From:Jesse Covington, Department of Political Science

Memo

To:General Education Committee

CC:Susan Penksa

Date:March 28, 2008

Re:POL-030 and the G.E. Curriculum

This memorandum makes two requests:

That POL-030 no longer be counted as a writing-intensive course.
That POL-030 be allowed to continue fulfilling the “Common Contexts: Philosophical Reflections on Truth and Value” (PRTV, hereafter) requirement in the General Education curriculum.

I have outlined below some of my thoughts on why the latter of these is appropriate and have attached several items for your review. These include a course syllabus, course writing assignment, and information on one of the course texts. I want to thank the committee for granting me an extension to continue developing the course and this proposal. Also, my ongoing participation in the G.E. program review/assessment meetings for the PRTV requirement has been very helpful to me in a number of respects. As things currently stand, the three learning outcomes for that have been identified for the PRTV requirement involve students’ facility with basic philosophical questions, the Christian liberal arts tradition (both content and skills), and Christian worldview thinking. My comments below reflect my understanding of the 2005 G.E. document, but are largely organized around the PRTV learning outcome goals produced by these meetings.

The Political Science department has re-titled POL-030 from “Contemporary Political Ideologies” to “Political Theory and Ideology” (PTI, hereafter). There are several reasons for this change. The addition of “political theory” to the title reflects that the content of the course extends beyond ideologies to encompass political theory more broadly. Moreover, the new title better suits the role of the course in the political science curriculum as an introduction to political theory as it is addressed in upper division theory courses. The new title omits the word “Contemporary” because while contemporary thinking remains quite important to the course, the relevance of historical political thought makes the new title more descriptive.

Philosophy: There remain fundamental continuities with POL-030 as taught by Bruce McKeown and I think that some of the changes I have made to the course may bring it even more closely in-line with the goals of the Philosophical Reflections GE requirement. Glenn Tinder’s book Political Thinking remains a core course text. As the attached materials on Political Thinking indicate, Tinder engages students in questions of metaphysics and ethics throughout his book, addressing epistemology to a lesser extent as well. Tinder’s approach interfaces well with how I frame the project of political philosophy: it addresses basic questions of essence and meaning/value in relation to politics. The 2005 G.E. document lists emphases on either truth or value as central to the goals of the “Philosophical Reflections” requirement. As students read, discuss, and write about various political ideologies throughout PTI, basic philosophical questions play an ongoing role (see attached writing assignment).

Worldview: Tinder identifies core truth commitments regarding human nature, evil, eternal life, and knowledge as foundational for the study of political theory—an approach that facilitates introducing students to Christian worldview thinking in relation to politics. They can see the direct relevance of Christian faith for evil, human nature, eternal life, etc., and subsequently for the political questions addressed in Tinder’s book and throughout the course. I teach Tinder’s book in tandem with Al Wolters’ Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview. As the class explores with Tinder how fundamental questions about existence and morality relate to politics, students simultaneously investigate the implications of Christian faith for these questions more broadly. These two books are central to the first segment of the course, but their content continues to shape class analysis of various ideologies throughout the semester. One way that I link this first part of the course to subsequent segments more focused on specific ideologies is by my use of David Koyzis’ book Political Visions and Illusions: A Survey and Critique of Contemporary Ideologies. Koyzis self-consciously seeks to apply a biblical understanding of the world (using a similar approach to Wolters’) in his analysis of political ideologies. Using this text helps students think critically about the basic commitments of various ideologies, assessing these in relation to Christian faith.

Liberal Arts: All of PTI is rooted in the liberal arts tradition in that it seeks to relate political theory to an integrated understanding of academic inquiry, faith, and life. Lines of connection between political theory and other disciplines are inescapable throughout (theology, history, and philosophy stand out in this regard). Moreover, PTI’s emphasis on critical reading, writing, and discussion aims to help students develop skills that are applicable across the disciplines (see attached writing assignment, in addition to the syllabus). Regarding the Christian liberal arts, Westmont’s G.E. document reads: “These themes include, among others: an exploration of what it means to be human; what it means to live a good life; and what it means to pursue justice as a citizen of both this world and the Kingdom of God. As a result of having fulfilled these requirements, students will have an appreciation for the development of the Christian Liberal Arts tradition.“ While the preceding two paragraphs suggest the relevance of PTI to the first set of concerns, “appreciation for the development of the Christian Liberal Arts tradition” is less obvious. While I am still exploring how to do this better, one of the ways in which I am pursuing this is through requiring students to read Westmont’s 2005 General Education document in tandem with Allan Bloom’s “The Democratization of the University.” This aims to help them locate Westmont’s approach to the liberal arts in the context of broader changes within American higher education. Bloom’s article carries distinctly political implications, which makes it particularly apt for the course.

In favor of erring on the side of providing more information rather than less, I will elaborate a bit more on what this all looks like in the treatment of particular political ideologies—the focus of much of the course. As currently structured, it explores liberalism, conservatism, socialism, anarchism, fascism, nationalism, democracy, ideologies of gender and sexuality, race, the environment, and Islam. The philosophical and worldview themes that are central to the first section of the course inform the treatment of individual ideologies through some of the questions with which I ask students to probe ideologies. While I include more detailed sets of questions in the attachment on Glenn Tinder, some of the questions I use from his book are:

1) Are human beings fundamentally unified or estranged, in essence?

2) Are human beings essentially equal or unequal?

3) Who should rule, and why?

4) What are the ends of power?

5) What ethical boundaries limit the use of power?

6) Does voluntarism or determinism better describe the role of humans in history?

Likewise, I ask students to analyze and assess ideologies using questions derived from David Koyzis’ Christian critique of ideologies. Koyzis suggests that ideologies reflect aspects of truth, but propose incomplete and/or erroneous accounts of basic human problems and their solutions. I ask students to critically engage political ideologies with Koyzis’ questions, including:

1) From a Christian perspective, what does the ideology “get right” about reality? What does it accurately perceive and focus on in the created order?

2) What inconsistencies does it manifest?

3) What does it identify as the source of evil? What basic problem needs to be fixed?

4) What does it identify as the source of salvation? What is the answer to the most basic human problems?

5) Does the ideology account for a distinctive role for politics? Is politics limited or totalizing?

I am currently helping to develop an assessment rubric for common use among courses fulfilling the Philosophical Reflections on Truth and Value requirement. At this stage, we are working to assess students’ abilities to articulate and think critically about foundational philosophical questions (outcome one on the attached sheet). This shared assessment tool can be incorporated into the rubric that I am currently using to assess the short papers in PTI. I anticipate that we will also develop shared assessment tools for student outcomes related to the liberal arts and worldview thinking.

Please let me know if you have questions, comments, concerns, or advice. Thank you!

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