Politics 189 (401), Spring 2000 Prof. Dennis J. Goldford
Class Hours: TR 12:30-1:45 p.m. Office: 208 Meredith
Office Hours: MW 10:00-noon; TR 11:00-noon Phone:
271-3197
E-mail: dennis.goldford@drake.edu
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objectives: Despite, or perhaps even because of, the lack of an established church in the United State, religion has always been a factor in American politics. For example, po litical scientists for years have studied the correlation of party identification and voting be havior with religious affiliation. We will explore briefly the political behavior of religious groups in America, but our principal concern in this special-topics course is more theoreti cal, one prompted especially by the rise of the Christian Right and religious conservatism. Our central question is this: in what sense and to what extent is it legitimate to appeal to re li gious doctrine and belief when engaged in political argument? As Micheal Perry, the au thor of one of our course texts, puts this question, "What role may religious arguments play, if any, either in public debate about what political choices to make or as a basis of political choice?" (3). Such political choices, Perry explains, are "those that ban or other wise disfavor one or another sort of human conduct based on the view that the conduct is immoral" (4), and a religious argument is one that "presupposes the truth of a religious be lief and includes that belief as one of its essential premises" (4). This question, in turn, impli cates a broader one: if poli tics is the activity through which we ne gotiate our differ ences, enabling people of diverse values and beliefs to live together in the same society, can we have a viable polity if some differences are irreconcilable?
course premise: 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 pro fessional 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 con cepts 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 intel lectual activity whatever, in "language", there is contained
a specific concep tion 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 ques tionóis it better to "think", without having a critical awareness,
in a dis jointed 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, re fusing to accept passively and supinely from outside the moulding
of one's personality?
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required texts:
Feldman, Please Don't Wish Me A Merry Christmas (NYU, 1997)
Fowler, Hertzke, and Olson, Religion and Politics In America (Westview,
1999)
Greenawalt, Private Consciences and Public Reasons (Oxford, 1995)
Perry, Religion In Politics (Oxford, 1997)
Rawls, Political Liberalism (Columbia, 1996)
Watson, The Christian Coalition (St. Martin's, 1999)
Cowles Library reserve: Mack, "Liberalism, Neutralism, and
Rights," in Pennock and Chapman, eds., Religion, Morality, and the Law
(New York: NYU Press, 1988), chapter 2.
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websites:
General: http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html
Representative Christian Right organizations:
ï American Center for Law and Justice: http://www.aclj.org
ï Christian Coalition: http://www.cc.org
ï Concernced Women for America: http://www.cwfa.org
ï Family Research Council: http://www.frc.org
ï Focus on the Family: http://www.fotf.org
ï Morality in Media: http://pw2.netcom.com/~mimnyc/index.html
ï Promise Keepers: http://www2.promisekeepers.org
ï Traditional Values Coalition: http://www.traditionalvalues.org
Representative secular organizations opposed to the Christian Right:
ï American Civil Liberties Union: http://www.aclu.org
ï Americans United for Separation of Church and State: http://www.au.org
ï Culture Watch: http://www.icg.apc.org/culturewatch/
ï Institute for First Amendment Studies: http://www.berkshire.net/~ifas/index.html
ï People for the American Way: http://www.pfaw.org
Representative religious organizations opposed to the Christian Right:
ï The Interfaith Alliance: http://www.tialliance.org
ï Interfaith Working Group: http://www.iwgonline.org
ï Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice: http://www.rcrc.org
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week date discussion topics and assigned readings
01 01-18: Distribution of syllabus and recent newspaper articles.
Read these articles and http://www.libertymagazine.org/html/mistrial.html.
01-20: Discussion of introductory student essays on religion
and politics.
02 01-25: Discussion of introductory student essays on religion
and politics.
01-27: The Christian Coaltion (Watson, pp. 1-121).
03 02-01: The Christian Coaltion (Watson, pp. 121-200).
02-03: The politics of religion (Fowler, pp. 1-86).
04 02-08: The politics of religion (Fowler, pp. 87-136).
02-10: The politics of religion (Fowler, pp. 137-228).
05 02-15: The politics of religion (Fowler, pp. 229-267).
02-17: examination #1
06 02-22: An alternative view (Feldman, pp. 1-118).
02-24: An alternative view (Feldman, pp. 119-174).
07 02-29: An alternative view (Feldman, pp. 175-286).
03-02: A preliminary typology (Mack article, Cowles reserve).
08 03-07: Theory I (Greenawalt, pp. 3-50).
03-09: Theory I (Greenawalt, pp. 51-95).
09 03-14: Theory I (Greenawalt, pp. 96-140).
03-16: Theory I (Greenawalt, pp. 141-181).
03-21: Spring Break.
03-23: Spring Break.
10 03-28: examination #2
03-30: Theory II (Rawls: Lecture I).
11 04-04: Theory II (Rawls: Lecture II).
04-06: Theory II (Rawls: Lecture III).
12 04-11: Theory II (Rawls: Lecture IV).
04-13: Theory II (Rawls: Lecture V).
13 04-18: Theory II (Rawls: Lecture VI).
04-20: Theory III (Perry, pp. 3-42).
14 04-25: Theory III (Perry, pp. 43-61). essay due.
04-27: No class (Midwest Political Science Assocation meeting).
15 05-02: Theory III (Perry, pp. 63-104).
05-04: Course summary and review
16 05-08: final examination, monday 2:00-3:50 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 occasion ally, we will function most of
the time as a discussion group requiring your active partic ipa tion as
well as mine. Failure to attend class regularly will result in a
lowering of your course grade.
2. You must successfully complete all written assignments (an ungraded one-page introduc tory essay; 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 as signment is cause for a grade of F for the course, not just for the examina tion, and make-ups or extensions are solely a matter of my discretion rather than au to matic right.
3) no matter what your major or career plans, you sim ply must be able to write and spell. Because a major goal of this course is to help develop your reasoning and writing ca pabilities, 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 sys tem:
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 political the ory in general, and the theoretical issues arising from the relation between politics and religion in par ticular, this course seeks to help you acquire. Briefly, our goal is to develop not merely a pas sive, but an active knowl edge of political theory. If you have ever taken a for eign lan guage, you might recall the distinction be tween the active and passive use of a lan guage, which is not to be confused with the distinction between ac tive and passive voice made in syntax. When you are learning Spanish, for example, and you have learned enough to be able to understand someone talking or something you are read ing, we say that you have a pas sive knowledge of the language.
You have truly learned Spanish, however, when you not only can under stand someone talking or something you are read ing, but when you are able to speak and write the lan guage your self. When you can speak and write the language yourself, we say that you have ac quired 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 politi cal theory. If you find your self able to un der stand lectures and discus sion and the readings in the as signed texts, then you have acquired the passive knowl edge we seekóbut you are only half-way to your goal.
The central question will be, can you talk and write your way through the material your self, 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, how ever, 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 simi lar 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 an swer 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 at ten dance and participa tion. Particularly because
of the seminar or discussion format of this course, failure to attend class
regu larly will cause a lowering of your course grade. There is no
course grading curve; you might find it help fulóindeed, I encourage youóto
study to gether.