Majors

The major Political Philosophy & Critical Theory aims to provide a broad but focussed programme that addresses the most relevant traditions in continental political thought of the past 500 years. In addition, it aims to bring into focus the tradition of critical thinking that emerged in the mid-19th century – including its many influences on, and adaptations by, other critical academic disciplines – along with the influence of this kind of thinking on contemporary academic and public debates. 

In the courses on political philosophy, the focus is on such diverse issues as the notion of rights, sovereignty, governance, political institutions, freedom and equality, justice, democracy, and many others. Early Modern Political Philosophy, Contemporary Political Philosophy, and Modernity span Western political thought that emerged during the Renaissance up to the most recent and more internationally oriented theoretical perspectives on democracy and politics (i.e., from Machiavelli, Spinoza, Montesquieu and Rousseau, via Kant, Hegel and Marx, to Kelsen and Schmitt, Rawls, Habermas and Laclau). The course Aesthetics and Politics shows the intrinsic relationship between political theory and art theory from Ancient Greece (Plato, Aristotle) to Modernity (Schiller, Wagner).

The critical theoretical line of this major revolves around the academic traditions that were initiated in the 19th century, with critiques of modern society, industrial capitalism and its accompanying bourgeois liberal culture (from Marx, Nietzsche and Freud). We focus on the continuation of this way of thinking in the works of scholars from the Frankfurt School (Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse), the French tradition that emerged in Vincennes, Paris (Foucault, Deleuze, Guattari, Rancière) and the Birmingham School (Williams, Hall, Gilroy). Other lines of critical thought that students will become acquainted with in this major are the perspectives of feminist philosophy and post-colonial theory, by reading texts from crucial feminist thinkers such as de Beauvoir, Butler, bell hooks and Haraway; and influential post-colonial authors such as Fanon, Said and Spivak.

In general, this major prepares students to reflect critically on the history of the present, but also equips them to analyse their own time and their possible immediate future(s). For example, in the course Late Modernity students critically reflect on pressing issues in the here and now, such as neoliberalisation, precarisation, the debt economy, mediatisation and the climate crisis.

Entry requirement

The major Political Philosophy & Critical Theory has no entry requirement.

Coordinator: Dr F. van Houdt (email: vanhoudt@euc.eur.nl)

Mandatory courses at 200 level (15 EC)

• Critical Theory
• Late Modernity: Globalisation, Neoliberalisation & Mediatisation
• Early Modern Political Philosophy

Mandatory courses at 300 level (25 EC)

• Contemporary Political Philosophy
• Cheap: A Crique of Capitalism in the Web of Life
• Close Reading bell hooks
• Feminist Philosophy: Bodies, Binaries and Beyond
• Post-Colonial Theory: Critical Perspectives from the Global South

Additionally, 20 EC at 200/300 level in courses approved by the Head of the Humanities Department and the Examination Board.

Recommended courses for the major Political Philosophy & Critical Theory

• Understanding Politics (200 level)
• The Climate Crisis: Ecology, Economy, and Politics in the Anthropocene (200 level)
• Foundations of Political Economy (200 level)
• Multiple Modernities: Historical Perspectives from the Global South (300 level)

The major Political Philosophy & Critical Theory needs to be concluded with a Capstone of 15 EC.

If you wish to follow a master programme at Erasmus School of Philosophy at EUR, you need to obtain a total of 60 ECs in philosophy-related courses. By taking the ACC course Modernity (5 EC), the mandatory courses in this major (40 EC) and the Capstone (15 EC), students meet this criterion.