The learning outcomes for this module are as follows:

 

a)     Show evidence of engagement with texts and ideas concerned with social and political thought

b)    Show engagement with primary sources

c)     Show a knowledge of theoretical perspectives and/or works

d)    Show an understanding of abstract concepts and ideas within theoretical perspectives

e)     Show an ability to work with theorists and their concepts in various forms of assessment as appropriate   

 

 

Introduction

 

Education Studies Students

Education: Social and Political Thought 2 is the second compulsory module for all students at level 5 (Year 2) and offers a challenging response to some of the ideas and concepts we met in Education: Social and Political Thought 1 last semester. 

 

In our first compulsory module we explored the notion of education as a form of social enlightenment with different authors, each of whom showed how models of education and reason might be employed for social and political reform.  Education: Social and Political Thought 2 now explores some of the ways in which the enlightenment type ‘solutions’ to social and political issues might in fact not be so helpful in providing answers to social or indeed global problems. 

 

Modern Liberal Arts Students 

This module is taken as an optional module either in combination with Education: Social and Political Thought (1) or as an individual module.  You will have encountered many of the ideas and concepts that this module responds to in various Modern Liberal Arts modules and therefore it is not necessary for you to have taken Education: Social and Political Thought (1) in order to study this module.    

 

In this module we will look at the work of four thinkers who draw attention to various issues and problems with the Enlightenment notion of reason and, indeed, of rational education. At root, they illustrate something very important: namely, that Enlightenment might be more of a problem in itself than a solution! 

 

One of the key ideas we will think about is that, whereas Enlightenment reason offered itself as a foundational truth – a grand narrative – for all people, now we live in a post-foundational and pluralist age where one universal, western, male, white truth is not seen as relevant or indeed true for everyone.

 

As with the compulsory module last semester this module is based around key thinkers and key texts.  You will need to have access to the key texts for each theorist and are advised to purchase your own copy where possible (follow link for details). 

  

Programme of Lectures

 

Week 1: Introduction (Nigel Tubbs)

This week provides a stimulus to the issues raised in the rest of the module. In particular, we will be raising issues regarding ways in which the sovereignty of Enlightenment reason has been disrupted and dethroned. If you have come across the notion of post-modernity in your studies then you will be aware of the kinds of issues that we will be looking at. Prepare to have our faith in reason severely tested.

 

 

Reading:

There is no set reading for this week but we strongly advise you to start reading the set text for weeks 2 and 3 if you haven’t already done so.    

 

 

Week 2: Nietzsche (Nigel Tubbs)

 

 and week 3:

In these lectures we will look at some of the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). In particular, we will study one of his later books, Twilight of the Idols. It will help if you can have your own copy, and there are details about which copy to buy attached.  We will be looking at his attitude to reason and at some of the reasons he gives for mistrusting it. In the wake of this mistrust, some of the most cherished ideals of Western culture lie in tatters when Nietzsche has finished with them. He is not dull!

 

Essential Reading for both weeks:

Twilight of the Idols for both weeks. (For details of which parts of the book will be dealt with in each lecture, see the lecture notes when they appear on the webpage.)

 

 

Week 4: Bauman (Marie Morgan)

The ‘post-modern’ sociologist Zygmunt Bauman entreats us to re-envision modernity through the lens of the Holocaust. In this week’s session, the ideals of progress and rationality which you met last semester will face the charge that they gave rise to the possibility of the Holocaust. We will look at the relationships between instrumental rationality, morality and bureaucracy.

 

Essential Reading for week 4:

Bauman, Z. (1989) Modernity and the Holocaust, London: Polity

(Chapters 1, 2 and 3 are particularly relevant to this week’s lecture)

 

 

Week 5: Bauman (Marie Morgan)

Note: Essay advice will be given this week

 

Last week you were introduced to the idea that the ideals of modernity, whilst historically associated with notions of enlightenment and progress, provide the necessary conditions for the development of instrumental rationality.  This week we explore the relation between modern reason and the Holocaust in greater depth.

 

Essential Reading for week 5:

Bauman, Z. (1989) Modernity and the Holocaust, London: Polity

 

 

Week 6: Reading Week

 

 

Week 7: Freud (Derek Bunyard)

 

How certain are we that we control our own thoughts – and what is the price of this control, in terms of human possibility?  Freud’s ‘autobiography’ provides only a few details of his personal life, but documents the development of psychoanalysis – a major influence on the Arts and culture in general during the first half of the Twentieth Century, and also the context for many profound clinical insights into the lives of children and adults.  We will review selected aspects of the Autobiography before turning to consider the changes that Freud made to his theorising between the time when he produced the Autobiography, and the time when he wrote Civilisation and its Discontents - the text to be specifically featured in your second assignment.

 

Extension Reading:

Freud, S. (1952) An Autobiographical Study, New York: Norton

 

 

Week 8: Freud: (Derek Bunyard)

Society is often represented as a bastion against the various forms of external chaos that always have threatened human social groups.  But what if the chaos already exists within us – what if the city is occupied by an invading garrison?  Here, we pick up the notion of an individual psychology and work through the consequences that follow when thousands of people with the same desires, fears, and gendered nature, live together in close proximity.  Freud reflects towards the end of his life on the inevitable costs that individuals incur through this social living, and the limitations individuality creates for the form of an ideal society.

 

Essential Reading: 

Freud, S. (1963) Civilization and its Discontents, London: Hogarth

 

 

Weeks 9 and 10: Foucault: (Marie Morgan)

Foucault notes (1)    Foucault notes (2)

Michel Foucault’s (1926-1984) writings span a number of different disciplines – you will find his work widely referenced by historians, philosophers and social theorists. In these two sessions, we address Foucault’s (1978) work, Discipline and Punish.  In the first session, we consider Foucault’s view of power and the body, while in the second session we discuss the relation between power and the constitution of the self.  Reading Foucault’s book, we confront the question: Does the self emerge, endure or disclose itself in the world or does power itself operate through and upon time, space, bodies and human relations in order to create the self?

  

Essential Reading for both weeks:

Foucault, M. (1979) Discipline and Punish, Harmondsworth: Penguin

 

 

Week 11: Essay Clinic 

 

 

Assessment

Assessment for this module is in the form of two essays, each counting for 50% of the overall module mark.

 

The title of the first essay is: Why did Nietzsche and Bauman distrust reason? (2000-2500 words).

Hand in: Friday (not Wednesday) Week 6

Hand back: Friday Week 10   

 

The title of the second essay is: Why did Freud and Foucault not trust the notion of the self? (2000-2500 words).

Deadline – Friday (not Wednesday) Week 12

Hand back: Beginning of Week 13 (after the 4 week Easter vacation)  

 

 

Secondary sources

A short list of secondary texts for each theorist will be included in the relevant lecture notes.  As in ES2301, it is essential that the focus of study in this module be the primary texts.  This means that secondary sources are intended for personal interest rather than inclusion in the essay.