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LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
WATER TOWER CAMPUS AUTUMN SEMESTER 2016
SOCIAL & POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, PHIL 182
Instructor: Dr. Vincent J. Samar
MEETS: Tuesday, Thursday – 10:00-11:15 A.M.
Room L08, Corboy Law Center, WTC
I. Course Course Section Course
Prefix Number Number Name Credit: Lecture Lab
PHIL 182 005 Social & 3 3 0
Political
II. Prerequisites: None
III. Course Description: This course examines the norms or principles that establish and justify societies and
determine the rights and responsibilities of a society in relation to its own members, of the members in
relation to each other and to society as a whole, and of a society in relation to other societies. The course
considers the application of these principles to such issues as justice, human rights, political and social
institutions, and world community. Because the institution of law provides a central organizing tool for how
democratic societies actually operate, the course will consider all the above issues both on their own and in
context to specific examples from the American legal experience.
IV Knowledge Area: Societal and Cultural Knowledge
Area learning outcome: Demonstrate cultural, societal and self understanding.
The study of societies, cultures and self involves learning about the social sciences. Graduates should
understand: the beliefs, rituals, structures and values that constitute the human condition and collective as a
society; the political, economic, and social systems of states and societies; and the forms of expression that
make them understandable to themselves and others as a culture. Knowledge of one’s own development, self,
identify, culture, and state, as well as a global and international perspective, are important to societal
and cultural understanding.
More specific course outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the complex structures
involved in social existence, sensitivity to the way different views of the social good affect judgments of their
worth and effectiveness, and an understanding of the way these structures affect the life of the individual.
V. Learning Objectives
1. To acquaint the students with a through understanding of some of the conceptual and normative issues that
are implicated by the rule of law.
2. To show how law and legal institutions cannot be fully conceptualized aside from the
political/moral/social environment in which they operate; and further to consider whether in today’s closely–
tied world, that environment makes it valuable for courts to not only pay attention to their own precedents,
but also to relevant well-thought out decisions written by other national and international tribunals.
3. To connect up broad philosophical theories of rights, liberties and justice to particular fact–centered
applications in which the institution of law will play a uniquely dominant role.
4. To help the student appreciate the enormous social, political, and moral difficulties that democracies in
particular encounter when they agree to operate by the rule of law and not just by majority rules.
VI. College of Arts & Sciences Statement on Academic Integrity:
A basic mission of a university is to search for and to communicate the truth as it is
honestly perceived. A genuine learning community cannot exist unless this demanding
standard is a fundamental tenet of the intellectual life of the community. Students of
Loyola University Chicago are expected to know, to respect, and to practice this standard
of personal honesty.
Academic dishonesty can take several forms, including, but not limited to cheating,
plagiarism, copying another student’s work, and submitting false documents.
Academic cheating is a serious act that violates academic integrity. Cheating includes,
but is not limited to, such acts as
• Obtaining, distributing, or communicating examination materials prior to the
scheduled examination without the consent of the teacher
• Providing information to another student during an examination
• Obtaining information from another student or any other person during an
examination
• Using any material or equipment during an examination without consent of the
instructor, or in a manner which is not authorized by the instructor
• Attempting to change answers after the examination has been submitted
• Unauthorized collaboration, or the use in whole or part of another student’s work,
on homework, lab reports, programming assignments, and any other course work
which is completed outside of the classroom
• Falsifying medical or other documents to petition for excused absences or
extensions of deadlines
• Any other action that, by omission or commission, compromises the integrity of
the academic evaluation process
Plagiarism is a serious form of violation of the standards of academic dishonesty.
Plagiarism is the appropriation of ideas, language, work, or intellectual property of
another, either by intent or by negligence, without sufficient public acknowledgement
and appropriate citation that the material is not one’s own. It is true that every thought
probably has been influenced to some degree by the thoughts and actions of others. Such
influences can be thought of as affecting the ways we see things and express all thoughts.
Plagiarism, however, involves the taking and use of specific words and ideas of others
without proper acknowledgement of the sources, and includes the following
