History of Political Thought
71-108-18
Lecturer: Dr. Avital Pilpel
Type of Course: compulsory
Academic Year: 2015-16 Semester: A+B Credit Hours: 2
Lecturer Details:
Time: ***** ******
Office Hours: ****** ******
Email:
A. Course Objectives
This course examines major texts in the history of political thought and the questions they raise about the design of the political and social order. It considers the ways in which thinkers have responded to the particular political problems of their day, and the ways in which they contribute to a broader conversation about human goods and needs, justice, democracy, law, and the proper relationship of the individual to the state.
One aim will be to understand the strengths and weaknesses of various regimes and philosophical approaches in order to gain a critical perspective on our own. Another would be to gain historical perspective: to see how the same questions were important to most cultures in most places, and to see the connections and influences of different period had on later thinkers, or how one culture’s thought influenced another.
In the first semester we will consider pre-modern political thought: from its beginnings to the end of the Renaissance. In the second semester we will consider modern thought, from Hobbes onward. Thinkers and sources include, among others, the Bible, Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Ibn Khaldun, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant, Marx, and Rawls.
B. Course Requirements
1. Attendance & Active Participation.
2. Required Reading: See list below.
3. Midterm and Final Examinations.
4. Paper (7-8 pages)
C. Final Grade Apportionment:
Paper : 20%
Midterm examination: 40%
Final examination: 40%.
To pass the course, a minimal grade of 60% is required in each exam and in the paper.
D. The Course Program and Readings
NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, we always will only read selections from the primary sources noted below (i.e., those of the philosophers themselves, as opposed to commentary on them)
1st Semester:
Section 1:
Ancestral Voices Prophesying War: Introduction and Political Thought in the Ancient World: Pre-Socratic Ideas.
1st Lesson: Is there political thought in the Bible?
2nd Lesson: The politics of the Gods: The Iliad and Greek Mythology
3rd Lesson: The Greek presocratic ideas: from Homer to Parmenides
Primary Sources:
The Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Judges, Samuel I
Homer, Iliad
881 HOM – in the Cen.lib-Stacks & the English, History & Literature libraries
Presocratic philosophers -- selections
Secondary Sources:
Ball, Terence. "The Value of the History of Political Philosophy", in: George Klosko (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy, 2011, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 47-59.
320.01 OXF 2013 (2398204) – in the Philosophy library
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology (selections; available in numerous editions)
292 HAM m (186063) – in the Cen.lib-Stacks & the English library
Hazony, Yoram. "Does the Bible Have a Political Teaching?", HPS, Vol. 1, No. 2, Winter 2006, pp. 137-161.
Section 2:
ὁ ἄνθρωπος φύσει πολιτικὸν ζῷον: Greek and Roman Political Philosophy
4th Lesson: Plato’s Republic and the Laws
5th Lesson: Aristotle’s Politics
6th Lesson: The Stoics, Epicureans, and others Late-Hellenism thinkers
7th Lesson: O tempora! O mores! – Cicero and Roman political thought.
Primary Sources:
Plato: The Apology,
184 PLA – in the Cen.lib-Stacks & the English library
The Republic,
321.07 PLA r – in the Cen.lib-Stacks
Laws
888 PLA l.S (128940) – in the Cen.lib-Stacks & the English library
Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics,
185 ART – in the Cen.lib-Stacks & the Philosophy library
Politics
888 ARI po.E (105794) – in the Social Sciences library
Epicurus: The Extant Remains
888 EPI e.B (1190874) – in the Cen.lib-Stacks
Seneca: Moral and Political Works
N/A
Cicero, De Re Publica [sic], De Legibus
878 CIC 5/r.K (253575) – In the Cen.lib-Stacks & the Literature library
Secondary Sources:
Barker, Ernest. Greek Political Theory. 1967, London: Methuen, pp. 1-60.
320.938 g5 (155017) – in the Philosophy, French & the Literature libraries
Michael, Oakeshott. Lectures in the History of Political Thought. 2006. Exeter :Imprint Academic, Ch. 10, pp. 160-175.
Ebook (2417102)
Griffin, M., 1992,Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics2ndedn., Oxford: Oxford University Press. (selections)
N/A
Section 4:
Civitas Dei – Medieval Political Thought
8th Lesson: Augustine
9th Lesson: Thomas Aquinas
10th Lesson: Ibn Khaldun and other Islamic thinkers
Primary Sources:
St. Augustine, The City of God
239.3 AUG c (175365) – in the Cen.lib-Stacks & the History library
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
189.4 THO s (330731) – in the Philosophy library
Ibn Kaldun, selections
892.794 IBN-KHA p (271701) – in the Cen.lib-Stacks
Secondary Sources:
Oakeshott, Michael Lectures in the History of Political Thought. 2006. Exeter :Imprint Academic, Ch. 21-22, pp. 322-338, 339-358.
Others TBA
Ebook (2417102)
Section 5:
“Hier stehe ich, Ich kann nicht anders”: The Renaissance and the Reformation: From Cynicism to Reform to Utopia
11th Lesson: Machiavelli
12th Lesson: Luther
13th Lesson: More and Summary
Primary Sources:
Machiavelli The Prince, Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius
321.6 MAC p (161440)
Luther, Selected Political Writings
270.6 LUT 1961s (95232) – in the Philosophy & English libraries
More, Utopia
321.07 MOR u (275655)
Secondary Sources:
TBA
2nd Semester:
Section 6:
L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers: The Social Contract – Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau
14th Lesson: Hobbes
15th Lesson: Locke
16th Lesson: Rousseau
Primary Sources:
Hobbes, Leviathan
192 HOB l (3353)
Locke, Second Treatise on Government
320.01 LOC s (1220033)
Rousseau, A Discourse on Inequality, The Social Contract
320.1 ROU s (100233)
Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
944.04 BUR r (1169062) – in the History library
Secondary Sources:
TBA
Section 7:
Workers of the World, Unite! Idealism from the Enlightenment to Marxism
17th Lesson: Kant
18th Lesson: Hegel
19th Lesson: Feuerbach & Wagner
20th Lesson: Nietzsche & Marx
Primary Readings:
Kant, What is Enlightenment,
193 KAN f (569320) – in the Philosophy library
Critique of Pure Practical Reason,
193 KAN c (330633) – in the Philosophy library
Perpetual Peace
193 KAN p (2383039) – in the Philosophy library
Hegel, Hegel’s Political Writing,
320.81 HEG h (445670) – in the Philosophy library
The Phenomenology of Spirit
193 HEG p (446001) – in the Philosophy library
Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity
230.01 FEU e (402490) – in the Philosophy & English libraries
Wagner, Art and Revolution
N/A
Nietzsche, So Spake Zarathustra,
193 NIE t (195866) – in the Philosophy & English libraries
On the Genealogy of Morality
193 NIE(ANS) o (267147) – in the Philosophy library
Marx, The Communist Manifesto
335.42 MAR c (295873)
Secondary Sources:
TBA
Section 8:
The Lights are going out all over Europe: The Age of Extremism
21st Lesson: Communism from Lenin onward
22nd Lesson: Fascism: Giovanni Gentile & Mussolini
23rd Lesson: Nazism
Primary Readings:
Lenin, Writings, esp.
What is to be Done?
335.430947 LEN w (37234)
AND
Imperialism, the Last Stage of Capitalism
335.43 LEN I (250644)
Gentile (as Mussolini): A Doctrine of Fascism
320.5330945 GEN o (1120203) – in the Philosophy library
Hitler: My Struggle
943.086 HIT m (603314) – in the Cen.lib-Stacks
Secondary Sources (selections):
Bollock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny
943.086092 HIT(BUL) h (189703)
Kershaw, Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris
943.086092 HIT(KER) h (413015) – in the Cen.lib-Stacks the History library
Payne, A History of Fascism
320.533 PAY h (322406)
Section 9:
The Veil of Ignorance?: The Modern Thinkers & Summary:
24th Lesson: Berlin
25th Lesson: Rawls
26th Lesson: Nozick & Summary
Primary Reading:
Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty
323.44 BER f (86749)
Rawls, A Theory of Justice
Reserved: under RAW (103450) & Ebook (2429875)
Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia
320.1 NOZ a (107790)
Secondary Reading:
TBA
2