modern political theory

 

 

 

Politics 181 (401), Spring 2002                                                      Prof. Dennis J. Goldford

Class Hours:  TR 9:30-10:45 a.m.                                                  Office:  208  Meredith

Office Hours:  MWF 10:00-noon                                                  Phone:  271-3197

E-mail:  dennis.goldford@drake.edu                                             

 

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objectives:  This course, for which Politics 180 is not a prerequisite, attempts to ac­quaint you with the principal writers in Western political thought since the Renaissance in order (1) to become familiar with these important thinkers themselves and (2) to become fa­mil­iar with the field of politi­cal the­ory itself as it has dealt with the fundamental concep­tual, logical, and moral is­sues of politics, chief among which are the questions of order and au­thority.  Work in class will consist not of formal lectures but rather of guided discus­sions de­signed to unpack the substance and structure of the arguments set forth by the writers under consideration.  Finally, the course seeks to teach you how to read a pri­mary text ana­lyti­cally and critically, in order to become able to recognize and evaluate theories and argu­ments.

 

The following quotation comes from Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks (International Publishers:  New York, 1971, pp. 323-4) and serves as the guiding principle of this course and, indeed, of all liberal education.

 

            It is essential to destroy the widespread prejudice that philosophy is a strange and difficult thing just because it is the specific intellectual activity of a particular cat­egory of specialists or of pro­fessional and systematic philosophers.  It must first be shown that all men are "philosophers", by defining the limits and characteristics of the "spontaneous philosophy" which is proper to everybody.  This philosophy is contained in:  1. lan­guage itself, which is a totality of determined notions and con­cepts and not just of words grammatically devoid of content; 2. "common sense" and "good sense"; 3. popular religion and, therefore, also in the entire system of beliefs, superstitions, opinions, ways of seeing things and of acting, which are col­lectively bundled together under the name of "folklore".

            Having first shown that everyone is a philosopher, though in his own way and unconsciously, since even in the slightest manifestation of any intel­lectual activity whatever, in "language", there is contained a specific concep­tion of the world, one then moves on to the second level, which is that of awareness and criticism.  That is to say, one proceeds to the ques­tion‹is it better to "think", without having a critical awareness, in a dis­jointed and episodic way?  In other words, is it better to take part in a con­ception of the world mechanically imposed by the external environment, i.e., by one of the many social groups in which everyone is automatically involved from the moment of his entry into the con­scious world . . . ?  Or, on the other hand, is it better to work out consciously and critically one's own conception of the world and thus, in connection with the labours of one's own brain, choose one's sphere of activity, take an active part in the creation of the history of the world, be one's own guide, re­fusing to accept passively and supinely from outside the moulding of one's personality?

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required texts:

 

Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Hackett, 1987)

Hobbes, Leviathan (Cambridge, 1996)

Locke, Second Treatise of Government (Hackett, 1980)

Marx, Selected Writings (Hackett, 1994)

Mill, On Liberty and Other Writings (Cambridge, 1989)

Rousseau, The Social Contract and Discourses (Everyman/Tuttle, 1993)

Smith, The Wealth of Nations (Oxford, 1993)

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recommended websites

 

    (1)   http://www.drake.edu/artsci/PolSci/PolSci_Home_Page.html (the home page of the Dept. of Politics and International Relations at Drake University, containing numer­ous useful links to other politics-related sites and a statement on academic honesty).

 

    (2)   http://dir.yahoo.com/Social_Science/Political_Science/Political_Theory/Theorists/ (a general listing of links to various political theorists).

 

    (3)   http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/por/ptbase.htm (another interesting site containing links to various authors and topics in political theory).

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week    date           discussion topics and assigned readings

 

   01        01-22:           Introduction:  What is "modern" "political" "theory"?

               01-24:           Classical Liberalism I:  Hobbes (pp. 3-75).

 

   02        01-29:           Classical Liberalism I:  Hobbes (pp. 75-154).

               01-31:           Classical Liberalism I:  Hobbes (pp. 155-230).

 

   03        02-05:           Classical Liberalism I:  Hobbes (pp. 231-415).

               02-07:           Classical Liberalism I:  Hobbes (pp. 417-491).

 

   04        02-12:           Classical Liberalism II:  Locke (pp. 3-51).

               02-14:           Classical Liberalism II:  Locke (pp. 52-83).

 

   05        02-19:           Classical Liberalism II:  Locke (pp. 83-124).

               02-21:           examination #1

 

   06        02-26:           Classical Radicalism I:  Rousseau (pp. 31-83).

               02-28:           Classical Radicalism I:  Rousseau (pp. 84-126).

 

   07        03-05:           Classical Radicalism I:  Rousseau (pp. 179-217).

               03-07:           Classical Radicalism I:  Rousseau (pp. 217-255).

 

   08        03-12:           Classical Radicalism I:  Rousseau (pp. 255-309).

               03-14:           Classical Conservatism:  Burke (pp. 1-92).

 

               03-19:           Spring Break.

               03-21:           Spring Break.

 

   09        03-26:           Classical Conservatism:  Burke (pp. 92-165).

               03-28:           Classical Conservatism:  Burke (165-218).

 

   10        04-02:           examination #2.

               04-04:           Classical Liberalism II:  Smith (pp. 8-95).

 

   11        04-09:           Classical Liberalism II:  Smith (pp. 95-226, 275-338 and 379-464).

               04-11:           Classical Radicalism II:  Marx (pp. 27-39; 54-79)

 

   12        04-16:           Classical Radicalism II:  Marx (pp. 102-130).

               04-18:           Classical Radicalism II:  Marx (pp. 130-156).

 

   13        04-23:           Classical Radicalism II:  Marx (pp. 157-186, 209-213).

               04-25:           [Class does not meet.]

 

   14        04-30:           Classical Radicalism II:  Marx (pp. 214-243).  essay due.

               05-02:           Modern Liberalism III:  Mill (pp. 5-115).

 

   15        05-07:           Modern Liberalism III:  Mill (pp. 119-217).

               05-09:           Course summary and review

 

   16        05-15:           final examination, wednesday, 12:00-1:50 p.m.

 

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COURSE PROCEDURES AND GRADING POLICY:

           

1)   You are expected to attend class regularly, to have read the assigned text material prior to class, and to participate in class discussions.  Although I will have to lecture occasion­ally, we will function most of the time as a discussion group requiring your active partic­ipa­tion as well as mine.  Particularly because this is a text-intensive class, failure to attend class regu­larly will cause a lowering of your course grade.  If you are not going to at­tend class regularly, then do not take the course.

 

2)   You must successfully complete all written assignments (two mid-term exams, each of which counts 20%; one 10-page, double-spaced, analytical essay, which counts 20%; and one final exam, which counts 40%); failure to complete an as­signment is cause for a grade of F for the course, not just for the examination, and make-ups or extensions are solely a matter of my discretion rather than au­tomatic right.

 

3)   no matter what your major or career plans, you sim­ply must be able to write and spell.  Because a major goal of this course is to help develop your reasoning and writing ca­pabilities, all assignments will consist of essays. Each assignment will be evaluated in terms of letter grades, but letter grades will then be averaged and weighted in terms of a 12-level point sys­tem:

 

            A+  =  12        B+  =  9          C+  =  6          D+  =  3          F     =  0         

            A     =  11        B     =  8          C     =  5          D     =  2         

            A-    =  10        B-    =  7          C-    =  4          D-   =  1

 

4)   Our focus on writing stems from the kind of knowledge about modern political the­ory this course seeks to help you acquire.  Briefly, our goal is to develop not merely a pas­sive, but an active knowl­edge of modern political theory.  If you have ever taken a for­eign lan­guage, you might recall the distinction be­tween the active and passive use of a lan­guage, which is not to be confused with the distinction between ac­tive and passive voice made in English (e.g., "I made a mistake" vs. "Mistakes were made.").  When you are learning Spanish, for example, and you have learned enough to be able to understand someone talking or something you are read­ing, we say that you have a pas­sive knowl­edge of the language.

 

    You have truly learned Spanish, however, not only when you can under­stand someone talking or something you are read­ing, but when you are able to speak and write the lan­guage your­self.  When you can speak and write the language yourself, we say that you have ac­quired the active use of the language.  In that sense, the goal of this course is to train you in the capacity to speak and write the language of modern politi­cal theory.  If you find your­self able to un­der­stand lectures and discus­sion and the readings in the as­signed texts, then you have acquired the passive knowl­edge we seek‹but you are only half-way to your goal.

 

    The central question will be, can you talk and write your way through the material your­self, doing so well enough that you could teach the material to someone else?  When you don't know the material, you write simplistically; when you do know the material, how­ever, you write simply.  That is your challenge this semester.  Remember the old saying:  "I know what I mean; I just can't put it into words"?  Well, if you can't put it into words, you don't yet know what you mean!  Essay questions in this course will be simi­lar to word problems in arithmetic:  they will not be trick questions, but you will have to figure out the logic of each question in order to know how to an­swer it.

 

5)   It is your responsibility to have an extra copy of your analytical essay beyond the one you hand into me.  Should the unthinkable happen and I lose or misplace the one you give me, I will have to ask you for another one.

 

6)   Final grades are based upon your written work and my evaluation of your class at­ten­dance and participa­tion.  There is no course grading curve; you might find it help­ful‹indeed, I encourage you‹to study to­gether.