Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL2112: Politics and Its Discontents

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Overview

NQF Level 5
Credits 15 ECTS Value 7.5
Term(s) and duration

This module ran during term 2 (11 weeks)

Academic staff

Dr Robin Durie (Convenor)

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

Available via distance learning

No

This new module explores the work of Nietzsche and Freud, and assesses the impact of their work on some of the basic principles of political science and political theory. The theories of both Nietzsche and Freud undermine the key presumption of political science that political actors are rational agents. Both argue that the types of beings that we are, and the ways in which we act, are determined by conflicts between more basic drives. Their theories have influenced many of the most significant developments in contemporary discourses of politics, from Foucault’s theory of power to critical feminism.

Students will benefit if they have taken any of POL1025, POL1026 and/or POL2059 (as they will be able to make historical comparisons), but there will be no presumption that they have done so in the teaching of the module.

This module is suitable for non-specialist students and recommended for interdisciplinary pathways.

Module created

15/07/2019

Last revised

23/07/2019