PHIL 345Philosophy of Law

Catalog

The course concerns the philosophical foundations of law and legal practice. Philosophers are interested in a variety of questions about law: what is law, who or what is the subject of the law, what should law require, how should a legal system be ordered, how is the rule of law valuable, what are its special dangers, should law be obeyed, how ought we respond to legalized injustice. We'll examine these questions through the lens of two broad themes in philosophy of law: the law's regulation of sex, and its definition of personhood. We will attempt to understand what is at stake in the questions raised in both domains. Students are expected to learn the theories and their arguments, and to become capable of offering well-reasoned defenses of their own positions on at least some of these matters.