PHIL 238 - Social and Political Philosophy

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

We are dominated as workers, indigenous people, women and non-men, and people subject to an environmental crisis. But, we might ask: how should we understand these relations of power and our role in them? Are we merely subject to power, or is power something that we, too, create? This course is an introduction to social and political philosophy through a focus on different modes of power (state power, bodily power, and economic power to name a few). Through close engagement with Michel Foucault and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as feminist and postcolonial figures like Judith Butler, David Scott, and Angela Davis, we come to better understand the relationships between power, agency, and resistance. Shivani Radhakrishnan.

Prerequisite(s): One 100-level course in Philosophy.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS