Classes

Liberalism

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2015

Liberalism is a political theory about the limitation of state power based on basic constitutional rights. These institutional mechanisms have been justified on a liberal philosophical outlook. This course examines the central values of the liberal worldview including freedom, equality, toleration, individualism, secularism, pluralism, constitutionalism and the public and private divide. The purpose of this conceptual analysis is to understand the justificatory basis of liberalism and eventually assess its achievements and limitations.

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Moral and Political Issues in Liberal Democracies

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2014

The course addresses timely problems and core values of contemporary democracies. The problems that we will examine include: torture, terrorism, immigration, affirmative action, abortion, and hate speech. Each of these topics poses a challenge to key values characteristic of liberal-democracies such as the rule of law, toleration, political equality, and freedom. We will examine the philosophical justification of these values as a background to the discussion of the applied cases mentioned above.