Utopia, Democracy, and Reform

The course name of the essay is Utopia, Democracy, and Reform. You can choose the topic yourself in a wide range related to political philosophy. Please see the details in the file attached.

Writing Advices

4. FOR MA STUDENTS: Draft your own question. Make sure that it permits either an exploration ("What is..."; "Why...?; "How...?") or a defense ("Should we phi?"; "Is x policy legitimate?"; "quote" Discuss"). Make sure that you have a key set of readings in mind - draft a reading list, if you've not done so yet. Do be aware that you may need to explain the significance of your essay question and set out some relevant definitions early on. You have a special responsibility to frame the discussion you are going to engage in because you are free to develop your own question and draw on your own selected literature, so long as it is thematically linked with the module. So, you need to be extra careful to get your reader to understand the context of the discussion and the nature of the debate you are engaging in. For help with this, look at established scholars do at the beginning of an article or book to get the reader to follow their train of thought (in short, they either couch the debate in current academic debates (that is the standard thing to do), existing practical debates (be careful to draw on reputable sources for this), historic debates (either academic or practical), or they set up a story like situation (sometimes allegorical) which reveals a philosophical problem (this is often in the form of "Suppose...[followed by a story]", but it can also be drawn from cinema or literature). How you invite the reader into a debate is an important part of convincing the reader that the problem you are dealing with is real, salient, and worthy of their attention.

5. FOR ALL STUDENTS: Whatever you do, keep the argument clear and to the point: Because of the diversity of scholarship you can draw on, you are going to want to be exceptionally clear about the way in which you are choosing to interpret the question(s) and how you think your selected author(s)'s argument responds to it (them). So explain to your reader why you are discussing specific topics throughout your essay. Show how it relates to the question. Take your reader by the hand. Be gentle but firm. 

6. FOR ALL STUDENTS: Pick a side. Does so and so's argument in favour of X work? Is it convincing? Let your reader know what you think and show the reader why you think what you think. In fact, try to show the reader that they should think the same as you because of really good reasons you can provide in clear language, explaining really well what the big ideas and key argument are and what you make of them.

7. FOR ALL STUDENTS: Although there is a lot more of a focus on empirical studies (politics, history, sociology, and even a bit of economics) in this module than in other philosophy modules, you are still writing as a philosopher, so you need to make your argument as clear as possible, as convincing as possible, and as well explained as possible. You want it to be next to impossible for your reader to misunderstand you (Note: it is my job to misinterpret you if at all possible when marking, so help me by helping yourself: point out where confusions can crop up and dispel them).

8. FOR ALL STUDENTS: Good scholarship helps. Read the core readings. Then read all of the relevant further readings. Then read related sources that you find all by yourself. The more knowledge you have in an area, the more likely you will be to articulate your thinking in a rich and sophisticated way 

9. FOR ALL STUDENTS: Be strategic. After reading, think about what you think is true. Figure out why you think something is true. Then think about how you will need to present the arguments to show to someone else that what you think is true is indeed true 

11. FOR ALL STUDENTS: Crucially, though, avoid misrepresenting others' views. This is harder in a module like ours, because there are a lot of authors saying lots of different things. But doing your best to get people right is an important philosophical skill. So, try to be charitable in your readings.

12. FOR ALL STUDENTS: Consider objections. No philosophy essay is complete if it does not engage with potential objections to the interpretation or argument provided therein.

13. FOR ALL STUDENTS: Use examples. In our case, in addition to your own made up examples, these can be historical examples, examples drawn from sociological studies and political science - these are all great, but cite reliable sources (you are nearing the end of your undergraduate education, show your reader that you can be trusted to draw on serious work and not unreliable sources) 

14. FOR ALL STUDENTS: Admit the limitations of your argument. The goal is to show that you can engage authentically with a hard problem. No one expects you to solve it all in one 4000 word essay (even less so in 2000 words!). So be honest about the scope of your argument. Admit the limitations. Point out in footnotes what you would have liked to explore further but could not for lack of space 

15. FOR ALL STUDENTS: Recall that introductions and conclusions in philosophy are what you write at the very end (but before the bibilography) and that they are short and to the point. In an introduction, you need to: make clear what your central thesis is and why (in short) you defend it; make clear how your thesis relates to the question (if it's not 100% transparent you need to take your reader by the hand and explain); outline the structure of your essay. In a conclusion, you do the same but in reverse order (no need to open up at the end - if you thought there were important areas of further inquiry, let the reader know in footnotes at the relevant points throughout the essay).

16. FOR ALL STUDENTS: Have fun! Though you may want to avoid being too colloquial in a formal piece of work, this is your chance to shine, demonstrate how your mind works, share insights and draw on your own idiosyncratic knowledge and passions: literature, cinema, jokes (note: jokes are often rude, but if you are citing someone else's words, that passage can be far more colloquial, since the originators are responsible for the words, not you), stories heard around the dinner table can all be drawn on if you do it right. What is doing it right? It involves admitting the anecdotal nature of some claims, but articulating an insight that you think is important. Then you need to explain and defend your claim that that insight is indeed important and relevant to answering the question 

17. FOR ALL STUDENTS: Be accountable. Ultimately, philosophy is about being accountable for your thoughts. So try to think about what other people would say in response and explain yourself to them in as fair a way as possible. 

18. FOR ALL STUDENTS: AVOID RHETORICAL QUESTIONS! If you ask a question, we expect you to have a go at trying to answer it. And if your point is not to ask a question, you can make the same point you would make without using a rhetorical question by transforming it into an affirmation or a negation, which will be clearer and more powerful. 

EXAMPLE ESSAY QUESTIONS (if you are lacking inspiration… 

1.Is justice the first virtue of a political arrangement?

2.Is Plato’s analogy of the ship of the state an accurate description of democratic politics?

3.“A prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules.” Discuss 

4.Were the demands made by The Levellers in An Agreement of the People politically legitimate? If so, in what sense and why?

5.Were the demands made in The Declaration of Independence politically legitimate? If so, in what sense and why?

6.Were the events of the French Revolution politically legitimate? If so, in what sense and why?

7.Is fighting injustice a matter of education 

8.Can the working class “simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes”?

9.Do democratic ends require democratic means 

10.What, if anything, can repair the harm of slavery and Jim Crow in the United States of America 

11.Is nonviolence more than a mere method of protest?

12.Should we aim to achieve important political goals “by any means necessary” 

13.Should all community organizers follow Alinsky’s rules for community organizing 

14.Is achieving political change a matter of storytelling? If so, are there limits to the stories we should tell?

15.  Should the state implement a Universal Basic Income in the United Kingdom right now?