Syllabus: Introduction to Political Theory and Philosophy
Books:
You need to purchase the following books (available at Bookie and online bookstores):
Michael L. Morgan (ed.) Classics of Moral and Political Theory. 5th edition (2011,
Indianapolis: Hackett).
All the writings listed in the syllabus that are not available in this reader will be available online on Angel.
Course Schedule:
Thu 08/28: Introduction to the Course (no reading)
Thu 09/04: What is Political Theory and why is there a need to study it?
Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation,” in Morgan, Classics of Moral and Political Theory, pp. 1321-1370.
Sheldon Wolin, “Political Theory as a Vocation,” The American Political Science Review, Vol. 63, No. 4. (Dec., 1969), pp. 1062-1082.
Terence Ball, Reappraising Political Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), chap. 2: Whither Political Theory? Pp. 39-61.
Adrianna Cavarero, “Politicizing Theory,” Political Theory, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Aug., 2002), pp. 506-532.
I. History of Political Thought
Thu 09/11: History, part one: Ancient Political Thought-Plato
Plato, Republic, Books I, Book IV, Book V, Book VII, Morgan, Classics of Moral and Political Theory, pp. 75-93, pp.130-169, pp. 186-203.
Julia Annas, An Introduction to Plato’s Republic, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), “The Defence of Justice,” and “Plato’s State,” pp. 153-189.
Arlene W. Saxonhouse, “The Socratic Narrative: A Democratic Reading of Plato’s Dialogues,” Political Theory, Vol. 37, No. 6 (Dec., 2009), pp. 728-753.
Thu 09/18: History, part two: Early modern political thought- Machiavelli
Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapters 15-26, Morgan, Classics of Moral and Political Theory, pp. 534-553.
Machiavelli, Discourses, Book I-III, Morgan, Classics of Moral and Political Theory, pp. 554-574.
Mary Dietz, “Trapping the Prince: Machiavelli and the Politics of Deception,” The American Political Science Review, Vol. 80, No. 3 (Sep., 1986), pp. 777-799.
Thu 09/25: History, part three: Modern Political Thought, Contract Theory- Rousseau
Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, part one, Morgan, Classics of Moral and Political Theory, pp. 836-851.
Rousseau, On the Social Contract, Morgan, Classics of Moral and Political Theory, Book I, Book II (chapter 3), 882-904.
Emanuele Saccareli, “The Machiavellian Rousseau: Gender and Family Relations in the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality,” Political Theory, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Aug., 2009), pp. 482-510.
Thu 10/02: History, part four: Late modern political Thought-Marx
Marx, “For a Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing,” “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844,” “Theses on Feuerbach, “Capital Volume One,” in Robert C. Tucker (ed.). The Marx-Engels Reader (second edition, 1978, New York/London: Norton & Company), pp. 66-81, pp. 12-15, pp.143-145, pp. 294-329.
Marx, “Communist Manifesto,” “Critique of the Gotha Program,” Morgan, Classics of Moral and Political Theory, pp. 1183-1213.
Claudia Leeb, “Marx and the Gendered Structure of Capitalism,” Philosophy & Social Criticism (vol. 33, no. 7, November 2007), pp. 833-859.
-
II.Concepts of Political Thought
Thu 10/09: Concepts, part one: Justice
Aristotle, The Politics, Book III (Chapters 6 until 12), and Book IV (Chapters 11), in Morgan, Classics of Moral and Political Thought, Book III, pp. 384-389; pp. 404-407.
Immanuel Kant, “To Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch,” in Morgan, Classics of Moral and Political Thought, pp. 985-1007.
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, in Michael J. Sandel (ed), Justice: A Reader (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 203-225.
Susan Miller Okin, “John Rawls: Justice as Fairness – For Whom?” in Feminist Interpretations and Political Theory (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991), pp. 181-198.
First Paper is due
Thu 10/16: Concepts, part two: Freedom
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Chap. IV: “On the Limits to the Authority over the Individual,” in Morgan, Classics of Moral and Political Theory, pp. 1047-1056.
Isaiah Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty, in David Miller (ed); The Liberty Reader (London: Paradigm Publishers, 2006), pp. 33-57.
Hannah Arendt, “Freedom and Politics,” in David Miller (ed); The Liberty Reader (London: Paradigm Publishers, 2006), pp. 58-79.
Nancy Hirschmann, “Toward a Feminist Theory of Freedom,” in David Miller (ed); The Liberty Reader (London: Paradigm Publishers, 2006), pp. 200-222.
Thu 10/23: Concepts, part three: Power
Bertrand Russell, “The Forms of Power,” in Steven Lukes (ed), Power (New York: New York University Press, 1986), pp. 19-27.
Robert Dahl, “Power as the Control of Behavior,” in Steven Lukes (ed), Power (New York: New York University Press, 1986), pp. 37-58.
Michel Foucault, “Truth and Power,” in Power /Knowledge, Colin Gordon (ed), (New York: Random House, 1972), pp. 109-133; and “Objective,” “Method,” “Right of Death and Power over life,” in The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (New York: Vintage Books), pp. 81-102, pp. 135-159.
Georgio Agamben, selections from part III, “The Camp as Biopolitical Paradigm of the Modern,” in Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, Daniel Heller-Roazen (trans.) (1995, Stanford: Stanford University Press), pp. 119-143.
Thu 10/30: Concepts, part four: Resistance
Sophocles, Antigone, in Morgan, Classics of Moral and Political Theory, pp. 1-30.
John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, in Morgan, Classics of Moral and Political Theory, chapter 2 (paragraph 4), 713, chapter 3 (paragraph 19), p. 717, chapter 19 (paragraph 222), pp. 769-770.
Rosa Luxemburg, selections from Reform or Revolution (New York: Pathfinder, 1970), pp.1-35.
Martin Luther King, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in Civil Disobedience (Boston: University Press of America, 1989), pp. 57-71.
Thu 11/06: No class, Dr. Leeb presents at a conference
-
III.Paradigms of Political Thought
Thu 11/13: Paradigms, part one: Democratic Theory
Sheldon Wolin, “Norm and Form: The Constitutionalizing of Democracy,” in Athenian Political Thought and the Reconstruction of American Democracy, Peter Euben et al. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press), pp. 29–58.
Jürgen Habermas, “Three Normative Models of Democracy,” in S. Benhabib, ed. Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 21-30.
Seyla Benhabib, “Toward a Deliberative Model of Democratic Legitimacy,” in S. Benhabib, ed. Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 67-94.
Chantal Mouffe, “Democracy, Power and the Political,” in S. Benhabib, ed. Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 245-256.
Second Paper is due
Thu 11/20: Paradigms, part two: Feminist Political Thought
Sally Scholz, “What is Feminism?” and “Schools of Feminist Thought,” in her Feminism: A Beginner’s Guide (2010, Oneworld Publications), pp. 1-36.
Simone De Beauvoir, "Introduction," The Second Sex, Constance Borde, and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier (2011, Random House), pp. 3-17.
Iris Marion Young, “Displacing the Distributive Paradigm,” “Five Faces of Oppression,” Justice and the Politics of Difference (1990, Princeton University Press), pp. 15-65.
Sandra Lee Bartky, “Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power,” in K. Conboy, N. Medina & S. Stanbury (eds.) Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment & Feminist Theory (1997, New York: Columbia university Press), pp. 129-154.
Thu 11/27: No class: Thanksgiving Break
Thu 12/04: Paradigms, part three: Critical Theory
Max Horkheimer, “Traditional and Critical Theory,” in Critical Theory: Selected Essays (New York: Continuum Publishing, 1975), pp. 188-243.
Theodor W. Adorno, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,” “Elements of Anti-Semitism,” in Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, John Cumming (trans.) (2002, The Continuum Publishing Company), pp.120-167; 168-208.
Herbert Marcuse, “One Dimensional Society,” One-Dimensional Man: Studies of the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society, pp. 1-55.
Jürgen Habermas, “Reconciliation Through the Public Use of Reason,” The Journal of Philosophy Vol. 92, No. 3 (Mar., 1995), pp. 109-131.
Third Paper is due
Presentations, Part I
Thu 12/11: Paradigms, part four: Comparative or non-Western Political Thought
Frantz Fanon, “The Fact of Blackness,” in Black Skin White Masks (New York: Grove Press, 1967), pp. 109-140; “Concerning Violence,” in The Wretched of the Earth, (New York: Grove Press, 1963), pp. 35-106.
Mahatma Gandhi, Moral and Political Writings, selections from Volume II, “Truth and Non-Violence,” pp. 298-324.
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Under the Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” in Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Duke University Press, 2003; pp. 17-42.
Melissa Williams and Mark Warren, “A Democratic Case for Comparative Political Theory,” Political Theory, February 2014, vol. 42 no. 1, pp. 26-57.
Presentations, Part II