University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 11

Semester: 2

Planned timetable: 2.00 pm - 4.00 pm Mon

One of the major issues of twentieth century (international) political thought was that of the fate of liberal thought and democratic politics in light of progressive secularisation and rationalisation experienced by Western societies during the late ninteenth and early twentieth centuries. The combination of radical technological advancement and grand-scale social and economic transformation marking the transition into an age of mass politics and industrialised violence formed the background of what is often called the crisis of modern politics. The main characteristic of this new predicament was an acute sense of disorientation and loss of meaning following the collapse of the moral and civilisational standards of the nineteenth century. Philosophers like Nietzsche spoke of the death of God and the advent of the era of European nihilism to denote the retreat of metaphysical certainties in late modernity. The development of new forms of mechanised destruction and the rise of totalitarian forms of government triggered trenchant critiques of liberal politics and an agonising search for viable forms of political and social organisation that would save modernity from itself, i.e. rethink the nature of democratic politics in the age of mass-societies. This module will introduce students to the various diagnoses of modernity's civilisational malaise using the concepts of evil and tragedy as categorical indices to describe what went wrong with modernity. The second part of the module will explore theological and secular responses to the multiple crisis of liberal politics ranging from liberal conservative (Morgenthau), social democratic (Arendt, Frankfurt School) to Christian realist attempts to save modernity from itself as well as radical postmodern theological critiques of modernity.

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 1-hour lecture and 1-hour of fieldwork.

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: Coursework = 100%


Re-assessment: Coursework = 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Dr V Paipais
Module teaching staff: Dr V Paipais
Module coordinator email vp31@st-andrews.ac.uk