Fall, 2000
Professor Neal, 502 Old Mill
Phone: office: 656-4316
             home: 878-3752

Office hours: "Officially" Tuesday, 2:30 - 4:00, Wednesday, 2:30 - 4:00, Thursday, 2:30 - 4:00, or by arrangement.  However, you are welcome to come by the office at any time, and I am generally there a good part of every day.  Just speak to me before or after class if you want to arrange a specific time.
 

Course Description
    This course is designed to introduce you to some important issues in the field of political theory, and to encourage and stimulate you to think seriously about them.  The course presupposes no prior knowledge of political theory.  The only "prerequisites" are an interest in the philosophical questions that lie at the heart of political life, and a willingness to read and think seriously about them.  This semester, we will address questions like these: Can the state enforce morality?  If not, why not?  If so, how is that morality to be determined?  What are the limits of individual liberty?  What duties do we owe to the political community?  Is it ever legitimate to disobey the law?  When?  What does political equality mean?  How does political equality relate to sexual equality?  Is human nature evil or innocent?  Do our institutions save us from our nature or corrupt that nature?  The means of addressing these questions will be the close and critical examination of various texts by both contemporary and classical writers.
     I have sometimes found in the past that there is a disposition to suppose that introductory level courses should consist of a strictly lecture format, with as little student input as possible - presumably upon the belief that that sort of thing should be done only in "upper-level" courses (heaven forbid that first year students should do it!).  Either (a) violate this rule repeatedly and consistently, or (b) if it is difficult for you to bring yourself to do so, pretend for the next three months that this class is "Political Science 475 - Seminar in Political Theory: Enrollment limited to imaginative and inquisitive souls."
 

Course Texts (on sale in the bookstore)

-     Charles Taylor, Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition
-     Jean Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality.
-     Plato, “Apology” and “Crito”, both in The Trial and Death of Socrates.
-     Sophocles, “Antigone” in either Three Theban Plays or Collected Plays of Sophocles.
-     Other required readings will be available on electronic reserve through the library.  An explanation of how to access readings on electronic reserve is attached to this syllabus.

-  Three of the four course texts listed above (all except Taylor) are relatively inexpensive paperbacks.  Each of these works can also be found on-line.   The web addresses of the texts is listed below.  (Just click on the titles to go directly to the text).  You may use the texts on-line if you wish, though the on-line translations are different from the ones in the books above, to which I will refer in class.

http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/antigone.html  (Sophocles’ “Antigone”)
http://classics.mit.edu//Plato/apology.html#1  (Plato’s “Apology of Socrates”)
http://classics.mit.edu//Plato/crito.html#1  (Plato’s “Crito”)
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/text/mill/liberty/liberty.htm (Mill’s “On Liberty”)
http://www.constitution.org/jjr/ineq.htm  (Rousseau’s “Discourse on the Origins of Inequality”)
 

Reserve Books
The following books have been placed on reserve in the library.  They will prove helpful as background reading on much of the material we deal with in the course. They are especially helpful with the material on Plato, Hobbes and Rousseau.

- L.C. McDonald, Western Political Theory, vol. 1-3.
- Larry Arnhardt, Political Thinking
 
 

Course Requirements

Class Participation and Attendance: - I expect you to attend each class, to come having done the assigned reading in advance, and to come prepared to intelligently discuss and analyze these readings. Chronic failure to meet these expectations will result in the lowering of your final mark.  (Absences from class become "chronic" when they exceed three.) Please remember as well to always bring to class the relevant reading material for that day.
 

The  Basic Grading Scheme
Average on Quizzes..........................................................................…..15%
Mid-term Exam, tentatively Wednesday, October 18……………….......42.5%
Final Exam……………………………...................................……........42.5%

Optional Essays:  There will also be three occasions during the term when I will hand out questions for essays of 5-6 pages.  No one is required to write these essays.  If you do choose to write the essays, they will count as equal to your exam grades in determining your final mark.  For example: your two exams are worth 85% of your final mark.  If you write one essay, the 85% would be the average of your two exams and the one essay, all weighted equally.  If you write two essays, the 85% would be the average of your two exams and the two essays, all weighted equally.  And so on.
 Note  that completing the optional essays cannot lower your overall course grade.  Thus, if you score lower on an essay than the average you have on exams, I will simply not count the essay into your mark.

Tentative due dates for the Essays:
#1 – Friday, October 1
#2 – Friday, November 5
#3 – Wednesday, December 8
Thus: everyone must take both of the exams.  The essays are optional, and please note that the essays do not replace exam grades.  There is no provision for dropping any exam grade.
Make-up Exams:  Make up exams will be given only in cases of emergency.  The format of the make-up exam will not necessarily be the same as the format of the regular exam.

Late Essays:  I’ll explain my policy regarding late essays in the class.

Quizzes: During the term, there will be a number (at least seven, not more than fifteen) of occasions when we will have a brief quiz, based upon the assigned reading, to open the class.  Most (but not all) will be announced at least one class in advance.

Grading of Quizzes: Everyone can miss one quiz with no penalty (or drop the lowest grade if you take them all); for other missed quizzes, your lowest quiz grade will be repeated.  It is thus very much in your interests to attend class and take all quizzes. There are no make-up quizzes.
 
 
 

Course Outline
 

AUGUST 28  -   INTRODUCTION (1 session)
 

AUGUST 30 - SEPTEMBER 11 -  POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY & DEMOCRATIC POLITICS   (4 sessions)

Reading:
Michael Walzer, "Philosophy and Democracy," on electronic reserve.
Richard Rorty, “The Priority of Democracy to Philosophy,” on electronic reserve.
 

SEPTEMBER 13 – 22  - THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY (5 sessions)

Reading:
- John Stuart  Mill, On Liberty, chapters 1-2 (on electronic reserve)
 

Suggested Reading:
-Patrick Devlin, The Enforcement of Morals
-C.L. Ten, Mill on Liberty
-John Gray, Mill on Liberty: A Defense
 

SEPTEMBER 25 – OCTOBER 16  – POLITICAL OBLIGATION (9 sessions)

Reading:
- Plato, “Apology of Socrates”
- Plato, “Crito”
- Sophocles, “Antigone”
- Joseph Tussman, “Letter from Thebes,” on electronic reserve
- Martha Nussbaum, “Sophocles’ Antigone: Conflict, Vision, Simplification,” on electronic reserve.

Suggested Reading:
(on Plato)
- L.C. McDonald, Western Political Theory, pp. 5-36.
- T.C. Brickhouse & N. Smith, Socrates on Trial
- C.D.C. Reeve, Socrates in The Apology
(on Sophocles)
- George Steiner, Antigones
- Martha Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness, chapter 3.
- J. Peter Euben, ed., Greek Tragedy and Political Theory
- Warren J. Lane and Ann M. Lane, "The Politics of Antigone," in Euben, ed., Greek Tragedy and Political Theory, pp. 162-183.
- Arlene Saxonhouse, Fear of Diversity: The Birth of Political Science in Ancient Greek Thought, pp. 50-92.
 
 
 

WEDNESDAY, , OCTOBER 18 or FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20  - MIDTERM  EXAM
 
 
 
 
 

OCTOBER 20 – NOVEMBER 8 -  LIBERALISM, POLITICS, EDUCATION  (9 sessions)
 

Reading:
- Charles Taylor, et. al., Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition.
- Amy Gutmann, "Undemocratic Education,"  on electronic reserve
- William Galston, "Civic Education in the Liberal State," on electronic reserve
 

NOVEMBER 10 – 17 -   THE SOCIAL CONTRACT - HOBBES   (4 sessions)

Reading:
- Hobbes, Leviathan, ch. 13, 14, 15,  - on electronic reserve

Suggested Reading:
-L.C. McDonald, Western Political Theory, pp. 300-320.
-P. Neal, "Hobbes and Rational Choice Theory," Western Political Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 4, (1988), pp. 635-652.
-Norman Jacobson, Pride and Solace:The Functions and Limits of Political Theory, ch. 3 ("Behold Leviathan"), pp. 51-92.
-Murray Forsyth, "Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan"in Modern Political Thought.
 

NOVEMBER 20 – DECEMBER 6 -  THE SOCIAL CONTRACT - ROUSSEAU  (6  sessions)

Reading:
- Rousseau,  Discourse on the Origins of Inequality.

Suggested Reading:
-L.C. McDonald, Western Political Theory, pp. 381-398.
-Roger Masters, The Political Philosophy of Rousseau, pp. 106-204.
-S. Ellenburg, Rousseau's Political Philosophy: An Interpretation from Within
 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14 AT 8:00 A:M – FINAL EXAM