munotes®
Sign in
Home / Syllabus / Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) / SY BA / Semester 4 / Philosophy / Political Philosophy

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Political Philosophy Syllabus - Mumbai University 2026

Political Philosophy Syllabus.pdf
Major · Philosophy · Semester 4 · SY BA · 4 credits

Loading syllabus...

Syllabus for Political Philosophy

Major · Philosophy · Semester 4 · SY BA · 4 credits

Practise with the Semester 4 past papers. They are from the old syllabus, so check each topic against this one.

Module 1: Political ideologies

  • 1 Liberalism, Socialism, Marxism
  • 2 Anarchism, Totalitarianism,
  • 3 Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism

Module 2: Liberty

  • 1 Isaiah Berlin: Negative and Positive liberty
  • 2 Jacques Rousseau: positive liberty
  • 3 Gandhi’s Civil Disobedience, right to dissent and civil disobedience –
  • Martin Luther King

Module 3: Just War and Pacifism

  • 1 What is War? Theories of War Just
  • 2 War Theory: (i) Justice of War (jus ad bellum) (ii) Justice in war (jus in bello), (iii) Justice after war (jus post bellum)
  • 3 Types of pacifism.

Module 4: Justice

  • 1 Justice as preservation: Plato
  • 2 Justice as fairness: John Rawls
  • 3 Social justice: Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.

References

  • Robert Goodman, Philip Pettit and Thomas Pogge A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy Blackwell: 2007 ( 2 volumes)
  • Baradat, Leon. Political Ideologies: their origins and impact (Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2008)
  • Bird, Colin. An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2006)
  • Heywood, Andrew. Political Theory: An Introduction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012/13)
  • Knowles, Dudley. Political Philosophy (London: Routledge, 2001)
  • David Miller ed. The Liberty Reader Routledge 2006 : Readings from the above text as follows: (a)Two Concepts of Liberty by Isaiah Berlin (b) Negative and Positive Freedom by
  • Gerald C. MacCallum, Jr. (c)The Republican Ideal of Freedom by Philip Pettit (d) A Third Concept of Liberty by Quentin Skinner
  • Martin Luther King. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Letter_Birmingham_Jail.pdf 1963
  • Nicholas Fotion War and Ethics: a New Just War Theory (Continuum, 2007)
  • Colin Bird, Introduction to Political Philosophy chapter 10
  • Catriona McKinnon, Issues in Political Theory, chapter 3
  • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (on line source) readings on war and pacificism.
  • Julian Lamont “Distributive Justice” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Robert Nozick Anarchy, State and Utopia, New York: Basic Books, 1974 (chapter 7)
  • John Rawls A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press, 1971(chapter 1 and chapter 2)
  • Raymond Plant Modern Political Thought Wiley Blackwell 1991 (Relevant chapters)
  • Plato, Republic New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006 (Book 1)
  • B.R. Ambedkar “Annihilation of Caste” in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Vol. 1. Bombay: Education Department, Government of Maharashtra, 1979, pp. 25-96. (also available online)
  • B.R. Ambedkar “Buddha and His Dhamma”
  • Arun P. Mukherjee “B.R. Ambedkar, John Dewey, and the Meaning of Democracy” New Literary History (2009) 40 (2): 345-370
  • Valerian Rodrigues “Ambedkar on Preferential Treatment” Seminar (2005), 549, pp 55– 61. Major Paper (04 Credits) Following is the proposed paper pattern for both the semesters (A) External /
Issue
Done!