Details:

May be used as social science or humanities course requirement, not both, at BC.

Outcomes:

After completing this class, students should be able to:

• define in short-answer quizzes key terms found in the context of social philosophy (e.g., social contract theory, natural law, rights, supererogatory, civil disobedience).
• explain in brief essays ethical and social theories relevant to organizing a just state (e.g., social contract theory, libertarianism, Natural Law Theory).
• present orally or in writing arguments for or against freedom of speech, thought, and activity.
• critique orally or in short essays the strengths or weaknesses of Mill’s position on the limitation of government.
• explain in writing John Rawls’s social contract theory, and explain how it is an improvement on Thomas Hobbes’s theory.
• explain and assess in an essay the theories and assumptions made by specified advocates for social change (e.g., Gandhi, Wollstonecraft, King).