PHIL 4305 JUSTICE IN THE U.S.

Call Number 13012 Section 501

John Q. Stilwell, J.D., Ph.D., Lecturer II, Instructor
Thursdays 7PM – 9:45PM
JO 3.906
Course Description

This course will be conducted in seminar fashion: that is, much of the work will
be accomplished independently by students working on research papers which will
account for a large part of the final evaluation. Students will have reading assignments to
be responsible for in connection with class discussions and projects suggested by Dr.
Stilwell’s work Just Conversation: The Rhetoric of Justice in Post World War II
America, which is available in the Library. Portions of this work, along with other
materials, will be distributed to students for study from time to time as class progresses.
Two major areas of justice in contemporary American life will be examined: The fairness
of distribution of (1) economic justice and (2) criminal justice. No texts are required for
purchase; references for required reading will be provided. I will also have a reserve list
of books from which brief assignments will be made, primarily from John Rawls’ works
on the theory of justice. Students will be given the opportunity to choose from several
topic areas to concentrate their work in the course and to prepare a term paper for final
evaluation in the course. The paper will be not more than about 15-20 pages, including
notes and bibliography. and will be in the nature of a research paper on the chosen topic.
Students may also be given shorter written exercises in class on specific topics in the
course which will form a part of the evaluation. Class work will account for about 40%
and the final term paper for about 60% of evaluation weight.

The course is devoted to the study of what justice should encompass in modern
U.S. society, at a time when U.S. military forces are engaged in hostilities, and U.S.
economic, political and military dominance throughout the world, complicated by global
communication networks of all forms of electronic media, render the country vulnerable
to terrorism. Focusing on distributive and retributive justice, the class will examine
allocation of resources and treatment of individuals in a time characterized by war
rhetoric, if not wartime conditions as traditionally experienced. Various responses of the
U.S. since September 11, 2001, including the Patriot Act, the Military Tribunal Order and
Justice Department and Immigration Department treatment of suspected enemy
combatants and detainees for various other reasons asserted to be in connection with the
war on terror, will be examined in detail.

Other assigned readings will serve as critical thinking viewpoints to aid in the
evaluation of the conclusions and arguments made in the text material, and in class work.
Students will be given basic instruction in the historical context and philosophical
underpinnings of the areas of subject matter covered in the course, and will also be given
basic instruction in legal method, in order better to equip them to understand the reading
of legal materials such as statues and judicial decisions. In addition, students will be
asked to study and understand some basic materials on the history and use of rhetoric as a
fundamental human communication art, and also as the foundation of ethics and justice.
Prospective students and those already registered should visit the Instructor’s web site to
view the course materials from prior renderings of the course and to read the Introductory
Lecture on Justice.
The web site is http://www.PowersOfTen.org.