Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

This module has three aims:

1) To encourage critical engagement with the canonical thinkers in the history of political philosophy by examining some of the contradictions of Enlightenment thinking and tracing assumptions made by 17th and 18th century thinkers regarding non-European subjects of empire and the notion of race itself;

2) To equip students with familiarity of the key texts and concepts in Postcolonial and Critical Race Theory, namely the work of Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak and Charles Mills.

3) To highlight the uses of (continental) philosophy for elucidating race-based marginalisation and oppression.

Outline Of Syllabus

Key texts and thinkers covered may include, but are not limited to:

John Locke’s Second Treatise
J.S. Mill’s On Liberty
Kant’s Physical Geography and Lectures on Race
Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks
Edward Said’s Orientalism
Gayatri Spivak’s Can the Subaltern Speak?
Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish
Jacques Rancière’s Disagreement

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

On completing this module students will have:

-       Awareness of the main critical responses to the philosophical canon with respect to how it has defined the non-European colonial subject;
-       Familiarity with the key texts and concepts in Postcolonial and Critical Race Theory;
-       An advanced understanding of certain methods and concepts in Continental philosophy and how such methods and concepts can help foster a race-sensitive philosophy or critical methodology for evaluating race and racism.

Intended Skill Outcomes

On completing this module students will:

-       Be able to understand and evaluate different views and reach balanced judgments of their own;
-       Be able to to search and retrieve sources, and reflect on ethical aspects of research;
-       Be able to produce extended pieces of written assessment (c. 2000 words), based on independent research.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The lectures will provide essential subject-specific knowledge on a range of seminal thinkers and ideas. Seminars permit discussion of the relative merits of these thinkers and ideas and guide independent analysis, interpretation, and critique.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Students will be assessed by a 2000-word essay and will be able to choose from a range of essay questions. The essay tests the ability to think analytically, creatively, self-critically and independently as well as managing one’s own work to set time limits. This assessment method also gauges the students’ ability to move between generalisation and appropriately detailed discussion, to cite relevant texts and interpret them adequately, to discover examples in support of or to challenge a position, and to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant considerations.

General Notes

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