Main issues of political philosophy: ethos and populism

elective seminars
general courses

The student should be interested in the philosophical foundations of political issues, have the ability to think critically and analytically

Classroom

As part of the course, students will learn the relationship between ethos and populism. Students discuss research methods and advanced argumentative strategies present in the discussed texts; reconstruct and critically evaluate theses and arguments contained in the texts; assess the degree of importance of theses; they creatively comment and confront theses from various texts or different authors.

There have been many articles and books on populism in recent years. Some of them refer to political practice, to the electoral successes of politicians and political parties with an orientation known as authoritarian-populist. However, these discussions are also accompanied by a dimension typical to political philosophy, for which reflection on the relationship between the people (demos), democracy, ethos and populism is appropriate. The juxtaposition of ethos and populism shows the tension between political culture and its ethos, and anti-elitism specific to populism. Does this lead to a crisis of the cultural foundations of liberal democracy?

Regarding culture, populism remains an anti-elitist movement. In countries of liberal democracy, elite political culture is strongly saturated with liberal values such as individualism, internationalism, multiculturalism and faith in progress. Opposition to such attitudes may result in a relatively coherent alternative worldview.

Seymour Lipset, Political Man, New York 1963;

Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, Harper’s Magazine, November 1964

Populism: Its Meaning and National Characteristics, red. Ghita Ionescu and Ernest Gellner, Macmillan, New York 1969.

Margaret Canova , Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy, Political Studies (1999), XLVII, 2–16

Margaret Canovan, Taking Politics to the People: Populism as the Ideology of Democracy, [w:] Yves Meny, (red..), Democracies and the Populist Challenge, Palgrave, New York 2002, s. 25-44

Ernesto Laclau, Rozum populistyczny, przekł. pod kier. Tomasza Szkudlarka, Dolnośląska Szkoła Wyższa. Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Wrocław 2009.

Populism in Europe and the Americas. Mudde, Cas and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser red., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2012

Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, The Responses of Populism to Dahl's Democratic Dilemmas, Political Studies, 62/2013, 3,s. 470-487.

Cas Mudde, Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, Populism: a very short introduction, Oxford University Press, New York 2017,

Jan-Werner Müller, Co to jest populizm?, przekł. M. Sutowski, Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, Warszawa 2017

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Tak umierają demokracje, przekład Olga Łabendowicz, Fundacja Liberte!, Łódź: 2018

Yascha Mounk, The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom is in Danger and How to Save It, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.–London 2018.

Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism, University Press, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge 2019.

Uzupełniająca literatura przedmiotu: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/gidron_bonikowski_populismlitreview_2013.pdf

Knowledge:

Student knows

K_W01, significance of political philosophy in relation to political sciences as well as the subject and methodological specificity of political philosophy

K_W02, research methods and argumentative strategies of political philosophy

K_W03, specialist philosophical terminology connected to populism in Polish

K_W04, specialist philosophical terminology connected to populism in English (at B2 + level)

K_W05, main directions of development and the most important new achievements in the field of philosophy of populism

K_W06, selected directions and positions of contemporary political philosophy in the field of populism research,

K_W07, research on political culture and populism.

K_W08, norms constituting and regulating social structures and institutions, as well as sources of these norms, their nature, and ways of influencing human behavior

K_W09, comprehensive nature of the language and the historical variability of its meanings

K_W10, role of philosophical reflection in shaping of political sphere

K_W11, to a deeper extent the relationship between the formation of philosophical ideas and changes in culture, society and the sphere of politics;

Acquired skills:

Student can:

K_U01, independently interpret the philosophical text, creatively and innovatively comment and confront ideas derived from various texts

K_U02, specify the degree of significance of the examined problem or argumentation and ideas

K_U03, analyze complex philosophical arguments, identify their assumptions, determine logical and argumentative relationships within them

K_U04, identify advanced argumentative strategies in oral and written statements

K_U06, creatively and innovatively use philosophical and methodological knowledge in formulating hypotheses and constructing critical arguments

K_U07, formulate philosophical problems in speech and writing; make theses and critically comment on them

K_U08, select and create argumentative strategies, construct advanced and innovative critical arguments, formulate comprehensive responses to critique

K_U10, write creative texts based on self-selected literature, using original, innovative approaches and taking into account new achievements in the field of political philosophy

K_U13, search and select information from written and electronic sources, with creative use of professional search tools

K_U14 independently acquire knowledge, develop research skills and plan research projects (also group projects)

K_U16, recognizes the relationship between the formation of philosophical ideas and social and cultural processes, and determine the relationship between these relationships

Social competences acquired:

Student is ready to:

K_K01, identify his/her knowledge and skills

K_K02, recognize gaps in his/her knowledge and skills and search for the possibility of removing these gaps

K_K03, independently undertake professional activities as well as planning and organizing them

K_K04, perceiving and formulating ethical problems related to one’s own research; be responsible to colleagues and other members of society, and be active in solving these problems

K_K05 participate in social and cultural life; is interested in innovative philosophical concepts in connection with other parts of cultural and social life and encourages the implementation of these concepts.

activity (participation of the discussion) - 25%

presentation of the material (selection of additional literature, discussion, ability to identify the main problem and argumentation) - 25%

preparation of the final version of the presentation (including the arguments formulated in the discussion) - 50%

Permissible number of absences: 2 in a semester