INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

GOVERNMENT 10
(Or: Political Philosophy in a Time of Contagion)
Harvard Summer School 2020
Andrew F. March

Course Description: This course investigates the central problems of political theory that concern
the justification and operation of government and political power more generally. We will take
up these questions by reading a combination of classical works of political philosophy from the
Greeks to the present. Given the events of the Spring and Summer of 2020, this year we will
examine core works in the canon of political philosophy with a particular eye toward the way in
which themes of plagues, diseases, contagions, and pandemics figure within and behind those
works. This is not just a gimmick to make this course feel timely. The threat of widespread
disease beyond the scope of human control underlies many core aspects of political life: the
boundary between nature and civilization; political order and the variety of existential threats to
it; the foundations and causes of human solidarity and its unraveling; the overlap between
humans-as-natural-beings and humans-as-free-from-nature; the foundation of political order not
only in reason but in fear; the aspiration to individual or collective sovereignty and the limits to
it; the reliance of political life on shared public space; and the way in which massive social and
economic change often emerges from unpredictable and unmanageable population changes. We
will see that these themes – and the specter of plague and contagion – underlie political
philosophy from the Greeks through the Middle Ages and into early modern Europe. We will
also see how much of modern political thought and governance is structured not just around
ideals of social contract between rational citizens but around the control and governance of the
health of populations. Which brings us to our present moment. Sigmund Freud said about
humanity and civilization at the outbreak of World War 1: “Our mortification and our painful
disillusionment on account of the uncivilized behavior of our fellow-citizens of the world during
this war were unjustified. They were based on an illusion to which we had given way. In reality
our fellow-citizens have not sunk so low as we feared, because they had never risen so high as
we believed. The fact that the collective units of mankind, the peoples and states, mutually
abrogated their moral restraints naturally prompted these individual citizens to withdraw for a
while from the constant pressure of civilization and to grant a temporary satisfaction to the
instincts which they had been holding in check.” Today we may ask similarly whether our recent
shock is based on the illusion that we have not been brought as low as the level of the microbe
because we had never risen so high from the microbial as we believed.

Course Requirements and Assessment: You are required to attend and participate in every class
session. Class sessions will be a combination of your preparation based on discussion questions I
will distribute in advance, open discussion, and presentations prepared by you.

Grading will be based on 3 short analytic papers of 5-7 pp. (30% each, based on the class
readings). Class participation will be 10% of your grade. Class participation will be a bit of a
challenge this year, as we will be collaborating remotely. For that reason, it will be particularly
important that we prepare readings well in advance, be ready to participate when called on, and
attend all on-line class sessions. I will help this by distributing discussion questions in advance to
help you prepare.

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Harvard Summer School Policies

Student Responsibilities

“Students are expected to conduct themselves responsibly, honestly, and with due consideration
for others while enrolled in Harvard Summer School, including distance courses and study
abroad programs, and on Harvard University property, as well as in all of their interactions and
communications with members of the Harvard community.
The Administrative Board reviews the actions of students charged with harassment;
fraud; infringing on the rights of others; violating the rules and regulations of any University
department; behaving inappropriately toward University faculty, staff, or fellow students; the
unauthorized use of University facilities or equipment, including computer resources; the
alteration or falsification of University records; the unauthorized recording, sale, or purchase of
lectures or other instructional materials; destroying or defacing University property;
misrepresenting themselves or their University affiliation; or disturbing orderly academic
functions and processes.”

Accessibility Services
“The Summer School is committed to providing an accessible academic and residential
community.
The accessibility services office offers a variety of accommodations and services to students with
documented disabilities, permanent and temporary injuries, and chronic conditions. If you are a
student with a disability, we engage you in an interactive process to provide you an equal
opportunity to participate in, contribute to, and benefit from our academic and residential
programs.
The manager of accessibility services works with you, your instructor(s), and staff on an
individualized, case-by-case basis to provide appropriate services to ensure you have a rich and
rewarding academic and campus experience.”

Academic Integrity

“Harvard Summer School advocates the active exchange of ideas, including course content and
independent research, among faculty and students. When submitting assignments for credit, all
work submitted must be your own and created specifically for each course. The only exceptions
are instructor-assigned group projects and preapproved dual submissions. In either of these cases,
you must follow explicit procedures (see the policies on inappropriate collaboration and
duplicate assignments under Student Responsibilities).
When crafting written assignments you are required to follow standard academic
guidelines for proper citation (e.g., APA, MLA, or Chicago Manual of Style). You must
distinguish your own ideas and language from information derived from sources. Do not,
intentionally or unintentionally, incorporate facts, ideas, or specific language taken from another
source without citation.

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Course Schedule and Readings

Unless otherwise noted, all readings will be made available to you electronically. In
addition to our main readings, I will attempt to assign each week one contemporary “think
piece” reading on the meaning, politics, and ethics of our present pandemic moment with
the aim of enhancing our introduction to political philosophy.

Note: I reserve the right to slighter alter reading throughout the term to best accommodate
our progress

Week 1: Ancient Greek Political Philosophy

1. Thucydides (c.460–c.400 BCE)

A History of the Peloponnesian War (selections)

2. Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

Politics (selections)

Week 2: Medieval and Renaissance Political Philosophy

1. Aquinas (1224-1274 CE)

Summa Theologiae (selections)

2. Machiavelli (1469-1527 CE)

The Prince (selections)

[Paper 1 assigned]

Week 3: Early Modern Political Philosophy

1. Thomas Hobbes

The Leviathan (selections)

2. Thomas Hobbes

The Leviathan (selections)

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Week 4: Enlightenment Political Thought

1. Enlightenment Visions of Progress and Freedom

David Hume, “Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences”
D’Alembert, “Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia” (selections)
Immanuel Kant, “What is Enlightenment?”
Condorcet, Outlines of an historical view of the progress of the human mind (selections)

2. The Enlightenment and its Discontents

Adorno and Horkheimer, The Dialectic of Enlightenment, Ch. 1

[Paper 2 assigned]

Week 5: Freedom, Labor and Necessity

1. Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Karl Marx, Selected Writings:

2. Marx

1. Capital: Ch. 6 “The Sale and Purchase of Labour Power”

Week 6: Modernity, Freedom and Biopower

1. Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)

The Human Condition (selections)

2. Michel Foucault (1926-1984)

The Birth of the Clinic (selections)

Week 7: The Body, Race and Social Justice

1. Ibrahim X. Kendi, “What the Racial Data Show: The pandemic seems to be hitting
people of color the hardest,” The Atlantic

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 https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/coronavirus-exposing-our-racial-
divides/609526/
2. Tommie Shelby, “Race and Social Justice: Rawlsian Considerations,” Fordham Law
Revew
3. Yuk Hui, “One Hundred Years of Crisis,” e-flux <https://www.e-
flux.com/journal/108/326411/one-hundred-years-of-crisis/>

[Paper 3 Assigned]