Political Theory
Class code
V53.0100
Instructor Details Dr Oliver Curry
Class Details
o.s.curry@lse.ac.uk
Spring 2008
Mondays 2pm-5pm
Prerequisites
Location: tba
None
Class Description What are governments for, and where do they come from? Who should rule? What’s the difference
between a just and an unjust government? To what degree should the state interfere in individuals’ lives?
Why should individuals obey the state? This course introduces students to these and other perennial
problems of political life, and it reviews the solutions to these problems that have been offered by such
great political theorists as Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Mill and Marx.
Each week’s meeting will consist of a lecture, student presentations, discussion and other activities. The
emphasis will be on primary texts, but we will also read articles that demonstrate the continuing
relevance of classic political theory to modern political life.
Desired Outcomes By the end of the course, students should: understand and appreciate the problems of political life; be
able to explain, assess and compare the various solutions that have been offered to these problems; and
be aware of how political theory can illuminate contemporary political debates.
Assessment
Exam 50%, essays 30%, class presentation 10%, class participation 10%.
Components
Assessment
Grade A: Very good grasp of issues and literature. Able to employ material in original and insightful
ways.
Expectations
Grade B: Good grasp of issues and literature. Able to employ material effectively.
Grade C: Adequate grasp of basic issues and literature.
Grade D: Inadequate grasp of issues and literature.
Grade F: No discernible grasp of issues or literature.
Page 1 of 7
Attendance Policy
NYU-L has a strict policy about course attendance. No unexcused absences are permitted. Students
should contact their class teachers to catch up on missed work but should NOT approach them for
excused absences. Absences due to illness must be discussed with the Assistant Director for Student Life
within one week of your return to class. Absence requests for non-illness purposes must be discussed
with the Assistant Director for Academic Affairs prior to the date(s) in question. Unexcused absences
will be penalized by deducting 3% from the student’s final course mark. Students are responsible for
making up any work missed due to absence.
Unexcused absences from exams are not permitted and will result in failure of the exam. If you are
granted an excused absence from examination (with authorisation, as above), your lecturer will decide
how you will make-up the assessment component, if at all (by make-up examination, extra coursework,
or an increased weighting on an alternate assessment component, etc.).
NYU-L also expects students to arrive to class promptly (both at the beginning and after any breaks) and
to remain for the duration of the class. If timely attendance becomes a problem it is the prerogative of
each instructor to deduct a mark or marks from the final grade of each late arrival and each early
departure.
Please note that for classes involving a field trip or other external visit, transportation difficulties are
never grounds for an excused absence. It is the student’s responsibility to arrive at an agreed meeting
point in a punctual and timely fashion.
Late Submission of
(1) Written work due in class must be submitted during the class time to the professor.
Work
(2) Late work should be submitted in person to the Assistant Director for Academic Affairs in office
hours (Mon – Fri, 10:30 – 17:30), who will write on the essay or other work the date and time of
submission, in the presence of the student. Another member of the administrative staff can accept the
work, in person, in the absence of the Assistant Director for Academic Affairs and will write the date and
time of submission on the work, as above.
(3) Work submitted within 5 weekdays after the submission time without an agreed extension receives a
penalty of 10 points on the 100 point scale.
(4) Written work submitted after 5 weekdays after the submission date without an agreed extension fails
and is given a zero.
(5) Please note end of semester essays must be submitted on time.
Plagiarism Policy
Plagiarism: the presentation of another person’s words, ideas, judgment, images or data as though they
were your own, whether intentionally or unintentionally, constitutes an act of plagiarism.
All submitted written work must be accompanied by a signed plagiarism sheet.
Please be advised that NYU in London may submit in an electronic form the work of any student to a
database for use in the detection of plagiarism, without further prior notification to the student. This
database may be searched for the purpose of comparison with other students’ work or with other
pre-existing writing or publications, and other academic institutions may also search it. The database is
managed by JISC (Joint Information Systems Council) and has been established with the support of the
Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Students must retain an electronic copy of their work until their final grades are posted on Albert and
must supply an electronic copy, if requested to do so by NYU in London. Not submitting a copy of their
work upon request will result in automatic failure in the assignment and possible failure in the class.
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Required Text(s)
Morgan, M, and M L Morgan, eds. Classics of Moral and Political Theory: Hackett, 2001.
ISBN: 0872205770
Rosen, M, W Wolff, and C McKinnon, eds. Political Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
ISBN: 0192892789
Supplemental
Russell, B. History of Western Philosophy. London: Routledge, 1946.
Texts(s) (not
required to
Singer, P. The President of Good and Evil. London: Granta Books, 2004.
purchase as copies
The Economist
are in NYU-L
http://www.economist.com
Library)
Additional
None.
Required
Equipment
Session 1
What is the point of political theory?
Mon 21 Jan
Required reading:
Pericles. “The Democratic Citizen.” In Political Thought, edited by M Rosen, W Wolff and C
McKinnon, #61. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Further reading:
Roosevelt, T. R. (1883). The Duties of American Citizenship, New York: Buffalo. http://www.pbs.org/
wgbh/amex/presidents/26_t_roosevelt/psources/ps_citizen.html
Russell, B. (1912). The Problems of Philosophy. New York: Henry Holt. (Chapter 15: The Value of
Philosophy)
http://www.ditext.com/russell/rus15.html
Orwell, G. “Politics and the English Language.” (1946).
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit
Session 2
Mon 28 Jan
Who should rule? Plato’s alternative to democracy
Required reading:
Selections from Plato’s Republic (368d-375d, 412c-417b, 514a-521d)
Additional reading:
Plato. “Ruling as a Skill.” In Political Thought, edited by M Rosen, W Wolff and C McKinnon, #34.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Popper, K R. The Open Society and Its Enemies. London: Routledge, 1945. (Chapters 6, 7, 8)
*Russell, B. History of Western Philosophy. London: Routledge, 1946. (Chapter 14.)
Further reading:
Aristotle. The Athenian Constitution.
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/athenian_const.1.1.html
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Session 3
Mon 4 Feb
Are humans ‘political animals’? Aristotle on the nature of politics
Required reading:
Selections from Aristotle’s Politics (Books 1, 3 & 7)
Aristotle. “The State Exists by Nature.” In Political Thought, edited by M Rosen, W Wolff and C
McKinnon, #1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Additional reading:
*Russell, B. History of Western Philosophy. London: Routledge, 1946. (Chapters 20 & 21.)
Popper, K R. The Open Society and Its Enemies. London: Routledge, 1945. (Chapter 11.)
Further reading:
Sections on “Liberal Theory Under Strain” and “Communitarianism”, in Rosen, M, W Wolff, and C
McKinnon, eds. Political Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Session 4
Mon 11 Feb
Responsive Communitarian Platform
http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/platformtext.html
Are the laws of God superior to the laws of man? Augustine on church and state
Required reading:
Selections from Augustine’s The City of God (Chapters 4 & 17)
Additional reading:
King, M. L. “An Unjust Law is No Law.” In Political Thought, edited by M Rosen, W Wolff and C
McKinnon, #32. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Further reading:
Singer, P. The President of Good and Evil. London: Granta Books, 2004. (Chapter 5: The Power of
Faith.)
Survey: Islam and the West, The Economist, 11/09/03 (Especially: The law of man or the law of God?)
http://www.economist.com/surveys/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2035107
Berman, P. (2003, March 23). The Philosopher of Islamic Terror. The New York Times. http://
query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?
res=9F01E7D91731F930A15750C0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
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Session 5
Mon 18 Feb
Are political leaders above the law? Machiavelli on The Prince
NB. First essay due.
Required reading:
Selections from Machiavelli’s The Prince
Additional reading:
Machiavelli, N. “The Servility of the Moderns.” In Political Thought, edited by M Rosen, W Wolff and
C McKinnon, #63. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
*Skinner, Q. “Introduction” to The Prince, Cambridge University Press.
Further reading:
Walzer, M. “Political Action: The Problem of Dirty Hands.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 2, no. 2
(1973): 160-80.
Kocis, R A. Machiavelli Redeemed: Retrieving His Humanist Perspectives on Equality, Power, and
Glory: Lehigh University Press, 1998.
Berlin, I. “The Question of Machiavelli.” The New York Review of Books 17, no. 7 (1971).
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/10391
Session 6
Mon 25 Feb
Yoo, J., & Delahunty, R. J. (2005, February 1). Rewriting the Laws of War for a New Enemy: The
Geneva Convention Is Not the Last Word. Los Angeles Times. (http://www.aei.org/publications/
filter.all,pubID.21905/pub_detail.asp)
Is life without government ‘nasty, brutish and short’? Hobbes on the state of nature and the social
contract
Required reading:
Selections from Hobbes’ Leviathan (Chapters 13, 14 & 15).
Hobbes, T. “The Misery of the Natural Condition of Mankind.” In Political Thought, edited by M Rosen,
W Wolff and C McKinnon, #2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Hobbes, T. “Creating Leviathan.” In Political Thought, edited by M Rosen, W Wolff and C McKinnon,
#20. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Session 7
Mon 3 March
Additional reading:
Axelrod, R. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books, 1984.
What are the proper limits of state power? Locke’s social contract
Required reading:
Selections from Locke’s Second Treatise on Government (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 8, & 9).
Additional reading:
Locke, J. “The State of Nature and the State of War.” In Political Thought, edited by M Rosen, W Wolff
and C McKinnon, #3. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Locke, J. “Express and Tacit Consent.” In Political Thought, edited by M Rosen, W Wolff and C
McKinnon, #21. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Smith, M. B. E. (1973). Is there a prima facie obligation to obey the law? The Yale Law Review, 82(5),
950-976.
Further reading:
Locke, J. (1689). A Letter Concerning Toleration.
http://www.constitution.org/jl/tolerati.htm
Page 5 of 7
Session 8
Mon 10 March
How do we ever come to own anything? Locke’s theory of private property
Required reading:
Selections from Locke’s Second Treatise on Government (Chapter 5)
Locke, J. “Labour as the Basis of Property.” In Political Thought, edited by M Rosen, W Wolff and C
McKinnon, #73. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Staff. (2001, March 29). No Title. The Economist.
Additional reading:
Tawney, R H. “Reaping without Sowing.” In Political Thought, edited by M Rosen, W Wolff and C
McKinnon, #80. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Nozick, R. “Difficulties with Mixing Labour.” In Political Thought, edited by M Rosen, W Wolff and C
McKinnon, #81. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
*Singer, P. The President of Good and Evil. London: Granta Books, 2004. (Chapter 2: A Single Nation of
Justice and Opportunity.)
Session 9
Mon 31 March
Further reading:
Hume, D. Treatise of Human Nature, (Book III, Part II, Section 2: Of the Origin of Justice and Property),
Morgan, pp836-845.
Is ‘pure’ democracy possible? Rousseau’s social contract
Required reading:
Selections from Rousseau’s The Social Contract (Chapters 1-8)
Additional reading:
Section on “Democracy and its Difficulties”, in Rosen, M, W Wolff, and C McKinnon, eds. Political
Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Session 10
Mon 7 April
Power to the People. (2006). Report of The Power Inquiry.
http://www.makeitanissue.org.uk/Power%20to%20the%20People.pdf
Should governments promote ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number’? Bentham and Mill
on utilitarianism and liberty
Required reading:
Selections from Mill’s Utilitarianism & On Liberty
Further reading:
Berlin, I. “Two Conceptions of Liberty.” In The Proper Study of Mankind: An Anthology of Essays.
London: Pimlico, 1997.
Session 11
Sun 13 April or
Mon 14 April
Are some ideas too dangerous to express in public? Mill’s defence of free speech
NB: Second essay due.
Required reading:
Selections from Mill’s On Liberty
Additional reading:
Staff. (2006). Cartoon Wars: The limits of free speech. The Economist.
Further reading:
Section on “Toleration and Free Expression”, in Rosen, M, W Wolff, and C McKinnon, eds. Political
Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Page 6 of 7
Session 12
Mon 21 April
Is capitalism doomed? Marx on the inevitability of communism
Required reading:
Marx and Engel’s The Communist Party Manifesto
Additional reading:
Orwell, G. Animal Farm, 1945. (Especially Chapter 1.)
http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/books/animalfarm-01.htm
http://www.msxnet.org/orwell/animal_farm
Session 13
Fri 25April
Session 14
Mon 28 April
Session 15
Mon 12 May
Classroom
Etiquette
Required Cocurricular
Activities
Suggested Cocurricular
Activities
Page 7 of 7
Popper, K R. The Open Society and Its Enemies. London: Routledge, 1945. (Chapters 18, 19, 20 & 21)
Is there an ideal form of government? Popper on The Open Society
Required reading:
Selections from Popper’s The Open Society and Its Enemies. London: Routledge, 1945
Additional reading:
Popper, K. R. (1999). All Life is Problem Solving. Bristol: Routledge.
What have we learned?
Required reading:
All of the above
Exam
Three essays, from a list of 12, in two hours,
Eating is not permitted in any classrooms in 6 Bedford Square. Please kindly dispose of rubbish in the
bins provided.
Trip to Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park (Sunday, 13th April – to be confirmed).
Tour of Westminster and Houses of Parliament (arranged by NYU-L).
Tour of The Old Bailey (arranged by NYU-L).
The Athenian Democratic Experiment 500-300 BC
Greece:
• Aegean (Minoan) period (<1600 BC)
• Mycenean period (1600-1200 BC)
• Trojan War ~1250 BC?
• Greek Dark Ages (1200-800 BC)
• Homer ~1000 BC?
500 BC
Persian War
(Persia v Greece)
(500-448 BC)
Athens:
• Monarchy (1556-753 BC)
• Magistrates ('archons') (753 BC...)
• Draco's laws (621 BC)
• Solon's oligarchic constitution (~590 BC)
• Cleithenes' democracy (508 BC)
Pericles
(495-428 BC)
Socrates
(470-399 BC)
450 BC
Parthenon •
(438 BC)
• Funeral Oration
(431 BC)
Peloponnesian War
Plato
(427-347 BC)
(Athens v Sparta)
(431-404 BC)
• Thirty Tyrants (404 BC)
400 BC
• The Republic (390 BC)
The Academy (386 BC) •
Aristotle
(384-322 BC)
350 BC
• Politics (350 BC)
The Lyceum (336 BC) •
Macedonian rule
Philip II (338-336BC)
Alexander the Great
(336-323 BC)
300 BC
• Hellenistic period (301 BC...)
• Roman rule (168 BC)
• Ottoman rule (1400s AD)
• Greek independence (1832 AD)
The Rise and Fall of Rome 753BC-476AD
Rome:
• Founded 753 BC
• Monarchy replaced by Republic (~500 BC)
• Consuls, Senate, Tribunes
• Law of Twelve Tables (449 BC)
Plato
(427-347 BC)
400 BC
Aristotle
(384-322 BC)
Italian Wars
300 BC
(Rome v Samnites, Latins)
(340-268 BC)
Punic Wars
200 BC
(Rome v Carthage)
War in the East
(264-146 BC)
(Rome v Macedonia, 'Syria')
(215-148 BC)
• The Gracchi Reforms (133-121 BC)
100 BC
Civil Wars
(133-44 BC)
Julius Ceasar
(100-44 BC)
Cicero
(106-43 BC)
Augustus Ceasar
(63 BC -14 AD)
• De Officiis (On Duties) (44 BC)
1 AD
Jesus
(1-33 AD)
Roman Empire
100 AD
(44- BC)
200 AD
• Roman Empire first divided (286 AD)
Constantine the Great
(272-337 AD)
300 AD
400 AD
St Augustine
(354-430 AD)
• Roman Empire finally divided (408 AD)
•
•
•
•
•
Fall of Western Empire (to 'Germans') (476 AD)
Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor (800 AD)
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD)
Fall of Eastern Empire (to Ottomans) (1453 AD)
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527 AD)
The City of God (426 AD) •
The English Civil War, 1600s
England:
• Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
• Gunpowder Plot (1605)
Sir Robert Filmer
(1588-1653)
1620 AD
James I
(1603-25)
Thomas Hobbes
(1588-1679)
Charles Stuart
(1600-1649)
Oliver Cromwell
(1599-1659)
1630 AD
Charles I
(1625-49)
John Locke
(1632-1704)
1640 AD
Civil War
(1642-49)
1650 AD
• The Leviathan
(1651)
The Commonwealth
1660 AD
• The Restoration (1660)
1670 AD
Charles II
(1660-85)
Exclusion Crisis
(1678-81)
1680 AD
Patriarcha •
(1680)
James II (1685-88 AD)
• The 'Glorious Revolution' (1688)
• The Bill of Rights (1689)
1690 AD
William III & Mary II
(1689-1702 AD)
1700 AD
•
•
•
•
•
•
Anne (1702-14)
Act of Union (1707)
David Hume (1711-1776)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
American Revolution (1776-)
French Revolution (1789-)
A Letter Concerning Toleration •
(1689)
• Second Treatise
on Government
(1690)
The Enlightenment and After
• 'Principia'
(1687)
John Locke
(1632-1704)
1700
• Act of Union
(1707)
David Hume
(1711-1776)
Montesquieu
(1689-1755)
Isaac Newton
(1643-1727)
Jean Jacques
Rousseau
(1712-1778)
Adam
Smith
(1723-1790)
Treatise of
Human Nature •
(1739)
Immanuel
Kant
(1724-1804)
1750
The Social •
Contract
(1762)
Edmund
Burke
(1729-1797)
• American Revolution
(1776-)
• Moral
Sentiments
(1759)
Jeremy
Bentham
(1748-1832)
• Wealth of
Nations
(1776)
• Fragment on
Government
(1776)
• Principles of
Morals and
Legislation
Rights of •
(1780)
Man
(1791)
• French Revolution
(1789-)
1800
Napoleonic
Wars
(1799-1815)
James Mill
(1773-1836)
Alexis de
Tocqueville
(1805-1859)
• Great Reform Act
(1832)
Karl Marx
(1818-1883)
Victoria
(1838-1901)
• Communist Party
Manifesto
(1848)
1850
Charles
Darwin(18091889)
Thomas
Paine
(1737-1809)
• Origin of
Species
(1859)
• Capital (Vol. I)
(1867)
Bertrand Russell
(1872-1970)
1900
• Representation of the People Act (1918)
• Democracy in
America
(1835)
John
Stuart
Mill
(1806-1873)
Utilitarianism •
(1861)
• On Liberty
(1859)
The Rise and Fall of Communism
• John Locke (1632-1704)
• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
• Adam Smith (1723-1790)
1800
Industrial
Revolution
(UK)
(~1760-1840)
1850
• European
Revolutions
(1848)
Georg Hegel
(1770-1831)
Frederich
Engels
(1820-1895)
Condition of the
• Working Class
(1844)
• Communist Party •
Manifesto
(1848)
• The Philosophy
of Right
(1822)
Karl Marx
(1818-1883)
• First International (1866-72), Marx v Bakunin
• Second International (1899-1912), evolutionary v revolutionary
• Third International (1919-43), Lenin & Trotsky v Stalin
• Fourth International (1938-53), Trotsky...
JS Mill
(1806-1873)
• On Liberty
(1859)
Capital (Vol. I) •
(1867)
Leon Trotsky
(1870-1940)
1900
• Labour Party founded (UK)
(1900)
Vladimir Lenin
(1870-1924)
Adolf Hitler
(1889-1945)
WWI (1914-1918)
• Russian Revolution (1917)
• First Labour Government (UK) (1924)
Joseph Stalin
(1878-1953)
George
Orwell
(1903-1950)
The Great Depression (1929-1930s)
WWII (1939-1945)
1950
• People's Republic of China (1949)
Mao Tse-tung
(1893-1976)
• Cuban Revolution (1959)
• Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
Cold War (~1947-1990)
• Fall of Berlin Wall (1989)
• Collapse of Soviet Union (1991)
2000
NYU Political Theory Class (2006)
• Globalisation... ?
• Latin America?
• A Theory of Justice
(1971)
John Rawls
(1921-2002)
The Little •
Red Book
(1964)
The •
Open
Society
(1945)
• Animal Farm
(1945)
• 1984 (1949)
Karl Popper
(1902-1994)