HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Instructional goals
An introduction to the history of political thought, from Classical Greece to the 20th century. Through a careful reading of primary texts, students will explore how select canonical thinkers have conceived of the relationship between philosophy/science and politics, the nature of virtue, various regimes, justice and political order, political economy, historical progress (or regress), and political modernity. In addition to situating thinkers within their historical contexts, students will be encouraged to view the world of politics through various political philosophical frameworks.
Intended learning outcomes
The skills to be assessed include: Knowledge of the main positions of canonical thinkers in the history of political thought; Understanding of their basic historical contexts; Ability to read ancient and modern texts with care, precision, and insight; Ability to analyze critically (and draw conclusions about) opposing positions and arguments; Ability to communicate, verbally and in writing, reasoned views on theoretical/political positions.
Course Contents
The course introduces students to the fundamental questions of political life and to some of the most significant answers to them. What is the purpose of political life? Is it virtue, happiness, freedom, glory, or security? What is the significance of human nature for politics? How does the classical understanding of politics differ from the modern one? How does private property relate to justice and liberty? What are the structural and psychological elements of modernity? Is history going somewhere, and if so where, or is it instead going nowhere at all? How should we live, and what may we hope for? Thinkers include Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Kant, Rousseau, Smith, Nietzsche, Marx, and Weber.
Reference Books
Editions (and readings) provided in individual weeks. Course texts include: Plato's Apology of Socrates; Plato's Republic; Aristotle's Politics; Aristotle's Ethics; Polybius' Histories; Machiavelli's The Prince; Hobbes' Leviathan; Locke's Second Treatise of Government; Kant's The Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose; Rousseau's Discourse on the Arts; Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality; Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals; Marx and Engel's The Communist Manifesto; Weber's Vocation Lectures. Other articles and papers will be indicated or uploaded on the course’s web page.
Teaching Methods
Classes will be principally lectured based -- laptops, tablets, and cell phones must be stowed and out of sight in bags or coats. We will occasionally split into smaller groups for debates, activities, and focused discussions about passages. The instructor will also solicit student feedback and encourage class discussion at various moments throughout his formal lectures.
Assessment Method
MIDTERM (35%) AND FINAL EXAMINATION (65%). The examinations will be parallel in format, with the final longer than the midterm. Assessments will be written/oral. The midterm will be 75 minutes and held in class on Fri, October 17th. The final will be three hours long, though you may require less time. Each will involve knowledge-based, multiple-choice questions, short answer questions (open questions), and select paragraph answer questions (i.e., open questions involving philosophical thinking, demonstrated understanding of the course material, and ability to evaluate critically opposing theoretical positions), each requiring a half page to a full page in response. The midterm centers on ancient thought, while the final will be comprehensive, including ancient and modern thought. Students will have some choice as to which paragraph questions they answer. The material of the examinations will track along with the course lectures, class activities, online sessions, and assigned readings. Materials will be posted to LUISS Learns which will facilitate note-taking and examination review. Non-attending students will be given an oral, comprehensive exam based on the course material and possibly additional readings. Students who not take the final in the summer may keep their midterm grades through the winter exam period. If they exceed this window, they will be characterized as non-attending and thus need to take a comprehensive oral exam worth 100% of the course mark. At the end of the semester, Prof. Jaffe will be happy to meet with you to explain your grade if you have questions or concerns.
Thesis assignment criteria
For those of you interested, please reach me at sjaffe@luiss.it.
Week 1
Week One (Sept 8-12): Course Introduction: The History of Political Thought. Following an introduction to the instructor and course, there will be a discussion of the nature of the history of political thought as a subject matter, followed by an overview of key approaches to the field, from contextualist to critical to transhistorical. Class session I: Course introduction, syllabus review, expectations. Class session II: Approaches to the History of Political Thought. Class session III: Study tips, how to read classical texts, the question of genre, the importance of concentration. How to read a Platonic dialogue. First lines of the The Apology of Socrates. Reading: Terence Ball, The Value of the History of Political Philosophy, in The Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy, George Klosko editor (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2011), pp. 47-59.
Week 2
Week 2 (Sept 15-19): The Problem of Socrates: Philosophy on Trial introduces students to the enigmatic figure of Socrates with a focus on his trial and execution by the Athenian democracy in 399 BC. Anchored by a reading of Plato's Apology of Socrates, students will explore the case that the city has against philosophy and the case that philosophy has against the city. The discussion will canvass contemporary portrayals of Socrates -- the Aristophanic, Xenophontic, and Platonic accounts, respectively -- while situating Socrates in the broader context of the Athenian democracy, the first democracy. Students will be introduced to the challenges of reading a Platonic dialogue as a vehicle for the communication of a philosophical teaching. Consistent with Plato's Apology, students will be invited to reflect on the possibility of a conflictual relationship between philosophy/science and politics. Class session I: Plato's Apology, (17a-35d), pp. 1-15 pdf (Horan translation). Class session II: Plato's Apology, (36a-42a), pp. 15-19 pdf (Horan translation). Class session III: What is Democracy? Ancient vs. Modern Democracy. Reading: Plato's Apology of Socrates (Horan translation).
Week 3
Week 3 (Sept 22-26): Platonic Political Philosophy and the Question of Justice turns from Socrates to Plato and centers on the programmatic first book of Plato's Republic, which thematically introduces the question of justice, sets the stage for the founding of Kallipolis, and raises the question of whether (and in what way) justice is a good for the just human being. Students will be introduced to the 'what is' question with reference to justice in the city as well as justice in the soul along with the related matter of the best life for a human being with a focus on the appeal of the tyrannical life, the life of uninhibited desire. Class session I: Plato's Republic book I, 327A - 336A pp. 1-12 pdf (Horan translation). Class session II: Plato's Republic book I, 336B-354C, pp. 12-33 pdf (Horan translation). Class session III: Plato's Republic round-up. The good life, and the question of modern relativism/subjectivism. Reading: Plato's Republic book I (Horan translation).
Week 4
Week 4 (Sept 29-Oct 3): Aristotelian Political Science I: The Nature of the City begins two weeks on Aristotle's Politics, along with key excerpts from the Nichomachean Ethics. It introduces students to the entanglement of ethics and politics in Aristotelian thought, distinguishes Aristotelian political science from Platonic political philosophy, while identifying the commonalities that make both thinkers Socratic. In week one, students will explore the Aristotelian account of the nature of the city, household management (or political economy), teleology, and the meaning of the claim that human beings are political animals. Class session I: Aristotle's Ethics, book 2, chs. 1-8; Aristotle, Politics, book I, chs. 1-7. Class session II: Aristotle, Politics, book I, chs. 8-13. Class session III: The classical vs modern understanding of the relationship between ethics and politics; the soul vs. the self. Do we care about virtue today? Readings: Aristotle's Politics book I, Lord translation (Perlego).
Week 5
Week 5 (Oct 6-10): Aristotelian Political Science II: The Science of Regimes turns to Aristotle's systematic discussion of citizenship and regimes which is principally contained in the third book of his Politics. Excerpts from book four on polity will also be provided. Students will explore the character of democracy and oligarchy, the Aristotelian account of the causes of class conflict, along with the meaning of disputed claims about the true end or purpose of the city, which relates to the question of justice, the question of who should rule, or the question of the regime. Aristotle's discussion of polity in book four, the best practicable regime, a mixed regime, will be introduced with reference to his best regime simply, an aristocracy of virtue, which resembles the Platonic best regime, but also with reference to his treatment of stasis or civil war, or the political worst. Class session I: Aristotle's Politics, book III, chs. 1-9. Class session II: Aristotle's Politics, book III, chs. 10-13, 18; book IV, chs. 1, 7, 8, 9, 11. Class session III: Prudence, expertise (trust science), and the modern title of technocrats to rule. Reading: Aristotle's Politics books III and IV, Lord translation (Perlego).
Week 6
Week 6 (Oct 13-17): The Roman Constitution and its Legacy and Midterm discusses the Roman constitution and its wide-ranging legacy in the history of political thought, with an anchoring focus on the Polybian account of Rome's unique mixed regime in the sixth book of the Histories. Polybius stands as a bridge between the Aristotelian account of polity and the later Machiavellian emphasis on the relationship between foreign policy and regime type as well as his related appeal to Roman (or pagan) virtue as superior to Christian morality. Class session I: Polybius book six, 2-18 and 43-58 (paragraphs, i.e., the big numbers). From the Preface, On the Forms of States, On the Roman Constitution at its Prime, The Roman Republics Compared with Others, Conclusion of the Treatise on the Roman Republic (skip only The Roman Military System). Class session II: Midterm review Class session III: Midterm examination. Reading: Polybius' Histories, bk. 6 (open access).
Week 7
Week 7 (Oct 20-24): Machiavelli's Effectual Truth: The Prince turns to Machiavelli, the progenitor of characteristically modern thought, exploring his rationale for rejecting the best regimes of Plato and Aristotle as well as Augustine's City of God and the Christian Kingdom of Heaven. Machiavelli's focus on effectual truth and political psychology, a balance between the humors of the people and the great, his hostility toward Christian virtue, and his account of how human beings can overcome fortune prepares the ground for secular accounts of political order, which will be discussed in the two weeks on Sovereignty, the Social Contract, and the Protection of Rights. Class session I: Machiavelli's The Prince, 'Letter of December 10, 1513'; dedicatory; chs. 1-9. Class session II: Machiavelli's The Prince, chs. 10-17, 25-26. Class session III: Is Machiavelli a teacher of evil? Have we been corrupted by him? Reading: Machiavelli, The Prince, Mansfield translation (Perlego).
Week 8
Week 8 (Oct 27-31): Sovereignty, the Social Contract, and the Protection of Rights I explores the proto-liberal thought of Thomas Hobbes, focusing on Hobbes' understanding of science, his conception of the state of nature as a state of war, his reconceptualization of the purpose of government as avoiding the political worst and ensuring physical security, and his introduction of the social contract as a rational basis for collective self-preservation. Class session I: The project of Hobbes's Leviathan: Introduction, chs. 3, 5, 9, and Conclusion. Class session II: Hobbes's Leviathan, chs. 10, 11, 13, 14, 16-18. Class session III: The Hobbesian Legacy. Reading: Hobbes' Leviathan (Perlego).
Week 9
Week 9 (Nov 3-7): Sovereignty, the Social Contract, and the Protection of Rights II introduces the political project of John Locke, whose Second Treatise of Government expands the single Hobbesian right to life into the liberal bundle of rights, life, liberty, and property. It explores the distinctive Lockean account of the states of nature and war, with an emphasis on the famous chapter five on property, which introduces the Lockean labor theory of value, justifying the unequal possession of private property. It also explores how the Lockean commonwealth is designed to avoid the dangers posed to life, liberty, and property by the state of nature, the situation of human life without a common judge, which risks transforming into a state of war -- force without right -- and the still greater danger posed by tyrannical or arbitrary government. This last danger justifies the people's right to reestablish government when the existing one fails to protect the rights of its citizens. Locke's novel argument for religious toleration, the famous separation of church and state, will also be introduced as another Lockean contribution to liberalism. Class session I: Locke's Second Treatise, chs. 1-5. Class session II: Locke, Second Treatise, chs. 7-9. Class session III: Locke, Second Treatise, chs. 10-12, 14, 19. Readings: Locke's Second Treatise of Government, (Perlego).
Week 10
Week 10 (Nov 10-14): The Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment introduces students to the key intellectual underpinning of the European enlightenment via a reading of Kant's The Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose, which offer a quintessential account of Enlightenment progress. This work of Kant will then be paired with Jean Jacques Rousseau's First Discourse. Rousseau is one of the most significant critics of the Enlightenment in Europe, whose emphasis on passion as opposed to reason and nature as opposed to technique nourishes the subsequent Romantic response to the supposedly sufficient powers of reason. The First Discourse, the work which made Rousseau internationally famous, inaugurates Rousseau's critique of the Enlightenment's faith in the progress of the arts and sciences as it relates to the purification of morals. Class session I: Kant's The Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose. Class session II: Rousseau, Discourse on the Sciences and Arts. Class session III: Is your phone (and social media vanity) making you bad/sad? Reading: Kant's The Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose (PDF) Reading: Rousseau's Discourse of the Sciences and Arts, Scott translation (Perlego).
Week 11
Week 11 (Nov 17-21): Counter-Enlightenment II: Rousseau on 'History' and Inequality turns to Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality to examine the Rousseauian account of the relative health of the state of nature, contrasting it with the darker visions of Hobbes and Locke. Overall, Rousseau offers a philosophical anthropology of the progressive development of human life from an original animal nature toward that full actualization of reason and imagination which characterizes bourgeois life. It explores Rousseau's account of pity, self-love, and perfectability, and it examines Rousseau's critique of private property in conversation with the Lockean defense of it. Rousseau's hostility toward bourgeois man and his related emphasis on the health of the soul (which involves wholeness and authenticity) will be compared with his account of the divided souls of the modern bourgeois. The Rousseau-Adam Smith debate on commercial society will also be canvassed. All this prepares students not only for Marx's critique of capitalism but also for the Nietzschean critique of modern psychology. Class session I: Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality, Preface through First Part. Class session II Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality, Second Part. Class session III: Rousseau vs. Adam Smith on Commercial Society. Reading: Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality, Scott translation (Perlego).
Week 12
Week 12 (Nov 24-28): Critics of Modernity: Nietzsche and Marx offers students an introduction to Nietzsche and Marx, two of the most prominent critics of modern life, who influenced so many thinkers and movements of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Through a reading of the first essay of Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality and Marx and Engel's The Communist Manifesto students will explore first a psychological and then a structural critique of the modernity. Nietzsche's aristocratic position will be contrasted with Marx's democratic one. Class session I: Nietzsche's On Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic, Preface, First Essay, 'Good' and 'Evil, 'Good' and Bad'. Class session II: Marx and Engel's The Communist Manifesto. Class session III: The Afterlives of Nietzsche and Marx. Reading: Marx and Engel's The Communist Manifesto (Perlego). Reading: Nietzsche's On Genealogy of Morality and Other Writings (Cambridge), Carol Diethe translator.