2
Philosophy 355: Political Philosophy
UWM, fall 2016
Draft
Instructor: Bill Bristow
616 Curtin Hall (414-229-4719)
Office Hours: TBA
Course Description:
What is the state (the polis) and what are its most fundamental functions? What are the basic kinds of states and governments, and which are best, and why? What can justify (if anything) the employment of force by a state against its citizens? What is the fair or just distribution of the benefits or goods of political society among society’s members, and how is the just distribution determined? What rights and privileges do individuals retain in relation to their government, and which can (or ought to) be ceded to the government? Do people always retain the right to revolt against the political orde and, if so, under what circumstances? How is the political unit related to other social organizations, in particular, civil society and the family? -- In this course we examine these and related questions by reading classic texts in the history of political philosophy (eg., texts by Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx) as well as influential contemporary political theorists (eg., Rawls and Nozick). We will apply the theories we study to contemporary questions of justice.
Course Objectives
In this course, the student will:
§ Learn the basic elements of several influential theories regarding what constitutes the legitimacy of political power and of what constitutes the best sort of government, as well as the fundamental elements of the theories of great political philosophers in the Western tradition.
§ Learn to examine these theories critically, and to weigh their relative advantages and disadvantages.
§ Learn to apply these theories to real-world contemporary questions of political justice.
§ Develop skills of writing analytical philosophy papers, and skills of philosophical analysis and argument.
Text
Steven Cahn, editor; Political Philosophy: Essential Texts, third edition, Oxford University Press, 2014. (ISBN-10: 0190201088)
Course Requirements
§ regular course attendance and participation, including some short writing
§ two essays
§ cumulative final examination
Final Grade break-down:
Two papers 50%
Final exam (take home): 25%
Participation (including occasional short writing): 25%
The course load comprises up to two hours of work for the course outside of class for every hour of class time. Including class time, this is nine hours per week, and, over the 16 weeks of the semester (including exam week), this totals to 144 hours. Some weeks will require more of you, and others less, and many of you will do well in the course while devoting less than 144 hours to it. However the time outside of class, doing the reading carefully, studying the material, constructing and revising your essays, is certainly as important as the time in the class, and, to gain what the course has to offer, you will need to devote significant time to the course material outside of class.
Course Procedures:
§ If you will need accommodations in order to meet any of the requirements of this course because of a disability, please contact me as soon as possible. If you have not already done so, you should also contact the Student Accessibility Center at 229-6287.
§ If religious observances in your faith conflict with some of the requirements of this course, please speak to me as soon as possible regarding making accommodations.
§ Various university policies regarding students’ participation in courses can be accessed via the following URL: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/SyllabusLinks.pdf
§ Cheating on exams and plagiarism on written assignments are violations of the academic honor code and carry severe sanctions, including failing a course or even suspension or dismissal from the university. The website at the following URL will inform you regarding what the university considers plagiarism: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/OSL/DOS/conduct.html
Class schedule (-subject to change):
(All page numbers reference Cahn, Political Philosophy: The Essential Texts.)
I. Raising fundamental questions: Aristotle’s Politics
First meeting (9/6): Introduction to the course. (No reading).
Meeting 1 (9/8): Kraut, pp.. 137-141
Aristotle, Politics, Book One (chs 1-6) (pp. 165-171).
Meeting 2 (9/13): Aristotle, Politics, Book Two, and Book Three, chs. 1-6 (pp. 174-188).
Meeting 3 (9/15): Aristotle, Politics, Book Three, chs. 7-12 (pp.188-196).
II. Modern social contract theory: Hobbes and Locke
Meeting 1 (9/20): Hampton, pp. 309-311.
Hobbes, Leviathan, Intro and Part One, up through ch. 11 (pp. 312-317)
Meeting 2 (9/22): Hobbes, Leviathan, Part One, chs. 12-13 (pp. 317-321).
Meeting 3 (9/27): Hobbes, Leviathan, Part One, chs 14-15 (pp. 321-330).
Meeting 4 (9/29): Hobbes, Leviathan, Part Two, chs. 17-18 (pp. 330-336).
Meeting 5 (10/4): Hobbes, Leviathan, Part Two, chs. 21, 29 (pp.338-343).
Meeting 6 (10/6): A. John Simmons, pp. 360-364.
Locke, Second Treatise, chapters I and II (pp. 365-368).
[first paper assigned]
Meeting 7 (10/11): Locke, Second Treatise, chs. III-V, VII (pp. 368-376)
Meeting 8 (10/13): Locke, Second Treatise, chs. VIII-XI (pp. 376-382).
Meeting 9 (10/18): Locke, Second Treatise, chs. XII, XVI-XVIII (pp. 383-388)
Meeting 10 (10/20): Locke, Second Treatise, ch. XIX (pp. 389-393).
III. Human Liberation through re-organization of political society:
Rousseau’s Communitarianism and Marx’s Communism
Meeting 1 (10/25): Cohen, pp. 418-421
Rousseau, “Discourse on Origin of Inequality”, (pp. 422-437)
Meeting 2 (10/27): Rousseau, Social Contract, Book One (pp.437-443).
Meeting 3 (10/28): Rousseau, Social Contract, Book Two (pp.443-449)
Meeting 4 (10/30): Rousseau, Social Contract, Book Three (pp. 449-458)
[first paper due]
Meeting 5 (11/4): Rousseau, Social Contract, Book Four (pp. 458-463).
Meeting 6 (11/6): Miller, pp. 696-700
Marx, “Estranged Labor”, (pp. 701-708)
Meeting 7 (11/11): Marx, “The German Ideology”, (pp. 708-713).
Meeting 8 (11/13): Marx, “Communist Manifesto” (pp. 714-726).
[second paper assigned]
IV. Contemporary Liberalism and Some Critics
Meeting 1 (11/18): Cohen, pp. 911-916.
Rawls, Theory of Justice, §§3-4 (pp. 917-922).
Meeting 2 (11/20): Rawls, Theory of Justice, §§11, 13, 17, (pp. 922-927).
Meeting 3 (11/25): Rawls, Theory of Justice, §§24, 26 (pp. 927-932).
November 27 Thanksgiving (No class. Happy Thanksgiving!).
Meeting 4 (12/2): Christiano, pp. 953-956.
Nozick, Anarchy, State, Utopia Chapter 7, (pp. 957-69).
Meeting 5 (12/4): same reading as above
[second paper due]
Meeting 6 (12/9): Susan Moller Okin, Justice, Gender and the Family TBA
[take home final examination assigned]
Meeting 7 (12/11): Susan Moller Okin TBA
Final Examination (take home) due TBA.