Subscribe to feed
Lights off 
SEE: Guide to Download Yale Video Lecture
Lecture Details :
Moral Foundations of Politics (PLSC 118)
The mature Rawls departed quite a bit from his earlier theory of justice, choosing instead an overlapping consensus, or "political, not metaphysical" approach. Professor Shapiro argues that this is a significant departure from the Enlightenment tradition. In a wrap-up of the class's examination of the Enlightenment, Professor Shapiro charts its evolution from Locke to Bentham to Mill to Marx to contemporary theorists. As for the Enlightenment commitment to science and reason as the basis for politics, the early Enlightenment identified science with certainty, while the mature Enlightenment beginning with Mill emphasized the fallibility of science. But how rational are individuals after all? As for the second Enlightenment normative ideal of individual rights, the efforts to secularize the workmanship ideal after Locke were very problematic, culminating in the numerous and sound critiques of Marx and the intuitively disturbing radicalism of Rawls's moral arbitrariness. Professor Shapiro then introduces the backlash of the at-times unsatisfying consequences of the Enlightenment tradition, the anti-Enlightenment.
Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses
This course was recorded in Spring 2010.
Course Description :
This course explores main answers to the question "when do governments deserve our allegiance?" It starts with a survey of major political theories of the Enlightenment—Utilitarianism, Marxism, and the social contract tradition—through classical formulations, historical context, and contemporary debates relating to politics today. It then turns to the rejection of Enlightenment political thinking. Lastly, it deals with the nature of, and justifications for, democratic politics, and their relations to Enlightenment and Anti-Enlightenment political thinking. Practical implications of these arguments are covered through discussion of a variety of concrete problems.
Other Resources :
These Free Lectures are licensed under a Creative Commons License by Yale University
Other Social Sciences Courses
- PHSC 13400: Global Warming by Other
- Population and Society by IIT Kanpur
- Introduction to Film Studies by IIT Madras
- Economic Geography of the Industrial World,Fall 2011 by UC Berkeley
- Introduction to Political Philosophy by Yale
- Introduction to the Old Testament by Yale
- The Institute of Politics by Harvard
- African American Studies by UCLA
- ENVR 102 - Selected Topics in Environmental Studies by UC San Diego
- Capitalism: Success, Crisis and Reform by Yale
» check out the complete list of Social Sciences lectures
Social Sciences Lecture Notes