Course Catalogue

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This course introduces students to some major contemporary theories of distributive justice. It allows them to scrutinize, compare, and assess those theories, and to consider their application to questions of intra- and international institutional design.

16x1hr lectures; 4x1hr seminars over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in Philosophy and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Successful completion of Junior Honours Philosophy, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes.

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Exam (90 minutes) - 40%

Essay (2000 words) - 40%

Short written piece (1000 words) - 20%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

This course aims to:

■ Familiarize students with the philosophical study of contemporary theories of distributive justice, including different varieties of egalitarianism, libertarianism, sufficientarianism and prioritarianism, and different views concerning the proper currency of distributive justice;

■ Develop students' ability to criticise and develop their own theories of distributive justice;

■ Apply both established and students' own views on distributive justice to questions of intra- and international institutional design.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Explain the content of a number of contemporary theories of distributive justice, including different varieties of egalitarianism, libertarianism, sufficientarianism and prioritarianism, and different views concerning the proper currency of distributive justice;

■ Compare and evaluate these theories;

■ Apply these theories to real-world political and economic policies and institutions;

■ Communicate their own political philosophical ideas and arguments clearly and effectively.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.