Module Leader: Dr. ****Elise Woodard (Lecturer in Legal & Political Philosophy)

Module Code: 6FFLK544

Overview

• This module will focus on recent work in the rapidly growing areas of legal and political epistemology.
• Students will appreciate how key epistemological tools and concepts—such as knowledge and justification—bear on longstanding issues in law and political philosophy.
• We will examine the roles that knowledge, ignorance, and truth do—and should—play in our political and legal systems, while questioning whether these systems need to be rethought or revised if they don't fulfill their epistemic promise.

This course will be divided into two parts: (1) Political Epistemology and (2) Legal Epistemology. Key questions we'll discuss may include:

Political Epistemology

Legal Epistemology

Course Format

• 2 hour seminar, meets 1x a week
• Part lecture, part discussion (more of the latter!).
• Students should come prepared having read the articles and prepared to discuss key philosophical questions.

Learning Outcomes

Reading List

Part I: Political Epistemology

Week 1: Truth & Politics (Oct 2)

Central Questions: What is political epistemology? What is the role of truth in politics?