Spring 2008 Course Syllabus
Spring 2008 Syllabus
Required Texts
- Princeton Readings in Political Thought, Mitchell Cohen and Nicole Fermon, eds. (Princeton University Press) ISBN 0-691-03689-6
- Additional readings available for download: Readings
Class Schedule (subject to changes)
Tuesday 2/12 No reading; Letter of Introduction
Letter of Introduction due via email by 5pm on Wednesday 2/13
Thursday 2/14
Syllabus, especially "Reading Political Theory" and "Critical Summaries" sections; Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, PRPT 205-222.
Critical Summary due.
Tuesday 2/19
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, PRPT 222-242.
Critical Summary due.
Thursday 2/21
John Locke, 2nd Treatise on Civil Government, PRPT 243-258.
Critical Summary due.
Tuesday 2/26
John Locke, 2nd Treatise on Civil Government, PRPT 258-279.
Critical Summary due.
Thursday 2/28
Jean Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men, PRPT 293-313.
Critical Summary due.
Argument Paper 1 due.
Tuesday 3/4
Jean Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract, PRPT 280-292.
Critical Summary due.
Thursday 3/6
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, PRPT 349-355; Hannah More, Village Politics.
Critical Summary due.
Tuesday 3/11
Karl Marx, "Estranged Labor" and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "The Communist Manifesto," PRPT 438-464.
Critical Summary due.
Thursday 3/13
Karl Marx, "After the Revolution" from Critique of the Gotha Program and Excerpt from Capital, PRPT 464-466.
Critical Summary due.
Tuesday 3/18
Robert Tressell, The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists.
Critical Summary due.
Thursday 3/20
No class
Social contract groups meet.
Argument Paper 2 due to my office by noon.
Tuesday 3/25
Spring Break
Thursday 3/27
Spring Break
Tuesday 4/1
Symposium
Thursday 4/3
Midterm Exam
Tuesday 4/8
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty.
Critical Summary due.
Thursday 4/10
Lord Patrick Devlin, "Morals and the Criminal Law".
Critical Summary due.
Tuesday 4/15
Gerald Dworkin, "Paternalism".
Critical Summary due.
Thursday 4/17
Joel Feinberg, "A Ride on the Bus".
Argument Paper 3 due.
Tuesday 4/22
No reading.
Social Contract Presentations
Thursday 4/24
Plato, "Apology," PRPT 19-39.
Critical Summary due.
Tuesday 4/29
Plato, "Crito".
Critical Summary due.
Thursday 5/1
Henry David Thoreau, ""On the Duty of Civil Disobedience".
Critical Summary due.
Tuesday 5/6
Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail," PRPT 623-635.
Critical Summary due.
Thursday 5/8
Malcolm X, "The Ballot or the Bullet," PRPT 636-641.
Critical Summary due.
Tuesday 5/13
Henry David Thoreau, "A Plea for Captain John Brown".
Critical Summary due.
Thursday 5/15
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, PRPT 615-622.
Critical Summary due.
Argument Paper 4 due.
Tuesday 5/20
Symposium