”Left, Right and Future: Alternative Political Philosophies’

Spring 2007 -- Instructor: Gray Cox

This course looks at some of the key philosophies behind alternative political systems which people around the world use to govern themselves -- or propose to use in the future. The aims of the course are:

1.) to increase specific knowledge about some important examples of alternative political philosophies and systems that might embody them and

2) to develop analytic skills for understanding key systematic features of these alternatives, for evaluating their key merits and flaws, and for advocating alternatives.

3.) to further develop skills in textual analysis.

There will be a strong emphasis on discussion skills and writing -- especially on textual exegesis. This course will be taught at an intermediate level and is especially recommended for people interested in community organizing, public policy work and education.

Questions we will look at include, for example, the following sorts: What are different forms democracy can take -- and are any of them worth working for? How are the merits and flaws of different political systems dependent on different cultural traditions, "stages of development", community size and geography or other features of its setting? How are answers to questions in political theory connected to theories of knowledge, economics, religious experience or other aspects of life? How are values like liberty, equality, and justice best interpreted and how are they best applied in political systems? In what ways do notions of "left", "right" and other metaphors provide useful ways of conceptualizing different political philosophies -- and what might be other useful ways of doing so? Are we entering a new epoch in which new forms of revolution are called for?

Evaluation will be based on homework and class participation (25%), a series of 3 short (two page) papers (45%) and a final five to eight page paper (30%).

For the short papers, random assignments of writing dates will be made so that for each class session students will have a paper ready which they will, at the start of class, share in a small group for discussion for 15 to 20 minutes. These papers will focus on key arguments and passages in the texts assigned. The authors of the texts will also meet individually in the following days with Gray to discuss their papers. In each case you must make an extra copy of the paper so I can read it while the discussion groups are sharing your copy and so I can hold on to it till the end of the term. People are free to exchange due dates for papers so they can write on topics of greater personal interest or schedule their work load more conveniently. Normally at least two of the three papers you write will be appropriate for a rewrite -- either to rework or elaborate key ideas in it or to polish prose to communicate ideas more effectively. Demonstrating the ability to do significant rewrites that significantly improve papers is an essential skill tin textual analysis.

The final paper should be a proposal for a revision or revolution in the basic framework of government of some actual country. The paper should articulate and justify the proposed change by explicit and compelling appeal to the political principles of one or more of the authors covered in this course or some other text agreed upon with Gray. The format for the paper should be that of an opinion essay in a popular magazine dealing with political themes and the intended audience should include the people who would need to act to put the reform or revolution into practice. You will be asked to turn in a preliminary description of this project and to be prepared to discuss in class how it might provide relevant and illuminating applications for the views of the authors being studied in the course. Group work on these final papers is an option. For the next to last class you will prepare a one page poster format summary of this manifesto to be shared in class

There will be an evening potluck to share the delight of food and to also share interests in final project ideas and material from a contemporary reading by George Lakoff, DON÷T THINK OF AN ELEPHANT.

The texts for the course are available at Sherman÷s Bookstore and are: Plato's REPUBLIC, trans. G: M: A: Grube, Hackett; John Locke÷s THE SECOND TREATISE); THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO AND OTHER REVOLUTIONARY WRITINGS: MARX, MARAT, PAINE, GANDHI AND OTHERS edited by Bob Blaisdell; FEMINIST SOCIAL THOUGHT by Diana Meyers and Sayyid Qutb÷s SOCIAL JUSTICE IN ISLAM. We will also do some other readings dealing with anarchist and other views that will be xeroxed -- or made available on the web.

My office is on the third floor of Davis. My telephone is extension #326 or #288-3888. My hours will be Wednesday 9:00-11:00 am and Thursday 2:30-4:00 pm and other times by appointment or coincidence.

Schedule of Classes

3/26 Introductions, syllabus review and discusson of themes of the course

3/29 Plato÷s REPUBLIC, books I & II (recommended: W. T. Jones, A HISTORY OF WESTERN PHILOSPHY,, ”Plato’)

Homework due: ”Frame an argument’ (Mark out a key passage of argument in the REPUBLIC, then in a schematic form outline the key premises and conclusion(s) of the argument. Type this up and bring it to class for discussion in class.)

4/2 Plato÷s REPUBLIC, books III & IV (recommended: "The Meno")

4/5 Plato÷s REPUBLIC, books V & VI

Homework Due: Annotated Bibliography for Manifesto

4/9 Plato÷s REPUBLIC, books VII & VIII

4/12 Plato÷s REPUBLIC, books IX & X,

4/16 ”Gender, Relation, and Difference in Psychoanalytic Perspective’, Nancy Julia Chodorow (FST);; ”Love and Knowledge: Emotion in Feminist Epistemology’, Alison M. Jaggar (FST) ”Some Reflections on Separtism and Power’ Marilyn Frye (FST); ”Reconstructing Sexual Equliaty’, Christine A. Littleon (FST)

Homework Due: ”Frame a Critique’ (Sketch the schematic form of an argument critiquing a conclusion or assumption which might be made of Plato by one of the authors in FST.)

4/18 EVENING DESSERT POTLUCK discussion of final paper topics and reading from DON÷T THINK OF AN ELEPHANT by George Lakoff

4/19 Locke÷s THE SECOND TREATISE, pp. 1-68 (recommended: W. T. Jones, A HISTORY OF WESTERN PHILOSPHY,, ”Locke’)

4/23 Locke÷s THE SECOND TREATISE, pp. 68-124

4/26 ”In a Different Voice: Women÷s Conceptions of Self and Morality’, Carol Gilligan (FST)’; ”Maternal Thinking’, Sara Ruddick (FST); ”Though This Be Method, Yet There is Madness in It: Paranoia nd Liberal Epistemology’, Naomi Scheman (FST)

4/30 Karl Marx, THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO (recommended: W. T. Jones, A HISTORY OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY,, ”Marx’)

5/3 Reread Karl Marx, THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO and ”The Feminist Standpoint: Developing the Ground for a Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism’, Nancy C. M. Hartsock (FST); ”Feminism, Marxism, Method and the State: An Agenda for Theory’, Catharine MacKinon (FST)

5/7 Karl Marx÷s Selected writings from THE 1844 ECONOMIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL MANUSCRIPTS

5/10 Film: ”Islam’ Huston Smith, RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD, ”Islam’; Sayyid Qutb÷s SOCIAL JUSTICE IN ISLAM, pp. 1-68,

5/14 Sayyid Qutb÷s SOCIAL JUSTICE IN ISLAM, pp. 68-112

5/17 Sayyid Qutb÷s SOCIAL JUSTICE IN ISLAM, pp. 113-168 and reading from Osama bin Laden

5/21 ”Regenerating Peoples÷ Spaces’ by Gustava Esteva

5/24 ”Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power’, Sandra Lee Bartky (FST); ”A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology , and Socialist Frmisims in the 1980÷s’, Donna Haraway (FST)

5/28 World Conference on Constitutional Reforms and Social Change

Due: Poster format one page summary of final manifesto for sharing at the conference

5/31 Closing, course evaluation

Schedule of Papers

Key reading on Commons by David Bolier

http://www.bostonreview.net/BR27.3/bollier.html

First class:

Introductions

why are you interested in this course?

pair and share core values in politics

mini lecture on Plato and Socrates and the Pre-socratics and sophists

and the Greek Polis and . . .