PHI373   Political Obligation   (20 credits)

Description

States claim to have a right to issue binding directives to those within their jurisdiction. This entails that those within the jurisdiction have a moral obligation to obey those directives. The obligation to obey is said to be defeasible but general: it is said to hold with regard to (almost) all directives, (almost) all subjects, on (almost) all occasions. This is the claim of political obligation. It needs to be justified. This course will focus on both historical and contemporary justifications of political obligation. Lectures and discussions will explore such questions as: How do individuals acquire political obligation? Why do we assign a special moral status to the state and are we justified in doing so? Is political obligation required because of something individuals have or would have done? Is political obligation entailed by existence within political communities? Is political obligation merely the consequence of being a moral agent? Can political obligation be voluntarily acquired? Does it need to be?

Reading List