TRN203H1
TRN203H1: Society, its Limits and Possibilities
Course Description
We study key texts that have articulated fundamental features of modern social and political reality, including capitalism, socialism, bureaucracy, media, identity politics, consent, colonial exploitation and the post-colonial world. Our chief guides are selections from texts in which historical authors first articulated the foundations of the contemporary world. Because the fundamental features that co-constitute our reality—and so determine our limitations and possibilities—have histories and inertias, our journey is a historical one.
If today some aim to overcome the status quo while others resist change, they all do so in terms of social and political foundations. Our task is to understand the evolving foundations that have made us who we have become.
Assessment: October take-home of about five one-page-answer questions (~25%); end-of-term essay (~6pp, ~30%); tutorial participation (~15%); final exam (either oral or written, depending on public health requirements) (~30%).
2024-2025 Instructor
| John Duncan
John Duncan is an associate professor and the director of the University of Toronto’s major program in Ethics, Society and Law (we say “E, S AND L”) hosted by Trinity College. ES&L enrolls seventy-five new students from more than five hundred applicants annually, and features small seminar courses, innovative programing, a focus on sustainability, and more traditional courses. Professor Duncan is also the academic director of the Ideas for the World program at Victoria College in the U of T. His interests include outreach and engagement co-learning (please see, e.g., “Humanities for Humanity”), critical issues in contemporary society, politics, and international relations (please see, e.g., “Three NATO gambles in Ukraine” and “The war that never left Afghanistan“), and the history of philosophy and the humanities (please see, e.g., Rousseau and Desire, “Sartre and Realism-All-the-Way-Down“, and “Frankenstein’s Message: Life Without Love is Monstrous“). He is involved in peace research and directs the Humanities for Humanity programs at Trinity. For more information, please see his web presence on Academia.edu.
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