POL480H1S L0101

Graduate Course Code: POL2038H1S L0101

Pluralism, Justice, and Equality

Themes

This course will explore the challenge of reconciling the fact of social difference with the aspiration to equality. In particular, it will examine challenges to liberal conceptions of justice that have been brought from the standpoint of marginalized or oppressed groups. To what extent do such challenges undercut long-standing liberal strategies for coping with pluralism? With these questions in the background, we will focus on the concept of impartiality as integral to the ideal of justice. What are the alternative interpretations of the ideal of impartiality? What should we make of feminist and postmodernist claims about the impossibility of impartiality? Do such claims irreparably damage the liberal ideal of impartiality, or is it retrievable?

Texts

Texts will include works by contemporary theorists such as John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, Jurgen Habermas, Iris Young, Seyla Benhabib, Martha Minow, and Drucilla Cornell.

Format and Requirements

Weekly participation, seminar presentations, and term papers.

Prerequisites

POL200Y1 / POL200Y5 / POL320Y1 / POL320Y5 / JPP343H1 / JPP343Y1 / POLC70H3 and POLC71H3