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2024 Spring

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY I - POS201/1 Spring 2024


Course
Silviya Lechner
For information about registration please contact our admissions.

The syllabus is available under "Lesson 1"

Here is the course outline:

Session 1 Course Introduction

Feb 2 2:45pm .. 5:30pm, 3.12

Topics: What is political philosophy? What is justice? Tradition or traditions? How do I write a well-argued philosophy paper? Required: none Assignments/deadlines: Signing up for presentations for weeks 6-13. Please sign up by Session 4 (sheet to be distributed in class)

Session 2 Plato I. Republic

Feb 7 11:30am .. 2:15pm, Room 3.12 - AAU Campus

Week 2 Plato I. Republic Topics: The ring of Gyges; Virtue; The city and the soul. The Guardians. Philosophers kings, the noble lie. Required: Cahn/Morgan Republic Book I (331c – 353 d: dispute between Socrates - Cephalus, Glaucon, Thrasymachus) Book II (357b – 361c; The Ring of Gyges, 359c-360b) Book III – begins at 386a. Justice in the city (rise of the city, 368e – 370) (read 394-417: the Guardians, 416d – 417a, 423e; the noble lie/tale of the metals 414 e- 415a) * ‘331c’ is a Stephanus number is a number located along the page’s margins (it is not a page number). Recommended: T. A. Sinclair (1967) ‘Plato’s Republic’, in History of Greek Political Thought. London: Routledge (2010 reprint), pp. 143-168 (NEO). Gerasimos Santas (2010) ‘Introduction: The Style, Main Argument, and Basic Ideas of the Republic’ (Ch.1) in Understanding Plato’s Republic, pp. 1-14. Oxford: Blackwell (NEO). Assignments/deadlines: Response paper analysing the weekly readings

Session 3 Plato II. Republic

Feb 14 2:45pm .. 5:30pm, Room 3.12 - AAU Campus

Topics: (epistemology) the Forms, the allegory of the cave; (political analysis) the Ideal state Required: Cahn/Morgan Republic Book IV 420a-423d, 428d-433b (justice in the person 436a-b) (439e-440a spirited part) (justice in the city template for justice in the soul, 441 d-e) Book V women guardians 455 d- 456a-b (mating ‘festivals’ 460a) End of Book V (philosopher’s kings – 473d) (knowledge, ignorance, belief, 477a – 478d) Book VI begins at 484a (Divided line, 509a - 511e) Book VII begins at 514a (Allegory of the cave 514a-521d) Book VIII begins at 543a (Timocracy – 546d-550b. Oligarchy 550d-552a, Democracy - 555e-563e, Tyranny 536e-569b) Recommended: George Klosko (2012) ‘Plato: The Just City’, in History of Political Theory (Vol. I: Ancient and Medieval), pp. 83-113 (NEO). Julia Annas (1981) ‘Understanding and the Good: Sun, Line, and Cave’, in An Introduction to Plato's Republic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Ch. 10 (NEO). Assignments/deadlines: Response paper analysing the weekly readings

Session 4 Aristotle I. Politics

Feb 21 2:45pm .. 5:30pm, Room 3.12 - AAU Campus

Topics: (metaphysics) teleology, substance and form; (politics) natural slavery, the polis, zoon politikon Required: Cahn/Morgan Politics Book I Book I.2 the Polis (zoon politikon (Book I.2.9, 1253a; nature polis, 1252b) Household Bk. I. 3. (I.3.1, I.3.2 & I.2.5, I.2.12) Slavery – Book I.4 & I.5 Book II Aristotle’s critique of Plato (Polis as plurality II.2 – 1261a); Property II.3.4 – 1261a30-1261b30) Children & wives (II.4 – 1262a25, 1262a40) Book III on the citizen (III.1.6, III.1.12) (the good man a good citizen, Bk. III.4) *Aristotle’s text is cited by Book, chapter and paragraph number plus a Stephanus number if relevant. ‘ II.3.4 – 1261a30’ thus refers to Book II, chapter 3, paragraph 4, and the Stephanus number is ‘1261a30’. Recommended: John Vella (2008) ‘Success (Eudaimonia)’ (Ch. 5), in Aristotle: A Guide for the Perplexed. Bloomsbury Publishing (NEO). Peri Roberts & Peter Sutch (2012) ‘Aristotle: Is Politics Natural?’ (Ch. 2), in An Introduction to Political Thought: A Conceptual Toolkit. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (NEO). Assignments/deadlines: Response paper analysing the weekly readings

Session 5 Aristotle II. Politics

Feb 28 2:45pm .. 5:30pm, Room 2.06 - AAU Campus

Topics: Constitution, the best possible state, democracy and oligarchy Required: Cahn/Morgan Politics Book III.6 – constitutions (III.6 – 1278b-1279a15), Book III.7 (rule by one, few, many) Book III.8 (wealth), Book III.9 (constitutions – democracy and oligarchy) Book III.11 (case for democracy) Book IV.11 (‘Polity’ - the best constitution on average) Recommended: Otfried Hoeffe (2003) ‘Political Justice’ (Ch. 16), in Aristotle, trans. Christine Salazar. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press (NEO) George Klosko (2012) ‘Aristotle’s Life and Writings’, in History of Political Theory: An Introduction (Volume I: Ancient and Medieval), pp. 114-150. Oxford: Oxford University Press (NEO). Assignments/deadlines: Response paper analysing the weekly readings.

Session 6 Hobbes I. Leviathan

Mar 6 11:30am .. 2:15pm, Room 2.06 -AAU Campus

Topics: language & reason (agency); the state of nature, the right of nature, the law of nature Required: Cahn/Morgan Leviathan ‘Introduction to Leviathan’, Ch. 13 (state of nature), Ch. 14 (laws of nature), Ch. 15 (laws of nature) Recommended: Leviathan, Chs. 4, 5, 6 AP Martinich (2005) ‘Moral Philosophy’ (Ch. 4) in Hobbes. London: Routledge, pp. 54-106) (NEO) Bernard Gert (2010) ‘Hobbes’s Political Theory’ (Ch. 4), in Hobbes. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 110-140 (NEO). Richard Tuck (1989) Hobbes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. FS McNeilly (1968) The Anatomy of Leviathan. New York: St Martin’s Press. Assignments/deadlines: Response paper analysing the weekly readings

Session 7 Hobbes II. Leviathan

Mar 13 11:30am .. 2:15pm, 3.12

Topics: authority and power, the social contract, two modes of sovereignty, the liberty of the subjects, Hobbes and IR Required: Cahn/Morgan Leviathan, Chs. 16 (authority), 17 (sovereign state), 18, 20, 21 (liberties of the subject) DD Raphael (2004) Hobbes, ‘Political Theory I’ Ch. 4 (pp. 29-40). London and New York: Routledge (NEO). Recommended: Leviathan Ch. 25 (some chapters, i.e. 16, 20 from Leviathan will be uploaded on NEO by the instructor) Michael Oakeshott (1975) ‘Introduction to Leviathan’, in Hobbes on Civil Association, pp. 1–79. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund. Noel Malcolm (2003) ‘Hobbes’s Theory of International Relations’ (Ch. 13), in Aspects of Hobbes, pp. 432-456. Oxford: Oxford University Press (NEO). Sharon A. Lloyd (2012) ‘International Relations, World Government, and the Ethics of War: A Hobbesian Perspective’ (Ch. 14), In S. A. Lloyd (ed.). Hobbes Today: Insights for the 21st Century, pp. 288-303. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (NEO). Assignments/deadlines: in-class presentations

Session 8 Locke I. Second Treatise of Government

Mar 20 2:45pm .. 5:30pm, 3.12

Topics: the law of nature, the rights of nature, the state of war, property, freedom Required: Cahn/Morgan Second Treatise, Chs. 1, 2 (state of nature), Chs. 3, 4 (slavery), Ch. 5 (property), Ch. 7 (pol. society, §§ 77, 85-91 only), Ch. 8 (beginnings pol. society, §§ 95-99, 119 only), Ch. 9 (§§ 123-129 only). *Locke’s text is cited by chapter and paragraph (§). Recommended: Eric Mack (2012) ‘Locke’ (Ch. 7), in Gerald F Gaus and Fred D’Agostino (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy, pp. 71-81. New York, London: Routledge (NEO) A John Simmons (1993) ‘The State of War’ (Ch. 3) in On the Edge of Anarchy: Locke, Consent and the Limits of Society. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 40-58. (NEO) Assignments/deadlines: in-class presentations

Mid-term break. NO CLASS

Mid-term break. March 25-March 29, 2024

Session 9 Locke II. Second Treatise

Apr 3 2:45pm .. 5:30pm, 3.12

Topics: political society, trust, the right to depose illegitimate governments Required: Cahn/Morgan Second Treatise, Chs. 9 (§§ 128-131), 10 (§§132-133, on government vs. community/state), 11 (§§ 134-138, 140-141), 12 (143-148), 13 (§§197-198), 18 (§§199-208) Recommended: Eric Mack (2013) Locke. New York, London: Bloomsbury. Martyn Thompson (1994) ‘Locke’s Contract in Context’, in David Boucher and Paul Kelly (eds.), The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls, 73-94. London, New York: Routledge. Assignments/deadlines: in-class presentations

Session 10. Rousseau. Of the Social Contract

Apr 10 11:30am .. 2:15pm, 2.06

Topics: the social contract, the general will, freedom and force, the citizen Required: Cahn/Morgan Of the Social Contract Book I (first 8 chapters), Book II (Chs. 1-4, 6), Book III (ch.1-2), Book IV (c´Chs.1-2). Recommended: On the Social Contract, Book II (the people, Chs. 8-9), Book III (4-5, on democracy and aristocracy). Robert Wokler (2001) ‘Liberty, Virtue, Citizenship’ (Ch. 4) in Rousseau: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press (NEO). Murray G. Forsyth & Maurice Keens-Soper (1988) ‘Jean Jacques Rousseau: The Social Contract’, in Murray G. Forsyth and Maurice Keens-Soper (eds.), A Guide to The Political Classics: Plato to Rousseau (Volume I). Oxford: Oxford University Press; pp. 171-202. https://archive.org/details/guidetopolitical0000unse_e9y3 Joshua Cohen (1999) Reflections on Rousseau: Autonomy and Democracy, in Christopher W. Morris, (ed.), The Social Contract Theorists: Critical Essays on Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Assignments/deadlines: in-class presentations

Session 11. Kant. Perpetual Peace

Apr 17 11:30am .. 2:15pm, 2.06

Topics: public right, the state, a peaceful league of republics, is a global state desirable? Required: Cahn Perpetual Peace also available on NEO (read from the beginning, i.e. ‘Preliminary articles’, ‘Definitive articles’ up to and including section ‘Cosmopolitan Right’). Recommended: Georg Cavallar (1994) ‘Kant's Society of Nations: Free Federation or World Republic?’ Journal of the History of Philosophy 32 (3): 461- 482 (NEO). Pierre Laberge (1998) ‘Kant on Justice and the Law of Nations,’ in David R. Mapel and Terry Nardin (eds.), International Society: Diverse Ethical Perspectives. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 82-102 (NEO). James Bohman and Matthias Lutz-Bachmann (eds.) (1997) Perpetual Peace: Essays on Kant’s Cosmopolitan Ideal. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Assignments/deadlines: in-class presentations

Session 12. JS Mill. On Liberty

Apr 24 2:45pm .. 5:30pm, 3.12

Topics: tyranny of the majority, the Harm principle/Liberty principle, the limits of political authority and the liberties of the individual Required: Cahn/Morgan On Liberty, Ch. 1, Ch. 3 (first 5 and last 7 paragraphs only), & Ch. 4. Recommended: Mill, Utilitarianism, any edition, Chs. 2, 5. David O. Brink (2013) ‘Liberal Preliminaries’, in Mill's Progressive Principles. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 135-148 (NEO). DD Raphael ‘Anarchy and Liberty’, in Of Liberty (1983) Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture Series No15 (Supplement to Philosophy 1983), ed. A. Phillips Griffiths, pp. 1-15. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (NEO). C G. L. Williams (1989), ‘Mill’s Principle of Liberty’ (Ch. 15), in Jack Lively and Andrew Reeve (eds.), Modern Political Theory from Hobbes to Marx, pp. 424-444. (NEO) Assignments/deadlines: in-class presentations

Session 13. Marx. Alienated Labour & Value, Price and Profit

May 15 2:45pm .. 5:30pm, 2.06

Topics: forms of alienation, labour and capital, value and use value, profit, exploitation Required: Alienated Labour/Estranged Labour (from Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844) & Value, Price and Profit (Chs 6-11) The Cahn anthology contains both texts The Morgan anthology has only ‘Estranged Labour’ but not ‘Value, Price and Profit’ -Value, Price and Profit - https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1865/value-price-profit/index.htm (here you can read also the key Chapters 12 and 14) - Estranged Labour (read only pages 28-35) https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/25944/Chapter_13_Marx.pdf?sequence=16&isAllowed=y Recommended: Andrew Collier (2008) ‘Labour, Value and Exploitation. Theory I’ (Ch. 5), in Marx: A Beginner's Guide. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, pp. 77-94 (NEO). David-Hillel Ruben (1999) ‘Karl Marx’ Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 44: 65-79 (NEO). Julius Sensat (2016) The Logic of Estrangement: Reason in an Unreasonable Form. Basingstoke: Palgrave (Sec. 4.2-4.4, NEO). Assignments/deadlines: Term paper due. In-class presentations

Session 14 Neo Marxism and Critical Theory

May 22 2:44pm .. 3:44pm, 3.26

Description: Traditional and critical theory, mass culture and the ‘culture industry’, irrationality and fascist tendencies of modernity and the Enlightenment. Reading: Max Horkheimer, ‘Traditional and Critical Theory’ (Ch. 33), in Delanty and Strydom, Philosophies of Social Science, pp. 218-223; [Max Horkheimer, ‘Traditional and Critical Theory’, in Selected Essays, pp. 188-243 New York: Continuum] (NEO) Theodor Adorno (1991) ‘Culture Industry Reconsidered’ and ‘Free Time’, in Theodor Adorno, The Culture Industry [1976], ed. J. M. Bernstein, pp. 98-106, 187-197. London and New York: Routledge (NEO). Recommended: Jürgen Habermas, ‘The Tasks of Critical Theory’ (Ch. 36), Knowledge and Human Interests, in Delanty and Strydom, Philosophies of Social Science, pp. 234-245 (NEO). Theodor W. Adorno & Max Horkheimer (1979) Dialectic of Enlightenment [1947], trans. John Cumming. London and New York: Verso. Raymond Geuss (1981) The Idea of a Critical Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. David Couzens Hoy & Thomas McCarthy (1994) Critical Theory. Oxford: Blackwell. William Outhwaite (1987) New Philosophies of Social Science: Realism, Hermeneutics and Critical Theory. Basinstoke: Palgrave. Relevant to international studies Chris Brown (1994) ‘ “Turtles All the Way Down”: Anti-Foundationalism, Critical Theory and International Relations’ Millennium 23 (2): 213-236 (NEO). Andrew Linklater (1990) Beyond Realism and Marxism: Critical Theory and International Relations. Houndmills: Palgrave. Andrew Linklater (2007) Critical Theory and World Politics. New York and London: Routledge. Robert W. Cox (1983) ‘Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations: An Essay in Method’ Millennium 12 (2): 162-175. Mark Hoffman (1987) ‘Critical Theory and the Inter-Paradigm Debate’ Millennium 16 (2): 231-250. Assignments/deadlines: in-class presentations Term paper due

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