DEPAUW UNIVERSITY

Political Science 230
Elements of Political Theory

Dr. O. R. Raymond Spring Semester, 2004

This course is an inquiry into classical political philosophy. It seeks to acquaint the student with the major themes of Western political thought since classical times, which provide the foundations for modern political values and discourse. The course structure is chronological, primarily for the sake of convenience and comprehension. But the course's approach is political, theoretical, and analytical. The course will therefore attempt to show particular political thinkers as responding to the conditions of their historical situation, but at the same time responding in ways that surmount the parochial preoccupations and limitations of their time, responses, therefore, which continue to provoke, challenge, and inform us as we ourselves seek better to understand our own natures, our society and cultural traditions, and our human predicament.

Another point I wish to raise at the outset: this course addresses material that is primarily normative; that is, it deals heavily not so much with the way things are, but with how various thinkers believed things ought to be. It deals, in sum, with values. It assumes not only that each of you has a right to your own point of view; it insists that each of you ought to have a point of view, ought to take the trouble to inform yourself so that you both have an opinion as well as a justification for it, that ought to be developing a philosophy of life which includes political norms, preferences, and commitments. This course invites you, therefore, to examine, to reassess, to develop and to assert your own political values, not merely as conventional views received and therefore accepted unexamined, but as values growing out of a new engagement with much of the canon of Western political thought as well as with your own growing social and political experience. I would like for you, on the basis of the readings in this course, to think through, for example, what is human nature, what are the essential qualities of individual personality and what rights, if any, does the individual have; what might be the sources of individual rights and responsibilities; what is the appropriate relationship between the individual and society and between state and society; what is the nature of authority and legitimacy; what is the nature and desirability of freedom; what is the possibility of human equality and what are its dimensions; what is the role of property; and other such fundamental issues, both considered abstractly and as applicable to the concrete conditions of current society.

These are the problems which, ever since the Greeks, Western political thought has raised and debated and resolved, only to return to them again and again, each time altering the resolution and inviting further debate and adaptation. They are no less the issues of current political debate today, not only in our society, but in every culture in the contemporary world.

This course meets four times a week for lectures and as much discussion as time--and student preparation--allows. I strongly expect faithful and regular class attendance and timely completion of the readings, both to make classroom comments-mine and others'-more understandable, and to enable students to participate more fully in class discussion. I am convinced it will be to your advantage to meet these expectations. There will be two hour examinations, approximately one-third and two-thirds of the way through the course, as well as a paper due two weeks before the end of the semester. Each of these requirements will count equally in terms of overall course assessment, i.e., about 20% of the course grade. The final will count up to 40%, and some indication of participation in class discussion will also find itself factored into the overall evaluation of student performance. All examinations will, of course, be analytical and expository, i.e., they will take the form of essay questions.

Most of the reading in this course is primary, i.e., drawn directly from philosophical writings. The major exception is George H. Sabine, A History of Political Theory, which is an historical analysis of political philosophy chronologically organized; each chapter paired essentially with a major political philosopher or thematic period. Most students, I believe, will find Sabine's exploration a useful means of orienting themselves to the primary readings. Sabine, however, is not, and is not intended to be, a substitute for doing the primary reading. Nor is he a shortcut to understanding a philosopher, which would allow the student to dispense with the responsibility of working out his or her own understanding and assessment of a philosopher's meaning and validity. My point, then, is that the student is expected to do all the readings, but perhaps he or she might find it useful to begin with the relevant chapter from Sabine or to repair to Sabine to compare one's one conclusions with the analysis Sabine offers.

TOPICS AND READINGS

I. THE GREEK POLIS

Sabine, ch. 1, 2, "The City-State" and "Political Thought before Plato," in A History of Political Thought

II. THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF PLATO

Sabine, ch. 3-4, "Plato, The Republic" and "Plato, The Statesman and The Laws"
Plato, The Republic (excluding Pt III, ch. xxvi, and Pts V and VI)

III. ARISTOTLE'S POLITICS

Sabine, ch. 5-6, "Aristotle, Political Ideals," "Aristotle, Political Actualities"
Ernest Barker, ed., intro essay, The Politics of Aristotle, and Books I-V

IV. HELLENISM, STOICISM AND THE TRANSITION TO THE ROMAN EXPERIENCE

Sabine, ch. 7, 8, 9, "The Twilight of the City-State," "The Law of Nature," "Cicero and the Roman Lawyers"

V. SECULAR PESSIMISM AND THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY

Sabine, ch. 10, "Seneca and the Fathers of the Church,"

VI. THE POLITICAL HERITAGE OF FEUDALISM

Sabine, ch. 11, "The Folk and Its Law"

VII. THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES AND THE THOMISTIC SYNTHESIS OF CHRISTIAN

DOCTRINE AND ARISTOTELIANISM

Sabine, ch. 12, 13, "The Investiture Controversy," "Universitas Hominum"

P. Sigmund, ed., St. Thomas on Politics and Ethics, intro., pp. xxiii-xxvii, "The Summa AgainsttheGentiles,"p.3-13, "OnKingship,"p.14-29, "SumrnaTheologiae,"p. 30- 60, W. Ullman, "The Ingredients of the Thomistic Synthesis: St. Thomas and Aristotle, in Sigmund, of. cit., pp. 115-119

VIII. MACHIAVELLI AND RENAISSANCE HUMANISM

Sabine, ch. 17, "Machiavelli"

Robert M. Adams, "Historical Introduction" in Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, trans/ed Robert M.. Adams

J. R. Hale, "The Setting of The Prince, 1513-14," in op. cit.

Ernst Cassirer, "Implications of the New Theory of the State," in op. cit.
N. Machiavelli, The Prince

" " excerpt from The Discourses on Titus Livius (Machiavelli, the Democrat)

IX. THE PROTEST ANT REFORMATION AND THE RISE OF SECULARISM

Sabine, ch. 18, "The Early Protestant Reformers"

X. THEORIES OF ABSOLUTISM AND SOVEREIGNTY

Sabine, ch.19, 20, 23, "Royalist and Anti-Royalist Theories," "Jean Bodin," "Thomas

Hobbes"

T. Hobbes, The Leviathan, "The Introduction," Pt. I, chs.1-8, 10-15; Pt. II, ch.17-27,30

XI. LOCKE, LIBERALISM AND MODERN NATURAL LAW THEORY

Sabine, 24, 26, "Radicals and Communists," "Halifax and Locke"
J. Locke, Second Treatise of Government, ch.1-9, 11-14, 19

"

XII. NATURAL LAW, REVOLUTION, AND COMMUNITY IN ENLIGHTENMENT FRANCE

Sabine, ch.27, 28, "France: The Decadence of Natural Law," "The Rediscovery of the Community: Rousseau"

Peter Gay, intro., to Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Basic Political Writings, tr. Donald A. Cress, pp. xv-xvii

J.-J. Rousseau, The Social Contract, pp. 141-227, in ibid

" " The Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts, p. 1-21, ibid

XIII. POST-ENLIGHTENMENT: TRADITION AND UTILITY

A. Conservatism and Tradition

Sabine, ch. 29, "Convention and Tradition: Hume and Burke"
B. Liberal Utilitarianism

Sabine, ch. 31, 32, "Liberalism: Philosophical Radicalism," "Liberalism Modernized" J. S. Mill, On Liberty

C. Political Organicism and History

Sabine, ch. 30, "Hegel, Dialectic and Nationalism"

XIV. SOCIALISM: MARXISM AND LENINISM

Sabine, ch. 33, "Marx and Dialectical Materialism"

Robert C. Tucker, The Marx-Engels Reader, "Communist Manifesto," "Socialism, Scientific and Utopian," "On the Origin of the State"

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A good-faith effort will be made to complete this syllabus, but it is my intention to cover what we do manage to cover in such a manner as to make it as broadly and as deeply meaningful as possible. If this means at some point skipping over one area or not getting to the next or not "doing" some "final" section because student interest or understanding requires more time on some other part of the syllabus, consider this a part of the "course plan."