Key Issues in Political Philosophy (Spring, 2017)

Key Issues in Political Philosophy (Spring, 2017)

 

Instructor: Professor Jun-Hyeok KWAK (郭峻赫)

Office Hours: Weds 1-3pm at 海滨红楼16栋205室 or by appointment

TA: Shiyu HAO (郝诗语: 1272909114@qq.com)

Email: jhkwak@mail.sysu.edu.cn

 

Aims and Objectives

 

This course is designed to introduce students to the imperative theories in the field of political philosophy, by examining a set of sociopolitical issues on the relationship between man and society from foundational texts to contemporary preoccupations. Especially, this course aims at providing students with an understanding of the currently dominant views of sociopolitical issues, and the background knowledge and tools with which to evaluate them. These issues include the current debates on the rule of many, political friendship, politics of persuasion, political emotion, and liberty as non-domination. Given these issues, students will have an opportunity to explore fundamental political concepts critically, such as deliberative democracy, civic solidarity, democratic leadership, best possible regime, and sociopolitical justice respectively.

 

No specific prior knowledge of political theory is required, but the introductory courses of political philosophy in which basic political concepts are surveyed will be advantageous to follow this course. All attendances including auditing students will be expected to attend class discussion and assigned for presentation.

 

Materials

 

In the first week, the required readings will be book-bounded and available for purchase at the copy center. Unless otherwise indicated, other materials will be uploaded at the English website of the department or will be distributed through wechat at laest one week in advance.  

 

Requirements

 

1) Class Attendance (10%) + Team Presentation (10%): This class will have question and answer activities. The goal is to check students’ understanding of materials and to develop one's ability to analyze them. Study questions will be given a week in advance. And we will have a team presentation after the mid-term exam. You will have details later on.

2) Mid Exam (30%) + Pop-Quizzes (10%): The mid-term exam is an in-class exam with multiple-choice questions and translation questions. And you will have pop-quizzes twice in this semester.

3) Final Exam (40%): The final exam will consist of 5-7 definition or summary questions, and one comprehensive question.

 

* Study questions on the required readings will be distributed by TA or the monitor student through wechat.

Course Schedule

 

I. Introduction

 

Week 1: Politics in Philosophical Inquiry

[Recommended Reading] Sheldon Wolin, “Political Philosophy and Philosophy,” in Politics and Vision (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004), pp. 3-26.

 

II. The Rule of the Many

 

Week 2: Expert Accountability

[Required Reading] Pseudo-Xenophon, “The Old Oligarch,” in Early Greek Political Thought (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 133-144.

 

Week 3: Popular Participation

[Required Reading] Plato, Protagoras (319b-320b), in Early Greek Political Thought (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 181-184.

 

Week 4: Democracy & Conflict

[Required Reading] James Madison, The Federalist Papers No. 10, in The Federalist Papers, edited by Lawrence Goldman (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 48-55.

 

III. Political Friendship

 

Week 5: Political Community

[Required Readings] Aristotle, Politics 1276b16-1279b10, translated by C.D.C. Reeve (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1998), pp. 70-78.

[Pop Quiz 1]

 

Week 6: Political Reciprocity

[Required Readings] Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics 1162a35-1163b32, in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, translated by Robert Bartlett and Susan Collins (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011), pp. 166-179

 

Week 7: Civic Decency

[Required Readings] Cicero, On Duties 1.93-125, translated by Margaret Atkins (New York: Cambridge University, 1991), pp. 37-49.

 

Week 9: In Class Exam

 

III. Politics of Persuasion

 

Week 10: Propaganda

[Required Readings] Plato, Gorgias 458e3-4612, translated by Walter Hamilton & Christ Emlyn-Jones (New York: Penguin Classics, 2004), pp. 22-26.

 

Week 11: Political Leadership

[Required Readings] Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War Book 2.34-46, translated by Rex Warner (New York: Penguin Classics, 1972), 143-151.

 

IV. Political Emotion

 

Week 12: Emotion and Reason

[Required Reading] Aristotle, On Rhetoric 2.1-2.2, translated by George Kennedy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 111-121.    

 

Week 13: Sympathy and Affection

[Required Readings] Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments Part 1 Section 1 Chapter 1, edited by Knud Haakonssen (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp.11-17.

[Pop Quiz 2]

 

V. Non-domination

 

Week 14: Political Psychology for Liberty

[Required Readings] Machiavelli, The Prince Chapter 9, translated by Harvey Mansfield (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 38-42

 

Week 15: Liberty and Empire

[Required Reading] Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, Book 2, Chapter 2, translated by Harvey Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, New York: W. W. Norton, 1996), pp. 129-133.

 

VI. Wrapping-Up

 

Week 16: Presentation 1.

 

Week 17: Presentation 2.

 

Week 18: Presentation 3.

 

Week 19: Final Examination