csus.edu/indiv/a/andersonc

PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OFFICE: Mendocino 3000   PHONE: 278-6424

OFFICE HOURS: MTW 10:30-11:30 AM and by appointment.

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Before Rawls’ published his landmark work, A Theory of Justice in 1971, the field of political philosophy had been in the doldrums for quite some time.  Rawls’ work revitalized it.  He shifted the focus of the subject (in English-speaking countries at least) away from the then-dominant utilitarian tradition to a more kantian, social-contract basis for a legitimate liberal state.  For Rawls, the primary responsibility of the state is not to maximize public happiness or well-being as the utilitarians maintain, but to ensure justice. Other questions Rawls addresses are: Would a highly egalitarian society have to sacrifice too much personal liberty?  Would people be rewarded in proportion to their merits?  Can justice be achieved in a capitalist free-market economy?  What would a truly democratic society require of the citizenry beyond simple majority rule?                                                                                                                                    

 

Our task will be to work through Rawls’ great work.  It is a lengthy (500 pages), densely argued work; more than enough to occupy us for fifteen weeks.  For the student who wants to understand contemporary political philosophy, Rawls’ work is the place to begin.

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING:                                                            Three take-home writing assignments on the readings and class discussion.  70%         One outside paper on a topic in Theory of Justice.   20%                                                        The remainder of the grade (10%) will be based on class participation in the discussions as well as a brief (approx.15 minute) oral presentation on some particular aspect of Rawls’ work.                                                                                                                    Departmental guidelines for writing assignments in a philosophy course are available at http://www.csus.edu/phil/req/grading.htm.

 

TEXT:  John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, rev. ed.  Cambridge, Harvard U. Press

 

APPROXIMATE ORDER OF READINGS: 

 

Weeks 1 &2: Chapter I.  Justice as Fairness

Weeks 3 & 4: Chapter II.  The Principles of Justice

Weeks 5 & 6: Chapter IV.  Equal Liberty

Weeks 7& 8: Chapter V.  Distributive Shares

Weeks 9 & 10: Chapter III..  The Original Position

Week 11: Chapter VI.  Duty and Obligation

Week 12: Chapter VIII.  The Sense of Justice

Week 13: Chapter VII.  Goodness As Rationality

Week 14: Chapter IX.  The Good of Justice

Week 15: Overall summary of Rawls’ achievement.

 

The sequence of readings is approximate both because the hindrance of furlough days may slow us down a bit and secondly, because many chapters cross-reference other sections of the book that we will need to explore.

 

There is an immense secondary literature on Rawls’ work, some of which I will be commenting upon over the course of the semester.  If you want to follow through on a given issue in Rawls, or just to get a different slant on things, one of the best places to start is any of three very helpful encyclopedias of philosophy that have articles on most aspects of justice theory:                                                                                                   The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu,

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/ ,                              The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy  ref B51.R68 (in the main library).