Master 2020/2021

Political Ethics

Category 'Best Course for Career Development'

Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'

Category 'Best Course for New Knowledge and Skills'

Type: Elective course (Politics. Economics. Philosophy)

Area of studies: Political Science

Delivered by: School of Politics and Governance

Where: Faculty of Social Sciences

When: 1 year, 4 module

Mode of studies: offline

Instructors: Boris Kapustin

Master’s programme: Политика. Экономика. Философия

Language: English

ECTS credits: 5

Contact hours: 28

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course introduces students to philosophy with a special focus on issues in moral and political philosophy. Topics will include discussion of moral issues related to modern forms of interaction between politics and morality, key political problems in terms of moral values, and the moral nature of power.

Learning Objectives

• To explicate the distinctiveness of political morality in its tension-ridden relationships with “morality as such” (sometime slabeled as “private morality”) and political ethicsperse.
• To present a cognitive map of the field of contemporary discourse over political morality and to bring to light the strength sand weakness of the major theoretical approaches to it.
• To elucidate a distinction between morality as a set of principles where by politics can be normatively assessed (in one way or another) on one hand and political morality as a guiding light of actual political activities on the other, that is, between a kind of morality, which evaluates and instructs politics, and a different kind of it, which works “inside” politics.
• To define and locate the aforesaid distinction on the two levels of moral reflections on politics – that of the “spectator” and that of the “actor” (political agency).
• To trace the implementation/manifestation of political morality in actual political practices and strategies ,such as anticolonial struggles, civil disobedience, revolutionary dictatorships, etc., which will serve as the “case studies” for testing the validity of the theoretical insights into the “nature” of political morality discussed hitherto.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Advancement of the students’ grasp of ethics by means of connecting theoretical ethics with applied ethics.
• Augmentation of the students’ knowledge of contemporary philosophy through their exposure to the contemporary debates over political morality.
• Enhancement of the students’ ability to pursue a “problem-oriented” rather than a “method-driven” strategy of research (as it can be applied to the ethical quandaries, riddles and dilemmas o fpolitics).
• Intensification and enrichment of the students’ awareness of the ethical dimension of political life and furtherance of their ability to critically and independently form their theoretical and practical position in relation to it.
• Improvement of the students’ analytical and polemical skills in matters of ethical judgments and ethical-political discourse.

Course Contents

• Choice, Morality, Justice and Normativity
  The sources of normativity. Theoris of normativity. The structure of norm. Principles and Rules. The difference of ancient and contemporary approach to normativity. Rationality, Law, Custom and Morals. Ethics. The meaning of Ethics and Morality. Ethical Theory, General Ethics and Individual Ethics. The History of Morality. The Sociology of Morality. The Psychology of Morality. The stages of moral growth. Moralism, Immoralism, Amoralism. Morality and Human nature. Ethical skepticism. Teleological Ethics. Consequentialism. Utilitarianism. Hedonism. Deontology. Kant’s categorical imperative. Virtue Ethics. Morality and Rationality. Rights and Duties. Metaethics. Theories of Metaethics. Naturalism. Emotivism. Universal Prescriptivism. Intuitivism. The nature of moral concepts. Good and Evil. Moral Relativism. Sentimentalism. Political Ethics. The problem of political justice. Violence. Political Duty. War, terrorism, revolution and genocide. Applied Ethics. Theories in Applied Ethics. Theory of Justice. Just War Theory. Justice. The Ethics of Justice and individual perfection. Mutual aid. Cooperation. Equality. Morals and Politics. Rules, Norms and Principles. Happiness. Self-realization.
• Reason and Rationality. Racing and Roulette. Gambling and Insurance.
  Choice and desire. Reasonableness. Patterns of choices. Choice menu. Prizes. Joint choice. Reasonable choices. Conditions of reasonableness. Pair wise choices. Contraction condition and expansion condition. Preference relation. Rational choices. Revelation condition. Preference ordering. Transitivity. Utility. Ordinal utility. Utility maximization. Framing paradox. Game under uncertainty. Gambles. Degenerate gambles. Compound gamble. Probability gambles. Jumps in preference. Continuity condition and substitution condition. The concept of expected utility. Cardinal utility. Allais paradox. State gambles. Subjective expected utility. Full subjective expected utility. State dependent subjective utility. Ellsberg paradox. Nozick’s paradox. Attitudes to risk. Expected value and certainty equivalent. Fair gambles and favorable gambles. St. Petersburg example.
• Game theory. Conflict and cooperation.
  The general idea of the game. Common knowledge and mutual knowledge. Plausible response. Chain of reasoning. Individual rationality versus collective rationality. The concept of domination. Undominated actions and dominated actions. Iterative deletion of dominated actions. Sustainable action. Nash equilibrium.
• Democracy and dictatorship
  The settings of group choice. Acceptable constitutions. Borda rule. Independence condition and neutrality condition. Unanimity condition. Responsiveness condition. Reasonable constitutions. Anonymity condition. Majority rule. Patriarchy. Rationality and dictatorship. Independence and unanimity of the dictatorial constitution. Arrow theorem. Impossibility of rationality, independence, unanimity and non-dictatorship.
• Bargaining and justice
  The general ideal of rational normativity. The critique of moralism. The justice of amoralism The foundations. The maximizing theory of rationality. Utility, value, preference satisfaction. The situation of choice. Rational choice theory and game theory. Rational bargaining theory. Parametric and strategic choice. Optimality of the bargain. Prisoner’s dilemma. State of nature, market and cooperation as the stages of justice. Market as morality-free zone. Free riders and parasites as the inevitable actors on the free market. The injustice of the free market. The injustice of the factor rent and the critique of Nozick. Cooperation. The principle of maximinimal relative concession. The principle of constrained maximization. The ban on improving your situation by worsening the situation of others. Freedom and equality as the fundamental prerequisite for cooperation. The conceptions of Society and Individual. The theory of progress as the movement from natural individual to economical individual and the to liberal individual. The interiorization of the societal values by liberal individual. Practical problems for the theory. It works only within the liberal culture. Any other society is risking to be plunged even deeper in anarchy by trying to apply the principles of Gauthie.
• Utilitarianism, social choice and justice
  The conception of justice of the classical utilitarianism. Bentham on utility and hedonism. Welfairism and Consequentialism. The ideal of Equality. Psychological hedonism and the principal of the maximum happiness for the greatest number. Axiological hedonism. Mill on justice, utility and rights. Act utilitarianism and Rule utilitarianism. The role of distributive justice. Utilitarian nature of socialism. The utilitarian transformation of the liberal idea. The critique of the classical utilitarianism. The further transformation of utilitarianism in the works of Moore and Sidgwick. The conception of justice of the utilitarianism of the rational preference satisfaction. Desire, preference, value and utility. Hare and the idea of the utility of preference satisfaction. Pareto optimality. Kaldor-Hicks efficiency. The utility of economical interaction. Harsanyi. Utility and rational choice theory. Liberal critique of the utilitarian justice. Utilitarianism does not take into consideration the mode of distribution of goods. It does not consider the differences of the individuals. It does not consider the nature of the satisfied desire. Intuitively unacceptable practical results of utilitarian recommendations. The advantages and drawbacks of the utilitarian justice. Utilitarianism as a practical philosophy of radical reforms. The law of the reduction of the final value. Utilitarianism as a champion for social equality. Utilitarianism and game theory. Negative utilitarianism.
• Egalitarianism, social choice and justice
  Hypothetical choice and the curtain of ignorance. The basic social institutions as the subject of justice. The methodology of Rawls. The method of hypothetical contract. Reflective equilibrium. Rational choice theory. Rational autonomy of the parties. Maximin strategy. The principles of justice. Equal liberty. Difference principle and fair equality of opportunity. The institutes of the just society. Three stages of justice. Principles, constitution and legislation of justice. The problems of economical justice. Two principles of justice and the problem of stability. The just society as a stable society. The right and the good and the principle of Aristotle in the implementation of social justice. Deontology of right and teleology of good in a unique balance of two principles of justice. The criticism. The criticism of the method of the hypothetical contractualism. Utilitarianism of Rawls. The practical advantages of the theory and the possibility of its implementation.

Assessment Elements

• Сlass work
• Research paper
• Oral exam
  Экзамен будет проходить с асинхронным прокторингом. На платформе Эразмус.
• Сlass work
• Research paper
• Oral exam
  Экзамен будет проходить с асинхронным прокторингом. На платформе Эразмус.

Interim Assessment

• Interim assessment (4 module)
  0.25 * Сlass work + 0.5 * Oral exam + 0.25 * Research paper

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Allingham, M. (2002). Choice Theory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.b.oxp.obooks.9780192803030
• Hare, R. M. (1981). Moral Thinking : Its Levels, Method, and Point. Oxford: OUP Oxford. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=273471
• Rawls, J. (1999). A Theory of Justice (Vol. Revised edition). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=281860
• Waller, B. N. (2014). Consider Ethics: Pearson New International Edition : Theory, Readings, and Contemporary Issues (Vol. Third edition, Pearson new international edition). Harlow, Essex, England: Pearson. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1418926

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Aristotle. (2019). Nicomachean Ethics (Vol. Third Edition, third edition). [N.p.]: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=2241981
• Fukuyama, F. (2011). The Origins of Political Order : From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution. London: Profile Books. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=nlebk&AN=590165
• Harsanyi, J. C. (1986). Rational Behaviour and Bargaining Equilibrium in Games and Social Situations. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.b.cup.cbooks.9780521311830
• JOHN STUART MILL. (2017). Utilitarianism. [S.l.]: BookRix. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1469830