The twofold purpose of this course is 1) to read some classical historical texts in political theory and to search out the fundamental arguments of those texts, seeing them as grounded in their own place and time, and 2) to also experience these same texts and arguments as examples or expressions of types of political ideologies that are very much alive today in ourselves and in the people we know.
 
 

1. Introduction: Ideas Do Matter: The Structure and Role of Political Ideologies

2. Plato's UTOPIANISM
    Read Plato's Republic Books II and III (main topics: the birth of the polis, censorship,
    and the big lie)  Whenever this syllabus says you should read something that includes
    your doing the questions on those readings!!  The benefits of doing them too are enormous.

3. Plato continued Books IV and V (main topics: the 4 virtues and the macro-micro thesis, the
    place of women in the polis, and the difference between knowledge and opinion)

4. Plato (Books VI and VII): Education and Plato's (utopian?) theory of Forms or Ideas

5. Plato contd. (Books VIII & IX): the downfall of the polis & types of governments

6. Aristotle's COMMUNITARIANISM
    Read Ethics Bool One: the connections between Function, Virtue, and Happiness

7. Aristotle Politics Book One: how do women and slaves fit into the community of the polis?

8. The FUNDAMENTALISM strand in St.Augustine's City of God.

9. Its modern application in the Constitution of Iran

10. The (theological) LIBERALISM of St. Thomas Aquinas: natural law and independent
    access to morality. You will notice that our questions are the ones Aquinas himself made up.

11. Finish Aquinas: on property, money, etc.

12. The use of Natural Law in Dr. Martin Luther King 's Letter From Birmingham Jail

13. Examination.  Class starts at 8:30!!!

14. The REALISM of Machiavelli's The Prince.
     First read the essay first, then do the maxims.

A. Locke, Paine, and the American Revolution

15. John Locke's CLASSICAL LIBERALISM (i.e. LIBERTARIANISM)
    Read chapters I-VI of the Second Treatise Pay special attention to rights, property
    and power.  Also read the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776.

16. Locke on the creation and dissolution of political societies (read chapters VII-IX)
    The famous contract theory of government is in paragraphs 95-99.  Know these cold!!

17. Thomas Paine's theory of natural rights and his popularization of Locke's ideas.
    Speed read Book One of the Rights of Man, but study pages 65-72 and 110-112.

18. Paine's CONSTITUTIONALISM Read Book Two, Introduction and four chapters.

19. Locke's MODERN LIBERALISM as seen in John Rawls's Two Principles of Justice

B. Rousseau, the French Revolution, and Edmund Burke
    View the film Danton on the Drew network at one of the announced times.

20. The NATIONALISM in Rousseau's On the Social Contract (Read Bks. I and II)

21. The conflict between the General Will and the rights of women, slaves and Jews. Read
    Bks III and IV, the records of the debates in the French Assembly, and Paine p.110/111.

22. Edmund Burke's CONSERVATISM & his reaction to the French Revolution.
    Read the selections on Prudence(II), State & Society(III), Gov't & Human Nature(IV)

23. Read on Practical Politics(V), Reform & Tradition(VI), Property(VIII2), Jacobinism(VIII)

24. Examination.  Class starts at 8:30!!!.

25. Utilitarianism and CAPITALISM Read Adam Smith's aphorisms.
    Read and do the questions for John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, Chapter I

26. Utilitarianism and the (new 19th. Cent. ) LIBERTARIANISM
    Read Mill's On Liberty, Chapters II & III

27. Utilitarianism and the (new 19th. Cent.) LIBERALISM
    Read John Stuart Mill's On Liberty chapters IV and V

28. Mill on The Subjection of Women and on SOCIALISM Read and do both.
    Do Women on your own. Most of this class will be spend on the socialism questions.

29. From Socialism to MARXISM: Read The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels.

30. From Marxism to COMMUNISM: Read The Principles of Communism by Engels  The questions for you are those by which this cathechism is organized.

31. The challenge of ANARCHISM is the problem of justifying any kind of political authority.
    Read Bakunin's God and the State, first half through page....

32. Finish Bakunin

33. Hitler's FASCISM and RACISM as the ideologies that helped cause the Holocaust
    Read chapters X, XI, and XII of Book One of Mein Kampf

34. Hitler continued,  Read chapters I through VI of Book Two of Mein Kampf.

35. The Races of Mankind is Ruth Benedict's response to Hitler's ideology of RACISM

36. The twentieth Century LIBERTARIANISM in Hayek's classic The Road to Serfdom.

37. The Ideology of  HUMAN RIGHTS: Philosophical Foundations  Read 1 through 3 in Human Rights in World Politics

38. HUMAN RIGHTS: The International System Read Human Rights in World Politics, chapters 4 and 5

39. HUMAN RIGHTS: Problems and Dilemmas in Foreign Relations Read Human Rights in World Politics, 6-8

40. Three-Hour Cumulative Final Examination, given at the time announced by the registrar.
    (Please, do not plan trips until you know the date for the exam.)

REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS COURSE:
1) All the material that is not in the books you bought in the Drew bookstore is on line and you should download the relevant portions from the K drive and put it on your own drive. Then you can print out hard copy to bring to class and answers the questions by creating space between them on your own computer. You need to bring a hard copy of that on line material to the class in which it will be discussed because we use the text in class lectures and discussions.

2) Attendance is required and not doing so regularly (if noticed by the instructor) may result in a lowering of your end grade by a notch or two on the grade scale. A person who misses more than 1/4 of the classes is not a "regular" in my book. In my lectures I will suppose that you have done the reading and at least some of the questions for that day. I will then seek to make connections that I think you will find helpful in attaining the twofold purpose of this course.

3) Do all the reading for each session. This is a reading course!!  To help all of us read these classics I have made up study questions for most of the readings (books and on line material) in this course. In addition to being stimulants for class discussion, these questions will constitute at least 1/3 (but no more than ½) of each of the three examinations.

4) You are required to take three tests. The first one will count for 25%, the second one for 30% and the final, cumulative examination for 45% of your grade. There will be no make-up exams unless you have a doctor's note (or its equivalent) excusing you. If at the end I decide that your participation or lack thereof was extraordinary (meaning you made excellent contributions or almost never said anything) I may lower or raise your calculated grade by a notch (+ or -) on the scale.

4) Please, always BRING A HARD COPY (BOOK or PRINTOUT) of all the material for a particualr class to that very class. We almost always use these texts in the class in a specific way. Also, always bring a copy of the questions on the readings.

5) My office is located in Smith House on the third floor and my hours there will be on M.W.F. right after this class from 10--11 and on T and Th. from 4 to 5. My phone is ext. 3295.

Please, do not be scared off by the number of books. All are classics and some are very short.

Texts you should buy at Drew or elswhere: