Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An examination of an issue or selection of issues in social and political philosophy. Contemporary or historical readings or a mixture of these will be used. Possible topics include: justice, the law and legal systems, sovereignty, power and authority, democracy, liberty and equality. Sometimes the course will focus on the views of historically important political philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Burke, Bentham, Mill and Marx.

COURSE DETAILS:

Rights to Property and Territory

This is an intermediate level course in political philosophy that focuses on how peoples and states acquire moral rights to territory. Much popular thinking about territorial rights relies on ideas put forward by John Locke around 350 years ago. Locke contends that when individuals labor on the commons they acquire individual rights to the exclusive ownership of property. States acquire territorial rights because individual owners are presumed to have transferred their property rights to a particular state. The renewed philosophical focus on territorial rights is a very recent phenomenon. Critics complain that the Lockean view is inadequate for a variety of reasons including:

1. How is territory originally acquired? Critics maintain that the emphasis on labor and improving the land is ethnocentric. It wrongly discriminates, for example, against peoples that choose to pursue sustainable economies at the expense of growth. 
2. What is the right-holder for territorial rights? Lockeans emphasize that property can only be acquired by individuals who may then transfer their rights to a state. Critics contend that this is implausibly restrictive because it denies that peoples and nations can have original (non-transferred) group-rights to territory.  
3. What is the correct response to disturbances in the system of territorial rights? One class of disturbances comprises the intentional violation of territorial rights through colonization, annexation and the like. When colonization has occurred does it give rise to claims for compensation for lost territory? Other disturbances to territorial rights are not intended, such as those that will result from climate change. Still other disturbances occur when territories are unable to support growing populations. Critics argue that neo-Lockean accounts lack the resources to address these issues. 

We will rely on contemporary journal articles to survey the terrain.

The course is organized around two lectures each week, for a total of three hours. Students are expected to contribute to class discussion and will be required to read 2-3 papers or book chapters each week. They will also be required to synthesize the readings to complete their final research paper.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

The general aim of the course is for students to acquire a systematic understanding of the moral basis for territorial rights. Among other things this should enhance their ability to reflect on the rapidly evolving jurisprudence on the rights of indigenous peoples in Canada.

This course is excellent preparation for law school. 

PHIL 320 may be applied towards the Certificate in Ethics: Theory and Application (see our website for more details).

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: