PPTSemesterIMasterSyllabus.docx.docx

Philosophy and Political Thought (PPT)Semester II, 2013

Course Overview The year-long PPT course introduces students to a number of key traditions, figures, and themes in the history of philosophy and political thought. It also explores some of the deepest questions that have been asked, in different ways in different traditions. What is the good life? What am I? What do I owe to others? Who should rule? What if anything justifies the state and what role should it play in our lives? What is there? How do I know what I am or what there is? These questions are live questions, with no settled answers. We will investigate fundamental alternatives among answers to these questions, using a variety of thinkers and traditions. The second semester explores increasingly contemporary readings on knowledge, the self, and the political community. We begin with questions about what the self can know, and what help the self might need to obtain knowledge, whether that help comes from reason, experience, God, or the community. The semester goes on to look at different traditions for thinking about the sources and character of political authority, as well as the kinds of institutions that are necessary for legitimate rule. We also consider a series of discussions of what might rightfully limit the power of the state, including when rebellion might be justified. The critical challenges we consider are increasingly pervasive, challenging not just the state, but also the foundations of morality and the morality of our everyday actions. Evaluation and AssignmentsCommon assessment: 60% of your final gradeFirst paper, 2-3 pages, for 15% of your final gradeSecond paper, 3-4 pages, for 20% of your final gradeThird, 4-5 pages, for 25% of your final gradeSeminar assessment: 40% of your final gradeFurther speaking and writing exercises that may vary between individual seminar leadersCommon Course PoliciesAttendance is required at all lectures and seminar meetingsAcademic Integrity is required as detailed in the Student HandbookLate writing assignments will be marked down by 10% of their grade per day they are late Weekly Schedule

***From the list of required books unless otherwise noted******Your seminar leader will single out selections from the readings below***

Week of Monday 13 January: Ibn Tufayl, Aquinas

Hayy Ibn Yaqzn, pp. 95-166 Aquinass Five WaysWeek of Monday 20 January: Descartes I

Meditations in First Philosophy, Meditations 1-3

Week of Monday 28 January: Descartes II

Meditations in First Philosophy, Meditations 4-6

Week of Monday 3 February: Hume

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, sections 1-7

Week of Monday 10 February: Locke

Second Treatise of Government, Chs. 1-5; Ch. 7; Ch. 8, Sections 95-106, 119-122; Ch. 9-12, 14; Ch. 19, sections 211-230, 241-242

***6pm Sunday 16 February: First Paper Due***Week of Monday 17 February: Rousseau

Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, pp. 1-70

Week of Monday 3 March: Mill I

On Liberty, Chs. 1-3

Week of Monday 10 March: Mill II

On Liberty, Chs. 4-5

Week of Monday 17 March: Nietzsche

Genealogy of Morals, Preface, Essay 1, Essay 3

***6pm Sunday 23 March: First Paper Due***Week of Monday 24 March: 20th Century Chinese Philosophy

Liang Qichao, On Rights Consciousness Chen Duxiu, The Constitution and Confucianism Mou Zongsan et al., A Manifesto for a Re-Appraisal of Sinology and the Reconstruction of Chinese Culture

Week of Monday 31 March: Gandhi

Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule, pp. 35-130

Week of Monday 7 April: the Dalai Lama

Ethics for the New Millennium, Chs. 1-10

Week of Monday 14 April: Singer

Famine, Affluence, and Morality

***6pm Sunday 20 April: First Paper Due***Final Project: Symposium

Week of Monday 21 April:

Preparation for seminar symposium

Week of Monday 28 April:

Seminar symposium takes place

List of required course books (available in the Co-op Bookstore, on reserve in the library, and elsewhere) Ibn Tufayl, Hayy Ibn Yaqzn, Translated by Lenn Evan Goodman, University of Chicago, 2009.Ren Descartes, Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy: With Selections from the Objections and Replies, Edited by John Cottingham Ed, Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, 1996.David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Second Edition, Edited by Eric Steinberg, Hackett, 1993.John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Edited by C.B. Macpherson, Hackett, 1980.Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Translated by Donald A. Cress, Hackett Publishing, 1992. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty and Other Essays, Oxford University Press, 2008. Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals, in On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo, Translated by Walter Kaufmann, Vintage Press, 1989.Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2009.Dalai Lama, Ethics for the New Millenium, Riverhead Trade, 2001.Course Readings on IVLE [in the workbin Course-wide Readings on IVLE] Thomas Aquinas, Five Ways in Summa Theologica Part 1, Question 2, Article Three, Dominican Translation online.20th Century Chinese Philosophy: Liang Qichao, On Rights Consciousness (1902) and Chen Duxiu, The Constitution and Confucianism (1916) in The Chinese Human Rights Reader, ed. and trans. Stephen Angle and Marina Svensson, M.E. Sharpe, 2001, pp. 5-15; 67-74 (18 pages); Mou Zongsan, A Manifesto for a Re-Appraisal of Sinology and the Reconstruction of Chinese Culture (1957) in The Development of Neo-Confucian Thought, Vol. 2., Carsun Chang Trans., Bookman, 1962, pp. 455-483 (29 pages).Peter Singer, Famine, Affluence, and Morality, in Philosophy and Public Affairs 1 (3): 229-43. 1972.

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