English Backbone Curriculum Project: 2016-2017
English Backbone Curriculum Project: 2016-2017
1. Steering Committee: Chair, Jun-Hyeok KWAK
Jun-Hyeok KWAK, Professor
Jianhong CHEN, Dean & Professor
Jie QIAN, Professor
Luis Cordeiro RODRIGUES, Research Fellow
Zhida LUO, Research Fellow
Paoshen HO, Research Fellow
Hugo EL KHOLI, Research Fellow
Tim BEAUMONT, Research Associate
Susanne BEIWEIS, Research Associate
2. Statement of Purpose
This project was launched to construct a set of curriculum which introduce undergraduate students to basic concepts about political philosophy and historical arguments on the relationship between man and society in the history of political philosophy. Five courses in sequence address norms and principles that enable students to perceive the basic elements of the political universe as well as to clarify the diverse modes of humanity with critical thinking skills. After completing this module, it is expected in general that students should have acquired philosophical speculations that imply the contours of the political landscape in the history of political philosophy from Socrates to Heidegger and become familiar with major political theories that apply sociopolitical thoughts to contemporary politics, such as nationalism and patriotism, and liberalism and republicanism.
In the Fall Semester of 2016 the participants of this project held a weekly meeting to discuss the challenges posed by teaching in English and to plan for the future development of the ELTP. These meetings led to the decision to hold the advisory workshop for undergraduates and to develop a pre-law curriculum. Over the course of the Spring Semester of 2017 the project team will produce new syllabi for potential English language courses in the Department of Philosophy, Zhuhai.
In the longer term this project has two main goals: to introduce a Pre-Law Curriculum based on the syllabi that we have produced in the Fall Semester of 2016 and to increase the range of English-classes that we can offer in the future.
3. The Current Modules
I. Invitation to Philosophical Texts: This course is designed to provide students with basic skills necessary for reading classical texts in the study of philosophy and interpreting their main ideas with critical inquiries. The texts are chosen with care to introduce students to basic concepts about the nature of philosophy and imperative disputes on fundamental questions in the history of philosophy. And study questions on the required readings are given in advance in order to steer the students’ attention to the texts themselves, and they will help students to understand both the diversity of opinion and the imperfection of human reasoning. The first step for this task is to check their readings on the required materials. The two pop quizzes are scheduled to see about whether students are sufficiently prepared for joining a class discussion. The second step is to guide students in an inquiry into knowledge by dissuading them from taking a relativistic view. At this juncture, study questions will facilitate an exchange of opinions without exhausting their inquiry into knowledge.
II. Introduction to Issues in Political Philosophy: This course is designed to introduce students to the imperative theories in the field of political philosophy, by examining a set of sociopolitical issues on the relationship between man and society from foundational texts to contemporary preoccupations. Especially, this course aims at providing students with an understanding of the currently dominant views of sociopolitical issues, and the background knowledge and tools with which to evaluate them. These issues include the current debates on the rule of many, political friendship, politics of persuasion, political emotion, and liberty as non-domination. Given these issues, students will have an opportunity to explore fundamental political concepts critically, such as deliberative democracy, civic solidarity, democratic leadership, best possible regime, and sociopolitical justice respectively.
III. History of Western Political Philosophy (1) & (2): The ultimate purpose of these courses is to provide students with an understanding of the current debates of Western political philosophy and the background knowledge with which to evaluate them. More specifically, the courses in this module offer a general survey of ancient and modern political philosophy in the West. Specifically, the courses aim at: (a) providing an introduction to the great texts of Western political philosophy, (b) examining the meaning and justification of important concepts such as morality, freedom, equality, and sovereignty, (c) developing critical skills necessary to examine theoretical arguments and assess their strengths and weaknesses, (d) helping students to have a capability to reach out peoples across cultures and draw them in their lives.
IV. Nationalism and Patriotism: This course introduces undergraduate students to the debates surrounding patriotism and nationalism in the present era of intensified globalization, and investigates the feasibility of non-ethnocentric patriotism in countries across cultures. From much of the past 150 to 200 years, fundamental civic solidarities have been chiefly shaped by nationalism in the modern world: nation building, resistance to colonization, ethnic cleansing, and civil movement. Given its central role in the lives of political lives, one of the great challenges of contemporary politics remains how best to reconcile the deep pluralism of our societies with forms of human solidarity, both within and across borders. With this respect, this course sees about an alternative to nationalism by exploring the sources of our most basic feelings of civic solidarity – our ideas about sociopolitical identity, political loyalty, and self-dedication.
