Here is the complete syllabus.
Semester Schedule and Readings
| Dates | Area | Topics and Questions | Readings | Due dates |
| Monday, Jan. 27 | Introduction to the class and syllabus review | |||
| Monday, Feb. 3 | Political Communities | What is a political community, and what is its function? What makes a political community just? | Plato (ca. 375 BCE): Republic 357a–372c 410d–415d 427d–449a | |
| Wednesday, Feb. 5 | Plato (ca. 375 BCE): Republic, Book VII, 514a–521d Hannah Arendt (1961): Between Past and Future(107-111) | |||
| Monday, Feb. 10 | Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics andPolitics, (excerpts) Hannah Arendt: The Human Condition, Ch. 1 & 24 | |||
| Tuesday, Feb. 18 | Contract Theory | What is the origin and purpose of a state?What is the best form of the state? Does it arise from an agreement or contract among people? Is the idea of a contract useful or harmful? | Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan Ch. 13–15 (82–106) | |
| Wednesday, Feb. 19 | John Locke: The Second Treatise of Government Ch. 1–3, 8 (pp. 3–13; 49–63) | |||
| Monday, Feb. 24 | Jean-Jac Rousseau: The Social Contract Book I, Book II i.–v. (45–71) | |||
| Wednesday, Feb. 26 | Charles Mills: The Racial Contract (pp. 1–19; 62–81) | |||
| Monday, Mar. 3 | Carole Patemen: The Sexual Contract, Preface and Ch. 1 (pp. ix–xi; 1–18) | |||
| Thursday, Mar. 6 | Midterm Prep Session | |||
| Monday, Mar. 10 | Justice | What is justice? What matters when we are trying to get justice into view? | John Rawls: A Theory of Justice (Sections 1–4, 11, 13, 24) | |
| Wednesday, Mar. 12 | Annette Baier, The Need for More than Justice (pp. 47–58) | |||
| Monday, Mar. 17 | Liberty | What is freedom and what is its importance? What are different kinds of freedom? | John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (pp. 375–388) & excerpt on the tyranny of the majority (tbd) | |
| Wednesday, Mar. 19 | Isaiah Berlin, Two Concepts of Liberty (pp. 159–170) | |||
| Friday, Mar. 21 | Midterm due | |||
| Monday, Mar. 24 | Equality | What is equality? How do we achieve it? | No Class | |
| Wednesday, Mar. 26 | Catherine MacKinnon: Only Words Ch. 1 (pp. 1–41) | |||
| Monday, Mar. 31 | Oppression | What is oppression? Why is oppression wrong, and what must we do about it? | No Class | |
| Wednesday, Apr. 2 | Marilyn Frye (2000): Oppression Iris Marion Young: Five Faces of Oppression | You should write separate blurbs for both of these! | ||
| Monday, Apr. 7 | Serene Khader: Why is Oppression Wrong? | |||
| Wednesday, Apr. 9 | Paper plan peer review class: Bring your outline to class! | |||
| Friday, Apr. 11 | Paper plan for final paper due | |||
| Apr. 12–20 | Spring Break | |||
| Monday, Apr. 21 | Capitalism,Fascism, and Civil Disobedience | Does a good political system imply ending all forms of exploitation? When do we have a duty to resist unjust political systems? Do we have a duty to engage in civil disobedience? | Karl Marx (1844): Estranged Labor (70–81) | |
| Wednesday, Apr. 23 | Hannah Arendt: Personal Responsibility under Dictatorship (pp. 17–48) Umberto Eco: Ur-Fascism | |||
| Monday, Apr. 28 | Herbert Marcuse (1969): Essay on Liberation (pp. 67-78) | |||
| Wednesday, Apr. 30 | Alternative Forms of Political Organization | What are possible alternatives? | Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (188–199) | |
| Monday, May 5 | G. A. Cohen, ‘Why Not Socialism?’ (pp. 58–74) | |||
| Wednesday, May 7 | Robert Wolff: In Defense of Anarchism (excerpts) Emma Goldman: Anarchism and Other Essays (excerpts) | |||
| Monday, May 12 | Final paper workshop | |||
| Wednesday, May 14 | Final paper workshop | |||
| Wednesday, May 21 | Final Paper due | |||
Required Texts: There are no required books that you need to buy. All texts can be found as a open access books or articles on this website, or as a PDF provided under fair use guidelines. Readings provided under fair use guidelines are for the purpose of this class only and remain subject to all the rights and restrictions of the publisher.
