Political Science 208

Spring 2008

M, W, F: 2:00 – 2:50

125 MCK

Introduction to the Tradition of

Political Theory

Instructor: GTF:

Bruno Anili Lindsay Vines-Ramirez

Office Hours: M, W, 3:00-6:00 Office Hours: _ _ _ _ _

PLC 636 MCK 440K

346-4972 346-4417

banili@uoregon.edu lvinesra@uoregon.edu

Introduction

This class could be emphatically dubbed: Political Theory from A to Z (i.e.: Aristotle à Žižek)…

Less ambitiously, this course is designed to offer an introduction to some of the main figures and ideas in the tradition of Western political theory.

Questions on participation, authority, the role of government, justice, power, gender, the environment, and irony will surface throughout the analysis of the readings. Moreover, a dominant theme of reflection in both lecture and discussion will be: How and how much (if at all) is the study of remote historical antecedents relevant to the world of contemporary political theory, and to our experiences as political beings more generally?

Texts

There is one assigned textbook for this class, available at the UO Bookstore:

Other readings, here marked with a *, will be made available online, through the Blackboard course website, accessible at blackboard.uoregon.edu (do not hesitate to contact your GTF or the instructor if you have problems accessing these readings).

Assignments

Paper #1. This is a quite short assignment (2-3 pages). Details will be announced in class.

Tip: use the short space available to you wisely!

Paper #2. This is a relatively longer assignment (7-8 pages). You are required to work in groups of 2-3 people; each group produces an essay in which common and individual parts are clearly recognizable. Your grade will reflect both the common and the individual sections of your project. Details will be announced in class.

Tip: do not hesitate to contact the instructor and/or your GTF for assistance with this paper!

Midterm. This in-class examination is designed to test your knowledge of the readings, as well as your ability to briefly discuss and critique some of the ideas presented in class. Details on the format of the exam will be announced in class.

Tip: be sure to have completed all the reading assignments up to the day of the midterm in time: the questions will be fairly straightforward!

Final Exam. This is meant to test your knowledge of the material presented during this course. Hence, it will be cumulative, i.e.: it will assume preparation on all the subjects, authors, readings listed on this syllabus. Details on the format of the exam will be announced in class.

Tip: take advantage of the full time allotted for the exam!

Participation. You will earn a grade for attending your discussion section and actively participating. Up to one absence will be excused; missing discussion section more than once will negatively affect your grade. Specific policies will be established by your discussion section leader, who is fully responsible for enforcing them.

Tip: do not be shy to contribute to discussion!

PLEASE NOTE: Students with disabilities can count on all the appropriate accommodations. Please contact the instructor as soon as possible and please request that the Counselor for Students with Disabilities send a letter verifying your disability.

PLEASE NOTE: No make-up exams will be held for this course. No e-mailed essays will be accepted. Late assignments will be penalized one half of a letter grade for every day that they are late, unless a documented medical or family emergency is notified to the instructor prior to the date on which the assignment is due.

Academic Honesty

What is wrong with plagiarism? A lot. The essence of plagiarism can be said to be: claiming as yours words and ideas that are not.

To begin with, it is only metaphorically that we can say that ideas “belong” to someone, in the same way that a house does, for instance. Think of this: the materials of which a house is made (bricks, wood, cement, labor, etc.) may very well have belonged to someone, or, at any rate, they may have been appropriated by someone. The “materials” of which ideas are made (words, thoughts, other ideas, etc.), on the other hand, cannot belong to anybody in particular. Is the word “blue” mine or yours? And whose idea is it that freedom is desirable?

Hence, you should not claim as yours what cannot, strictly speaking, be yours. Instead, you should always acknowledge the name(s) of the author(s) who has (have) expressed the ideas that you are using before you. This will not diminish the originality of your work, but it will prove your ability in incorporating other people’s ideas into your own reflection.

For a further discussion of plagiarism, please refer to: http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/plagiarism/students/

Schedule of Classes and Readings

M, 3/31

Introduction to the course

ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY

W, 4/2 “Ruling and being ruled in turn”

The politics of participation in Aristotle

· The Politics, pp. 107-117

F, 4/4

Aristotle’s classification of constitutions

· The Politics, pp. 117-123

M, 4/7 “The Philosopher Kings”

Plato’s critique of democracy

· The Republic, pp. 65-78

W, 4/9

Plato’s critique of democracy - continued

· The Republic, pp. 78-94

F, 4/11

Plato’s critique of democracy – continued

· The Republic, pp. 94-106

THE TURN TOWARDS MODERNITY

M, 4/14 “Life without […] examination is not worth living”

The Apology of Socrates

· The Apology, pp. 19-38

W, 4/16 “It is better to be feared than to be loved”

Infamous Machiavelli

· The Prince, pp. 167-187

F, 4/18 “Quarrels between the nobles and the plebs”

* Less famous Machiavelli

· The Discourses, pp. 188-193 + extra

SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY

M, 4/21

Hobbes’ State of Nature “Homo homini lupus”

· Leviathan, pp. 205-219

W, 4/23

Hobbes’ justification for the Leviathan

· Leviathan, pp. 219-229

F, 4/25

Hobbes and the liberties of the subject

· Leviathan, pp. 229-242

M, 4/28 “Everyone has property in his own person”

Locke’s State of Nature

· Second Treatise on Government, pp. 242-250

W, 4/30

Locke on private property and the role of government

· Second Treatise on Government, pp. 250-268

F, 5/2

Locke on separation of powers and civil disobedience

· Second Treatise on Government, pp. 268-279

M, 5/5 “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”

Rousseau’s state of nature

· Discourse on Inequality, pp. 293-313

W, 5/7

Rousseau’s social contract

· The Social Contract, pp. 280-292

F, 5/9

Midterm

exam

MODERNITY REALIZED, MODERNITY CONTESTED

M, 5/12 “From each according to abilities, to each according to needs”

Marx and alienation

· Estranged Labour, pp. 438-448

W, 5/14

Marx and historical materialism

· The Communist Manifesto, pp. 448-464

F, 5/16 “Truth is a mobile army of metaphors”

Nietzsche and ressentiment

· On the Genealogy of Morals, pp. 467-483

M, 5/19

* Nietzsche against great nausea, great pity

· On the Genealogy of Morals, pp. 483-490 + extra

W, 5/21 “Dominating and terrorizing human beings from within”

Arendt and the dark side of modernity

· The Origins of Totalitarianism, pp. 575-590

F, 5/23

* Saussure and the linguistic turn “In language there are only differences”

· Course in General Linguistics, Excerpts

M, 5/26

Memorial Day – No Class Held

W, 5/28 “Docile bodies”

Foucault and the rise of disciplinary power

· Discipline and Punish, pp. 715-725

F, 5/30

Foucault and the politics of the body

· Discipline and Punish, pp. 725-739

M, 6/2 “To the greatest benefit of the least advantaged”

Rawls’ version of the social contract

· A Theory of Justice, pp. 669-697

W, 6/4 “Identity is performatively constituted by the very

‘expressions’ that are said to be its results”

* Butler and the human as “that which we have yet to know”

· “Violence, Mourning, Politics”

Studies in Gender & Sexuality, Vol. 4, No. 1. (Winter 2003), pp. 9-37

F, 6/6 “Tolerance makes everything boring, we need more conflict!”

* Žižek’s radical critique of contemporary politics

· “A Plea for Leninist Intolerance”

Critical Inquiry, Vol. 28, No. 2. (Winter, 2002), pp. 542-566