This is a course for advanced students who wish to develop a research project in political theory and political science. If you want to embark on such a project you probably want to explain some political phenomenon, or, perhaps, better understand an ideology, or an influential political theory. But how should you explain political phenomena? Should you focus on historical trends and structures, or should you concentrate on the actions of individuals and study particular events? Should you be concerned about explaining in objective terms why people think the way they do? Or should you try to understand their culture and their point of view from their own context? If you are thinking about making arguments that involve a “should” or and “ought to,” you may be even more confused—what is the ground from which you can make these normative claims? These are hard questions; and embarking on a long research project without having thought about them can make the task even harder than it already is. The purpose of this course is to think through the idea of a thesis (or scholarly research in general), and to reflect on the philosophical assumptions of political science, critical, and normative political theory as you do research on your chosen topic.
- Teacher: Paulina Ochoa Espejo