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JUSTICE AND POLITICAL ACTION (LM)

Overview

This course aims to analyse and critically discuss the interplay between methodological assumptions and normative implications in contemporary political theories. At the intersection between theory, practice and political methodology, the course aims to assess the plausibility of practical and theoretical implications of the most relevant models in normative political theory.

Aims and Content

Learning Outcomes

Normative political theory deals with matters of justice that have a distinctively collective nature. At the intersection between different disciplines (political philosophy, political theory and ethics), normative political theory addresses both substantive topics (multiculturalism, pluralism, toleration, animal and environmental ethics, international justice), as well as methodological issues (public justification, realism and idealism in political theory, and so on). Normative political theory seeks to investigate practical problems employing the conceptual resources of political philosophy and/or of other disciplines.

Aims and Learning Outcomes

This course aims to provide students with the necessary conceptual tools to better understand the relation between methodological and normative issues in contemporary political theories. At the end of the course, students:

• will be aware of the relation between theory and practice,
• will be able to discuss critically the practical implications of normative political theories, and
• will be able to balance competing demands of justification and application.

Teaching Methods

The course will be delivered in presence. The first section will consist of lectures in order to introduce the basic conceptual apparatus. The other section will also include seminars. Depending on the students' availability, each section will be concluded by a seminar in which the students will present and critically discuss a possible solution to the problems raised by the course.

Syllabus/Content

The design of this course follows a "Problem Based Learning" (PBL) methodology. Specifically, it seeks to address the practical and theoretical problem of implementing the demands of justice. How could normative theories of justice improve their capacity to be put in practice? And, what can the role of political theories be? These questions inhabit the whole history of political philosophy, in particular the opposition between idealism and realism, and are still present in contemporary debates.

The first part will be organized in different sub-sections, each of which will address the following questions:

• Is there an inevitable divide between facts and principles? Can facts influence the justification of first principles of justice (see the Rawls-Cohen debate)?
• Can we employ ideal theory or should we rely on non-ideal theory? What is the admissible level of (non-)ideality? (see the Rawls-Sen debate, Estlund's "utopophobia", and the relation between ideal theory and utopia)
• Do facts constraint what we can morally demand of people?
• Can feasibility limit the demands of justice? (see the debate between Southwood, Lawford-Smith, Gilabert and Wiens)

For each sub-section, the students will be provided with a conceptual apparatus (for instance, concerning the merits and limits of realist or idealist approaches). The second part of the course will be run in a text-based approach, by reading and collectively commenting on major authors who have dealt with the following themes concerning the relation between normative theory and practice:

• Evaluation (the Sen – Gaus debate)
• Critique (critical theories of justice)
• Reconciliation (Hegelian themes and Rawlsian debates)
• Activism (agents of change and avant-garde)

At the end of all sub-sections there will be a student seminar.

Recommended Reading/Bibliography

Reading List for Attending Students

• Biale, E., Fumagalli, C., "Teoria, azione e cambiamento nella filosofia politica normativa", Rivista di filosofia 115(2), 2024
• Laurence, B., "Justice in Theory and Practice: debates about utopianism in political action", Philosophy Compass , 1-12, 2023
• Liveriero, F., "Il legno storto dell'umanità. Quale equilibrio tra teoria ideale e teoria non-ideale?", Rivista di filosofia 115(2), 2024
• Zuolo, F. Disobbedire. Se, come, quando , Laterza, 2024

Reading List for Non-Attending Students

• Burelli, C. (2020), Realtà, necessità, conflitto: il realismo in filosofia politica , Roma, Carocci
• Biale, E., Fumagalli, C., "Teoria, azione e cambiamento nella filosofia politica normativa", Rivista di filosofia 115(2), 2024
• Gallino, L., "Sociologia e teoria critica della società", Quaderni di sociologia , 29, 2002
• Laurence, B., "Justice in Theory and Practice: debates about utopianism in political action", Philosophy Compass , 1-12, 2023
• Liveriero, F., "Il legno storto dell'umanità. Quale equilibrio tra teoria ideale e teoria non-ideale?", Rivista di filosofia 115(2), 2024
• Zuolo, F. Disobbedire. Se, come, quando , Laterza, 2024

Assessment

All students (attending and non-attending) must either:

• Present and discuss an essay (to be agreed upon with the professor) as a seminar at the end of the course, or
• Write an essay on a topic (to be agreed upon with the professor)

Possible essay topics:

• Is political realism necessarily conservative?
• A comparison between different types of political realism (critical, functionalis, contextualist)
• Are facts a limit to matters of justice? And, if so, how?
• How Rawls devises the possible realization of his theory of justice?
• How Cohen criticizes Rawls on the place of facts in Rawls's theory of justice?
• What is the appropriate level of ideality of a theory?
• Do we need a utopian theory of justice?
• Should political theory be activist?
• What is the most interesting critical perspective in political theory?
• Should disobedience be always civile? What is civility?
• How and when disobedience is legitimate?
• Is civil disobedience always preferable to direct actions?
• What is prefigurative politics, and how does it combine values and pragmatic considerations?

Teachers and Exam Board

• Federico Zuolo
• Exam Board:
  • Federico Zuolo (President)
  • Corrado Fumagalli
  • Maria Silvia Vaccarezza (President Substitute)
  • Paolo Bodini (Substitute)
  • Michel Croce (Substitute)

Lessons

• Lessons start: 25 September 2023
• Class schedule: Available on Portale EasyAcademy

Exams

• Exam description:
  • Attending students: Short essay (3500 words, to be handed in at least 1 week before) or student seminar during the course, plus oral examination discussing the essay or seminar and other course's themes.
  • Non-attending students: Short essay (3500 words, to be handed in at least 1 week before, contact the professor to agree on an essay's topic), plus oral examination on the following titles from the reading list.
• Exam schedule:
  • 17 December 2025, 09:00, Genova
  • 15 January 2026, 09:00, Genova
  • 02 February 2026, 09:00, Genova
  • 27 May 2026, 09:00, Genova
  • 10 June 2026, 09:00, Genova
  • 29 June 2026, 09:00, Genova
  • 07 September 2026, 09:00, Genova