Political Theory
Code
711011054
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Ciências da Comunicação
Credits
6
Teacher in charge
Hermenegildo Ferreira Borges
Weekly hours
4
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
a) To understand the key issues of policy in the present time;
b) To clarify the central categories of political thought;
c) To be prepared for intervene civic and competent, as social actors and as mediators of privileged political practice.
Prerequisites
None.
Subject matter
1. Political Theory, a specific way to approach the political field.
2. The human condition and political practice. The Public, the private and the social. Praxis, freedom and violence in the social sphere.
3. The definition of Policy and its borders. Power, Politics and the State. Sovereignty, Nation and supranationalism. Power, authority and legitimacy.
4. Politics and Law. Rights and power. Law, violence and justice. The Right of resistance to oppression, reform and revolution.
5. Rationality, utopia, values and paradoxes of modernity. Freedom and equality - its frame with possibility or incompossibility. New forms of power and new constraints of being a subject.
6. Democracy, universal Human Rights and exogenous factors that hinder its affirmation in the present times: the \"radical subjectivism\" and the \"functionalism strategic\". Economic rationality and Human Rights. Between the political realism and the possibility of an ethics for politics.
Bibliography
BORGES, Hermenegildo Ferreira (2005); Vida, Razão e Justiça - Racionalidade Argumentativa na Motivação Judiciária, Coimbra: Minerva.
DOBSON, Lynn and FOLLESDAL, Andreas (edited) (2004); Political Theory and the European Constitution, London and New York: Routledge.
HEYWOOD, Andrew (Third Edition, 2004); Political Theory - An Introduction, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
ARENDT, Hannah (1958-2001); A Condição Humana (The Human Condition), Lisboa: Relógio D´Água.
BOBBIO, Norberto (1999-2000); Teoria Geral da Política - A filosofia Política e as Lições dos Clássicos (Teoria Generale della Politica), Rio de Janeiro: Editora Campus.
Teaching method
Teaching methodologies stimulate critical participation of students and promote the analysis of central categories in political philosophy. The path starts with the thought of the \"classics\", in ancient times and goes to the present, aiming an understanding of key contemporary political issues. It is mandatory to read supplementary texts of fundamental authors.
Theoretical lessons: 60 %. Practical Classes: 40 %.
Evaluation method
Two complementary approaches to assessment:
- Compulsory attendance (that exempt or not from the final exam);
- Production of a critical review of one of the listed texts as compulsory reading of the course.
- Option: evaluation done by an individual work with a maximum of 10 pages (size 12pt, spacing 1.5)