Overview
Section A
Section A (50%, 1000 WORDS)
In relation to the following passage from John Rawls’s text, answer ALL of the four questions below. Each of the questions should be answered in a short paragraph of approximately 250 words.
‘Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by the many. Therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests.’ (Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Chapter 1, Section 1)
Briefly explain what Rawls means when he writes: ‘Justice is the first virtue of social institutions’.
What is the ‘inviolability’ of each person, according to Rawls?
What does Rawls mean by the priority of the right over the good? Answer withreference to the quote.
What does Rawls mean by ‘settled’? How is that reflected in his principles ofjustice?
Section B (50%, 1000 WORDS):
- Answer the following essay question: Are the modern state and freedom compatible? Discuss with reference to Habermas and Foucault.
- Could you please do a 1000 word essay on the following essay question stating what they both believe in regards to the question and separate paragraphs on what they say and a conclusion. Use examples and quote from sources. REFERENCE/CITE YOUR QUOTES.
- SOURCES TO USE FOR ESSAY:
- 1. Kelly, Michael (ed.), Critique and Power: Recasting the Foucault/Habermas Debate (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994).
2.Ashenden, Samantha and David Owen (eds), Foucault Contra Habermas: Recasting the Dialogue between Genealogy and Critical Theory (Sage, 1999)
3. Foucault, Michel, ‘What is Enlightenment?’, in Paul Rabinow (ed.), The Foucault Reader (New York, Pantheon Books, 1984), pp. 32-50.
4. Jürgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity (Cambridge: Polity, 1987), Chapters 9-10 on Foucault, and Chapter 12 on modernity.
5.Jürgen Habermas, 'Popular Sovereignty as Procedure', in Between Facts and Norms (Cambridge: Polity, 1996), Appendix I (pp. 463-90. Also in James Bohman and William Rehg (eds), Deliberative Democracy: Essays on Reason and Politics (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997), pp. 35–65.
6. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (Hamondsworth: Penguin, 1979), Part 3, Chapter 3: 'Panopticism'.
7.Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the College de France, 1975-76 (New York: Picador, 2003), pp. 239-54 in Chapter 11.
8.Lois McNay Foucault and Feminism: power, gender and self. (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992).