Teacher(s)
Language
French
Prerequisites
The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to : | |
| The class focuses on a collection of texts written by influential authors of Western political thought from the Renaissance to the end of the XIXth century. Through a close reading of those texts, the class aims to introduce the students to some of the most significant theories regarding political phenomena in circulation before the advent of modern political science in the XXth century. A emphasis is laid upon the relations those grand theories draw between their intellectual and historical contexts of origin and the concepts and paradigms they put forward. The first half of the lectures is dedicated to the discussion of those “founding texts” and their understanding of political order in their respective societies. By the end of this cycle of lectures, students should have familiarized themselves with the thought of the authors covered and should be able to apply them to practical situations. The goal is for them to be able eventually to build, on the basis of this theoretical foundation, an analytical framework to apply to a contemporary political question, allowing them to test the current relevance of those historical theories and their continued heuristic potential. The second half of the lectures will be made mainly of tutorials during which the professor will supervise the student’s work. Beforehand, a few sessions will have introduced the general theme of the year, which from 2020-21 is dedicated to the political management of the Covid 19 crisis. Regarding transversal skills, by the end of the class, students are expected to be able to: a) read comprehensively original scientific texts b) summarize their readings, both in a written and oral format c) put to good use their writing skills to develop a personal analysis, respectful of basic scientific rules and conventions (structured plan, bibliographical references, quotes, no plagiarism, credible sources, etc.) The teaching apparatus also aims to foster the development of the students’ argumentative skills and to confront them to the obligation to respond to the criticism of their personal scientific analysis. |
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Content
The class is taught in French, one hour a week for the whole year.
The class focuses on a collection of excerpts in French of texts written by influential authors of Western political thought from the Renaissance to the end of the XIXth century (Machiavel, Hobbes, Rousseau, Marx…). Through a close reading of those texts by the students, the class aims to introduce the students to some of the most significant theories regarding political phenomena in circulation before the advent of modern political science in the XXth century. A emphasis is laid upon the relations those grand theories draw between their intellectual and historical contexts of origin and the concepts and paradigms they put forward.
The first half of the lectures is dedicated to the introduction to the reading of those texts, collected in the reading portfolio (see Bibliography). By the end of this cycle of lectures, students should have familiarized themselves with the thought and concepts of the authors covered and should be able to apply them to practical situations. The goal is for them to be able eventually to build in a written assignment, on the basis of this theoretical foundation, an analytical framework to apply to a contemporary political question, allowing them to test the current relevance of those historical theories and their continued heuristic potential. The second half of the lectures will be mainly dedicated to the supervision of the written assignment, to prepare following the detailed guidelines (to be found in document providing an in-depth explanation of the professor expectations on the Moodle page).
The class focuses on a collection of excerpts in French of texts written by influential authors of Western political thought from the Renaissance to the end of the XIXth century (Machiavel, Hobbes, Rousseau, Marx…). Through a close reading of those texts by the students, the class aims to introduce the students to some of the most significant theories regarding political phenomena in circulation before the advent of modern political science in the XXth century. A emphasis is laid upon the relations those grand theories draw between their intellectual and historical contexts of origin and the concepts and paradigms they put forward.
The first half of the lectures is dedicated to the introduction to the reading of those texts, collected in the reading portfolio (see Bibliography). By the end of this cycle of lectures, students should have familiarized themselves with the thought and concepts of the authors covered and should be able to apply them to practical situations. The goal is for them to be able eventually to build in a written assignment, on the basis of this theoretical foundation, an analytical framework to apply to a contemporary political question, allowing them to test the current relevance of those historical theories and their continued heuristic potential. The second half of the lectures will be mainly dedicated to the supervision of the written assignment, to prepare following the detailed guidelines (to be found in document providing an in-depth explanation of the professor expectations on the Moodle page).
Teaching methods
The class is divided in two parts.
The first half of the lectures is dedicated to the introduction to the reading of the excerpts of the texts collected in the reading portfolio (see Bibliography). The latter will be made available both in a physical format at the ‘Reprographie’ office and in an electronic format on the class’ webpage (on the Moodle platform). Each session will be based on a slide show available at the time (only) on the course website.
The second half of the lectures will mainly focus on the preparation of a written assignment. Each student will have to build upon the analytical frameworks developed in those “founding texts” to decipher a contemporary political phenomenon in relation with a collective topic chosen by the professor. This topic changes every year (in the recent past, it tackled the following issues: public debts, armed conflicts, economic policies of EU’s member States) and a lecture is dedicated to its introduction at the beginning of the last third of the lectures. In 2020-21 and 2021-22 written assignments were dedicated to the political management of the Covid 19 crisis. An example of a good assignment of the previous years is available on the class’ webpage.
Description of the ex-cathedra lectures
Each lecture is dedicated to the introduction to the reading of excerpts of one text written by an author and collected in the reading portfolio (see Bibliography), following mostly a chronological order. For each text, here are the main key elements developed by the lectures :
LEARNING ACTIVITY
Learning activities consist for the students, in the first term, to read by themselves the "founding texts", and in the second term, to produce a writen assignement.
The written assignment can be done alone or in groups of two students, according to the student’s choice. To invite students to work collectively, assignments prepared by two students can be shorter than assignments written single-handedly. Collective assignment will receive a common grade for the written assignment. But grades may vary for their oral defence of the written assignment (see Assessment Methods).
The content of the different stages of preparation of the assignment is described in an in-depth explanation of the class. This document can be downloaded from the class’ webpage. The written assignment is subjected to a close supervision process, including an individualized feedback at each of the three stages of its completion before the submission of its final version: note of intent, detailed plan, draft version. This feedback, not included in the final grade, will cover both the formal (bibliographic references, quality of information sources, etc.) and substantive aspects (quality of the research question, appropriateness of the concepts drawn from the “founding texts”, etc.) To help them realize the best assignment possible, students will find, on one hand, in the in-depth explanation available on the class’ webpage a detailed plan around which to articulate the different sections of their manuscript and, on the other hand, a “check-list” enumerating formal as well as substantial attention points to consider during the preparation of the assignment.
The assignment’s final version will be subjected to an assessment and included in the final grade (see below). It will be sent at the latest just before the examination session. No delay wil be tolerated.
The first half of the lectures is dedicated to the introduction to the reading of the excerpts of the texts collected in the reading portfolio (see Bibliography). The latter will be made available both in a physical format at the ‘Reprographie’ office and in an electronic format on the class’ webpage (on the Moodle platform). Each session will be based on a slide show available at the time (only) on the course website.
The second half of the lectures will mainly focus on the preparation of a written assignment. Each student will have to build upon the analytical frameworks developed in those “founding texts” to decipher a contemporary political phenomenon in relation with a collective topic chosen by the professor. This topic changes every year (in the recent past, it tackled the following issues: public debts, armed conflicts, economic policies of EU’s member States) and a lecture is dedicated to its introduction at the beginning of the last third of the lectures. In 2020-21 and 2021-22 written assignments were dedicated to the political management of the Covid 19 crisis. An example of a good assignment of the previous years is available on the class’ webpage.
Description of the ex-cathedra lectures
Each lecture is dedicated to the introduction to the reading of excerpts of one text written by an author and collected in the reading portfolio (see Bibliography), following mostly a chronological order. For each text, here are the main key elements developed by the lectures :
- Contextualizing the text: at what historical time, in which place was it written?
- Providing some biographical information on the author
- If the text is cut out of a longer publication, putting the excerpt(s) back into their larger publishing context.
- Highlighting the text’s general structure: what are the texts different sections? How are they articulated?
- Excavating the text’s main tenets regarding the understanding of the society’s political order, attempting to distinguish some decisive paradigms and concepts
- Assigning the main ideas to two epistemological registers: descriptive and normative/prescriptive.
- Establishing logical ties between political ideas and their predecessors.
LEARNING ACTIVITY
Learning activities consist for the students, in the first term, to read by themselves the "founding texts", and in the second term, to produce a writen assignement.
The written assignment can be done alone or in groups of two students, according to the student’s choice. To invite students to work collectively, assignments prepared by two students can be shorter than assignments written single-handedly. Collective assignment will receive a common grade for the written assignment. But grades may vary for their oral defence of the written assignment (see Assessment Methods).
The content of the different stages of preparation of the assignment is described in an in-depth explanation of the class. This document can be downloaded from the class’ webpage. The written assignment is subjected to a close supervision process, including an individualized feedback at each of the three stages of its completion before the submission of its final version: note of intent, detailed plan, draft version. This feedback, not included in the final grade, will cover both the formal (bibliographic references, quality of information sources, etc.) and substantive aspects (quality of the research question, appropriateness of the concepts drawn from the “founding texts”, etc.) To help them realize the best assignment possible, students will find, on one hand, in the in-depth explanation available on the class’ webpage a detailed plan around which to articulate the different sections of their manuscript and, on the other hand, a “check-list” enumerating formal as well as substantial attention points to consider during the preparation of the assignment.
The assignment’s final version will be subjected to an assessment and included in the final grade (see below). It will be sent at the latest just before the examination session. No delay wil be tolerated.
Evaluation methods
The final grade (on 20) is given at the end of the second term. It results from the assessment of the written assignment such as justified by an individual oral defence. Since it can be done either alone or in groups, every work done collectively will result in an identical grade for each student participating to it. The oral defence of the assignment will be done individually and can result in different grades. The written assignment must be submitted no later than the day before the start of the June examination session. No late submission will be tolerated. The oral defence will take place during the June exam session. If the assignment was not submitted or submitted after the deadline, its oral defence will not be organized and the grade for the written assignment and its oral defence will be 0. An assignment will be deemed unacceptable and its grade brought back to 0 if it contains either too many spelling and grammar mistakes or too many mistakes in the references of its sources (be it in the footnotes or in the final bibliography) or if it is based on a too poor bibliography or in the presence of an overall statement whose articulation is insufficiently clear from the point of view of the clear sequence of sentences and paragraphs. Finally, the detection of a case of plagiarism in an assignment will result in a final grade of 0/20.
Unless specified otherwise, the assessment methods described above apply to the exams’ second session. However, no supervision apparatus will be organized for the second session.
Rules remains similar if the exam would be held on line due to circumstances related to the Covid-19 crisis.
Unless specified otherwise, the assessment methods described above apply to the exams’ second session. However, no supervision apparatus will be organized for the second session.
Rules remains similar if the exam would be held on line due to circumstances related to the Covid-19 crisis.
Online resources
The class has its own webpage on the Moodle platform. Students will find herein :
- The electronic version of the reading portfolio
- An in-depth explanation of the class’ guidelines for the research and writing of the assignment
- The calendar of the lectures and of the assignment’s production process
Other documents, relating to the topic of the year, will be available on the webpage.
An online forum is also at the disposal of the students to ask questions on the lectures or the assignment.
The different versions corresponding to the different stages of the assignment’s production process will be uploaded by the students on the Moodle webpage.
- The electronic version of the reading portfolio
- An in-depth explanation of the class’ guidelines for the research and writing of the assignment
- The calendar of the lectures and of the assignment’s production process
Other documents, relating to the topic of the year, will be available on the webpage.
An online forum is also at the disposal of the students to ask questions on the lectures or the assignment.
The different versions corresponding to the different stages of the assignment’s production process will be uploaded by the students on the Moodle webpage.
Bibliography
Un portefeuille de lecture qui sera disponible sous format papier à la Reprographie et téléchargeable sous une forme numérique sur le site de cours, sur la plateforme Moodle, reprend l’ensemble des textes dont la lecture est obligatoire et qu’il est demandé aux étudiant•e•s de s’approprier.
Les étudiant•e•s trouveront dans le document de présentation approfondie du cours qui est téléchargeable sur le site de cours une bibliographie complémentaire qui peut leur être utile à la fois pour la compréhension des textes du portefeuille de lecture et pour la réalisation du travail écrit.
Les étudiant•e•s trouveront dans le document de présentation approfondie du cours qui est téléchargeable sur le site de cours une bibliographie complémentaire qui peut leur être utile à la fois pour la compréhension des textes du portefeuille de lecture et pour la réalisation du travail écrit.
Teaching materials
- Portefeuille de lecture. Volume 1
- Portefeuille de lecture. Volume 2
- Diaporamas introductifs aux textes contenus dans le portefeuille de lecture
Faculty or entity
