Specialist classes

(in Polish) T

Course will be held in the form of discussions. Students receive some problems which will be discussed during the next meeting. Additionally they will be given titles of books and articles where to find needed information. But they usually use the Internet to collect information. It is OK if they direct their research according to the proposed problems. It is impossible to approach the whole complexity of the European political thought during one semester, so the case study method will be applied. The proposed topics will undoubtedly show diversity of viewpoints in the group of persons participating in discussions. Hence the method of "round table" discussion seems the best to involve all members of the student group. If such discussions does not attract the majority of participants, the method of the point discussion will be applied.

The student will be assessed taking into account the following criteria:

1. Attendance of the course - each student should prepare materials for oral discussions.

2. Participation in the discussions (knowing and using arguments, assessing them, critisizing or supporting them).

3. Preparation of a short essay (5 pages) on the chosen person whose imput in the European political thought's development was significant. It will help to check, what the students know, how they assess and describe the arguments, how they indentify important political, social and economic questions, how they find information, how they can write about them, how they approach the differences, how they understand discussion on historical and contemporary questions.

All three elements will be taken under consideration. More that 2 absences make it necessary for a student to come for Professor's consultation to show that the information was absorbed.

The mark for discussion makes 2/3 of the final assessment. And the mark for the essay makes 1/3 of the final assessment.

1. Oral interventions during discussion classes (presenting facts and ideas of political philosophers and personal assessments, justification of personal opinion, reaction on somebody's opinion, using proper vocabulary, comparing various ideas, referring to present situation in Europe, culture of discussion with somebody's viewpoints and tolerance);

2. Written essay (looking for materials in libraries and in the Internet, using proper vocabulary, presenting facts and ideas of political philosophers and personal assessments, justification of personal opinion, reaction on somebody's opinion, comparing various ideas).

1) The Enlightement philosophy;

2) Liberalism;

3) Conservatism;

4) Socialism;

5) Communism;

6) Anarchism;

7) Social Teaching of the Catholic Church;

8) Nationalism;

9) Fascism and Nazism;

10) Conspiratory Theories.

I. Berlin, Nacjonalizm: zlekceważona potęga, [w:] Idem, Dwie koncepcje wolności, Warszawa 1991, s. 193-231;

Encyclicals of the Holy Father John Paul II;

A. Flis, Antynomie wielkiej wizji : rekonstrukcja i krytyka marksowskiej teorii historii, Universitas 1990;

Hayek F. A. von, The Fortunes of Liberalism: Essays on Austrian Economics and the Ideal of Freedom, Routlege 1992

P. Hazard, European thought in the eighteenth century, from Montesquieu to Lessing, Penguin Books 1965;

Kołakowski L., Main Currents of Marxism, Paris 1976;

Novak M., Catholic Social Thought and Liberal Institutions, Transactions Publishers 1989;

W. Rydzewski, Kropotkin, Warszawa 1979;

Scruton R., The Meaning of Conservatism, London 2001;

D. Pipes, Conspiracy. How the Paranoid Style Flourished and it Comes From, The Free Press 1997