I am designing the course so it will be especially beneficial for those seeking full time employment as an academic.
CONTENT
General
Concept of rights
Moral / legal / human rights
Justification of rights
Criticisms of rights
Rights talk within different moral theories
What rights do people have?
Specific
Children's Rights, Gay Rights, Animal Rights
Rights and the professions
Health care rights
We begin with classic legal and philosophical statements about rights (Hohfeld, Feinberg, Hart, UN Declaration on Human Rights, etc.). We will then spend most of the term discussing recent work by two or three of the following: James Griffin, Allen Buchanan, Charles Beitz, and James Nickel. Likely we will also examine some work by Carl Wellman, Leif Wenar, Thomas Pogge, and Charles Fried.
REQUIREMENTS
If you wish to pursue a career in philosophy, you should be able to: (1) write a publishable paper, (2) prepare a presentation for a national professional meeting, (3) present that paper effectively, and (4) provide a clear, crisp commentary on someone else’s paper.
I am designing course requirements to refine those skills.
SCHEDULING
This will be an irregularly scheduled course. It is awkward to set up an ISC formally in the system. Therefore, the department set a default time - Thursday evenings — and then noted in the schedule that specific dates and times are TBA.
The default meeting time is 6:20 - 9:05 Thursday.
If students are amenable, I will shift that to 6:15 - 9:30. The extra 30 minutes per class means we need to meet two fewer Thursdays. Additionally, I currently plan to have two long Saturday session(s) during the term. As a result, we will likely meet 7 Thursdays and 2 Saturdays. The precise details are negotiable.
I hope this helps. If you have other questions, please ask. Email me here.
Hugh LaFollette