1. Political Philosophy
Dr Arshad javed Rizvi
Course Summary
This course is designed as a vocabulary of the main terms used by all of us when talking about
local as well as world politics; terms which we often use without a proper awareness of their
meanings and connections, a circumstance not exactly helpful to any attempt at understanding
how politics really works, regardless of our wishful thinking or simplistic morality or easy
cynicism.
Now, if we want to get deeper into the workings of politics - the only serious starting point for
those who want to reform it - we must agree to begin with very abstract notions, that is with the
general definitions of what politics, conflict, power (incl. force/violence), and what legitimate
power mean (Part 1: What is Politics?). On these
premises we will then explain the still main
political institution, the state, and peer into the
dynamics of war and peace that has dominated the
relationships between the states (Part 2: How Does
Politics Work?). Since with economic globalization,
which has restricted the room for political action,
things are getting much more complicated on the
planet, and more challenging outside of it
(man-made climate change starts in the atmosphere),
classical notions have to be rethought. The very nature
of the threats endangering our global commons does
not leave the definition of politics (Part 3: World
Politics and the Future). This course does not aim at
communicating any 'message' as to how politics
ought to be, but it will obviously try to clarify the
main concepts - freedom, equality, justice - we make
use of while talking about values and principles in
politics; this is what is called 'normative political
philosophy' and is regarded here as an important chapter
of political philosophy, not the whole of it (Part 4:
Ethics and Politics).
What will I learn?
At the end of the course you may have achieved a clearer and less confused awareness of the
political vocabulary, thus gaining a more complex, more autonomous and more critical
understanding of political processes. If you are a student of political science, law, sociology and
economics you may get better tools for catching the overarching sense of processes that you do
otherwise approach in a fragmented perspective.

2. Course Structure
Chapter Topic
Chapter 1 Aim and method of the course. General information. Two definitions of politics.
Chapter 2
Disassembling the classical definition, and its components: Conflict, (Legitimate)
Power, Force.
Chapter 3 Questions about power. A word on political philosophy.
Chapter 4
The subjective side of politics, legitimacy, political identity and political
obligation.
Chapter 5 Political order, political institutions, models of order: From Aristotle to Hegel.
Chapter 6 The (modern) state. Basic thoughts on democracy.
Chapter 7 The states: Power, peace, and war in the anarchical society.
Chapter 8 Globalization and global governance.
Chapter 9 Global challenges and politics after modernity.
Chapter
10
Liberty and equality.
Chapter
11
Justice.
Chapter
12
Ethics and politics in modernity.
Workload
My teaching method aims primarily at defining and discussing concepts, not at illustrating
authors or providing historical narratives; needless to say, there will be enough reference to
authors, books, events and processes, in particular with regard to the evolution of political
modernity. For each of the twelve lectures of about 30-40', which will be presented in shorter
units, you may need three more hours of homework to do additional readings and - more
importantly - to perform additional reflection.