The Best references for this course are Jean Hampton’s Political Philosophy (Boulder (Colorado): Westview Press, 1997), Will Kymlicka’s Contemporary Political Philosophy (Oxford [etc.]: University Press, 2nd ed. 2002), and Adam Swift’s Political Philosophy: A beginner’s guide for students and politicians (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2014). The first two of these are advanced introductory works that provide in-depth explorations of a few central issues in the field, yet they are suitable for graduate students with little or no background in normative political philosophy as well. Nevertheless, students with limited background may find it useful to consult, in addition, textbooks aimed at a more beginners’ level, such as David Miller’s Political Philosophy: A very short introduction (Oxford University Press, 2003). Another general introduction of a very basic but broad nature and with general coverage of almost all current problems of political philosophy is Parvin, P., & Chambers, C. (2012). Political philosophy: a complete introduction (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2012).

Learning outcomes	Study programme competences / results
Students will be able to improve their analytical skills and improve their ability to reason logically about normative problems in the field of politics.	A3 A4 A7 A8 A10	B7	C2 C4
Students will be able to understand, identify, characterise and evaluate different theoretical positions and arguments and construct their own normative arguments.	A4 A7 A10	B7	C2 C4
Students will be able to familiarise themselves with the most important problems and theoretical approaches that concern contemporary political philosophy	A2 A3 A4 A7 A10	B7	C2 C4
Students will be able to understand, present and criticise basic philosophical arguments on the problems discussed, helping them to relate these arguments to real problems and situations.	A3 A4 A7 A8 A10	B7	C2 C4

Topic	Sub-topic
UNIT 1.	What is Political Philosophy?
UNIT 2.	Basic Concepts.
	2.1. Liberty
	2.2. Equality
	2.3. Democracy
	2.4. Political obligation (& justifying civil disobedience)
UNIT 3.	Justifying/Arguing Models In Political Philosophy
	3.1. Utilitarianism: J.S. Mill
	3.2. Justice As Fairness (Equity). John Rawls (I) Political Liberalism. John Rawls (II)
	3.3. Criticism of Rawls (1W). Libertarianism (Robert Nozick) Communitarism (Michael Sandel)
	3.4. Other approaches: Multiculturalism (AA.VV.) Feminism (AA.VV.)
UNIT 4.	New Debates
	4.1. Global Justice
	4.2. Intergenerational Justice

Methodologies / tests	Competencies / Results	Teaching hours (in-person & virtual)	Student’s personal work hours	Total hours
Introductory activities	A2 A3 A4 A7 A8 A10 B7 C2 C4	2	0	2
Guest lecture / keynote speech	A4 A7 A10 C2	40	18	58
Workbook	A4 A7 A8 A10 C2 C4	5	10	15
Supervised projects	A2 A3 A4 A7 A8 A10 B7 C2 C4	5	30	35
Workshop	A7 A8 C2 C4	10	10	20
Document analysis	A2 A3 A4 A10 C2 C4	5	10	15

Personalized attention		5	0	5

(*)The information in the planning table is for guidance only and does not take into account the heterogeneity of the students.

Methodologies	Description
Introductory activities	Questionnaires and previous informal evaluation activities on basic knowledge of political philosophy and knowledge of philosophy in general.
Guest lecture / keynote speech	Development of the units in face-to-face teaching through the support of presentations that will be made available to students at the end of each unit. All the material exhibited is based on the research work of the professor in charge of the subject.
Workbook	Review and comment on the presentations of the thematic units provided by the teacher as well as the compulsory and/or recommended secondary bibliography
Supervised projects	Progressive and monitored responses to the control exercises at the end of each unit, previously provided to students along with the supporting unit presentations.
Workshop	Discussion and preparation of a short individual written task after viewing and jointly commenting on a film with political-philosophical content.
Document analysis	Reading, analysing and commenting on original texts by the authors and/or political thought models studied with the students on this subject. In the case of texts that were not originally written in English, students will also try, as far as possible, to work with original versions of the texts in order to familiarise themselves at least fundamentally with the original terminology.

Methodologies	Competencies / Results	Description	Qualification
Guest lecture / keynote speech	A4 A7 A10 C2	Development of the units in face-to-face teaching through the support of presentations that will be made available to students at the end of each unit. Students are expected to attend these face-to-face and/or virtual sessions regularly (at least 60%), except in justified or regulated cases.	25
Supervised projects	A2 A3 A4 A7 A8 A10 B7 C2 C4	Progressive and monitored responses to the control exercises at the end of each unit, previously provided to students along with the supporting unit presentations.	50
Workshop	A7 A8 C2 C4	Discussion and preparation of a short individual written task after viewing and jointly commenting on a film with political-philosophical content.	25

Assessment comments
Students are expected to read all required readings and come to sessions well prepared to ask questions and make comments based on the readings. In addition to the basic graded activities specified, there will be weekly exercises that test students' understanding of the readings and expositions, their ability to distinguish between normative, empirical, and conceptual claims, and to recognise and evaluate premises, conclusions, and inferences of arguments. Performance on these exercises is not graded, but participation is mandatory, and absence will result in a reduction in the participation component of the grade.

Basic
	The Best references for this course are Jean Hampton’s Political Philosophy (Boulder (Colorado): Westview Press, 1997), Will Kymlicka’s Contemporary Political Philosophy (Oxford [etc.]: University Press, 2nd ed. 2002), and Adam Swift’s Political Philosophy: A beginner’s guide for students and politicians (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2014). The first two of these are advanced introductory works that provide in-depth explorations of a few central issues in the field, yet they are suitable for graduate students with little or no background in normative political philosophy as well. Nevertheless, students with limited background may find it useful to consult, in addition, textbooks aimed at a more beginners’ level, such as David Miller’s Political Philosophy: A very short introduction (Oxford University Press, 2003). Another general introduction of a very basic but broad nature and with general coverage of almost all current problems of political philosophy is Parvin, P., & Chambers, C. (2012). Political philosophy: a complete introduction (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2012).
Complementary
	There are other very interesting works, although of a more global and specialised nature, such as: Goodin, R. E., & Pettit, P. (1993). A companion to contemporary political philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell. Bird, C. (2010). An introduction to political philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wolff, J. (2006). An introduction to political philosophy. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. Smith, P. M. (2008). Moral and political philosophy: key issues, concepts and theories. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Estlund, D. M. (2012). The Oxford handbook of political philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press. Knowles, D. (2004). Political philosophy. London: Routledge. Christman, J. (2018). Social and political philosophy: a contemporary introduction. London: Routledge. Christiano, T., Christman, J. P. (2009). Contemporary debates in political philosophy. Chichester, U.K.; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Finally and from a more historical perspective: Klosko, G. (2013). The Oxford handbook of the history of political philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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