SP22 PHIL351

PHIL 351: Political Philosophy
Dr. Nick Laskowski
Mondays & Wednesdays  ·  11:00am–12:15pm  ·  LA1–312

On one way of understanding it, philosophical anarchism is the striking view that there are no actual governments or states with legitimate authority. Indeed, arguments for philosophical anarchism point toward the even more striking claim that it is not even possible for a state to have legitimate authority. Participants in this course will explore such arguments as they are found in contemporary political philosophy in the anglophone, analytic tradition. Along the way, participants will also explore related questions about the nature of legitimate authority and political normativity more generally. What is legitimate authority? How can political obligations, reasons, and the like, be explained? Are such explanations distinct from explanations of moral obligations, reasons, and so on?