Political Theory (NYU, 2008)

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. Page 2 of 7 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 Page 3 of 7 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 Page 4 of 7 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)