Lahore University of Management Sciences

POL 203 – Introduction to Western Political Philosophy

Spring 2014

Instructor Dr. Richard Ganis

Room No. Room 117-A
Office Hours TBA
Email richard.ganis@lums.edu.pk
Telephone Ext. 2210
Secretary/TA Danish Junaid/TBA
TA Office Hours TBA
Course URL (if any) None

Course Basics
Credit Hours 4
Lecture(s) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Week 2 Duration 1 hour, 50 minutes
Recitation/Lab (per week) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Week None Duration
Tutorial (per week) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Week None Duration

Course Distribution
Core Yes
Elective
Open for Student Category All
Close for Student Category None

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Introduction to Western Political Philosophy will acquaint students with some of the key ideas of the Western political tradition, including various
conceptions of human nature, reason, self-interest, autonomy, democracy, free will, political sovereignty, and the moral rights and obligations of
the citizen.

COURSE PREREQUISITE(S)
None
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COURSE OBJECTIVES
The course seeks to foster students’ ability to assess and critically evaluate competing theoretical paradigms within the Western
 philosophical tradition.
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

Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the course, students will be equipped to draw upon the theoretical frameworks discussed to critically
 evaluate political questions and problems confronting us in the world today.
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

Grading Breakup and Policy

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Assignment(s):
Homework: None
Quiz(s): 15%*
Class Participation: 10%
Attendance: 5%
Midterm Examination: 30%
Project: None
Final Examination: 40%

*Three unannounced reading summaries will be given. Your two highest marks will count toward your final grade; your lowest score will be
thrown out. In each summary, you will be asked to provide a brief (at least one page, but not more than two) précis of the key terms and concepts
set forth in the reading assigned for that session. You will not be asked to summarize material from previous or future sessions.

GRADE SCALE
98-100: A+ An “absolute” grading system will be used: the mark I assign is
93-97: A the mark you receive, regardless of how your classmates
90-92: A- perform on their assessments.
87-89: B+
83-86: B
80-82: B-
77-79: C+
73-76: C
70-72: C-
60-69: D
59 and below: F

Examination Detail

Yes
Combined or Separate: Combined
Midterm
Duration: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Exam
Preferred Date: October 13, 2012
Exam Specifications: In-class, closed-books/closed notes

Yes
Combined or Separate: Combined
Final Exam
Duration: N/A
Exam Specifications: Take-home paper

COURSE OVERVIEW
Week/ Required
Topics Topics for Discussion
Lecture Readings
Week 1 – Introduction No required readings.  Course Overview
Session 1
Week 1 – Plato Book VII of The Republic. G.M.A. Grube  What role do the metaphors of
Session 2 (trans.) (Hackett Publishing Company, 1992). Also available at: shadow and light play in Plato’s
http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html. “Allegory of the Cave”?
 From what epistemological
assumptions does Plato proceed?
 How is the faculty reason linked to
the idea of the political in Plato?
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Week 2 – Aristotle Excerpts from Politics. Pp. 59–100, in Social and Political  Who qualifies as a citizen for
Sessions Philosophy: Readings from Plato to Gandhi, eds. John Somerville Aristotle?
3 and 4 and Ronald Santoni (Anchor, 1963).  What are the three basic types of
political constitution identified by
Aristotle?
 What are the corrupted forms of
each of these types?
 What is the polis, according to
Aristotle?
 How does it differ from the
household?
Week 3 – Niccolo Excerpts from The Prince. Pp. 100–26, in Social and  How does Machiavelli’s account of
Sessions Machiavelli Political Philosophy: Readings from Plato to Gandhi, eds. John political authority differ from Plato’s
5 and 6 Somerville and Ronald Santoni (Anchor, 1963). and Aristotle’s?
 How does Machiavelli’s notion of
reason differ from the claims for
reason advanced by these earlier
thinkers?
 What are the basic aims of politics
for Machiavelli?
 According to Machiavelli, where
does political power reside?
Week 4 – Thomas Excerpts from Leviathan. Pp. 139–68, in Social and  How does Hobbes describe the
Sessions Hobbes Political Philosophy: Readings from Plato to Gandhi, eds. John “state of nature”?
7 and 8 Somerville and Ronald Santoni (Anchor, 1963).  What is the social contract for
Hobbes?
 How does Hobbes characterize the
obligations and responsibilities of
the sovereign?
 How does Hobbes’s notion of
citizenship differ from the views of
Plato, Aristotle, and Machiavelli?
 Why is Hobbes considered (by some)
as the “founding father” of modern
liberalism?
Week 5 – John Locke Excerpts from The Second Treatise on Civil Government.  How does Locke’s version of the
Sessions Pp. 169–204, in Social and Political Philosophy: Readings from social contract differ from Hobbes’s?
9 and 10 Plato to Gandhi, eds. John Somerville and Ronald Santoni  What is Locke’s conception of
(Anchor, 1963). natural rights?
 What role does money play in
Locke’s theory?
 How does Locke’s idea of the rights
and obligations of the citizen differ
from that of Hobbes?
Week 6 – Jean-Jacques Excerpts from The Social Contract. Pp. 205–38, in Social and  How does Rousseau’s notion of the
Sessions Rousseau Political Philosophy: Readings from Plato to Gandhi, eds. John social contract differ from Locke’s
11 and 12 Somerville and Ronald Santoni (New York: Anchor, 1963). and Hobbes’s?
 What is the general will for
Rousseau?
 Rousseau portrays the will of a
legitimate sovereign as effectively
identical to the general will of the
citizenry. How does Rousseau’s
account of political sovereignty
differ from the perspectives of
Hobbes and Locke?
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Week 7 – John Stuart Excerpts from On Liberty. Pp. 302–41, in Social and Political  Why is Mill’s thought classified as
Sessions Mill Philosophy: Readings from Plato to Gandhi, eds. John Somerville “utilitarian”?
13 and 14 and Ronald Santoni (Anchor, 1963).  What are the three fundamental
principles of individual liberty, as
outlined by Mill?
 For Mill, under what circumstances
can the state legitimately exercise its
authority to constrain the freedom
of the individual?
Week 8 – Immanuel Kant “An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?” in  How does Kant distinguish between
Session Perpetual Peace and Other Essays, ed. Ted Humphrey (Hackett the public and the private use of
15 Publishing Company, 1983. reason?
 What does Kant mean when he
claims that enlightenment is “man’s
emergence from self-imposed
immaturity”? Which institutions,
beliefs, and practices is he directly
challenging?
 Of the accounts human reason that
we have examined so far, which are
closest to Kant’s? Which are most at
odds with it?
Week 8 – Immanuel Kant “Perpetual Peace,” in Perpetual Peace and Other Essays, ed. Ted  In what terms does Kant endeavor
Session Humphrey (Hackett Publishing Company, 1983). to link politics and morality?
16  For Kant, why is the nation-state at
risk if it imposes no conditions on
those attempting to enter its
borders?
Week 9 – G.W.F. Hegel “Independence and Dependence of Self-Consciousness:  In Hegel, history is assumed to
Session 17 Lordship and Bondage,” in The Phenomenology of Mind, trans. operate “behind people’s backs.”
J.B. Baillie (Harper & Row, 1967). What is meant by this claim?
 What does Hegel see as the telos (or
goal) of Reason?
 As described by Hegel, what is the
relationship between master and
slave?
 Why is this relationship a
“dialectical” one?
 What process is Hegel attempting to
elucidate with his famous term
Aufhebung?
Week 9 – Karl Marx “Estranged Labor,” in Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of  In what sense is Marx’s analysis an
Session 18 1844, in The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert C. Tucker (W.W. extension of Hegel’s? How does he
Norton, depart from Hegel?
1978).  What is alienation for Marx?
 According to Marx, why is the
process of production key to
understanding the organization and
history of human society?
Week 10 – Karl Marx “On the Jewish Question,” in The Marx-Engels Reader, ed.  How does Marx critique the liberal
Session 19 Robert C. Tucker (W.W. Norton, 1978). notion of rights?
 How does Marx distinguish between
“political emancipation” and “true,
human emancipation”?
Week 10 – Karl Marx Extract from Chapter 1 of Capital, Vol. 1, in The Marx-Engels  What are the basic mechanisms of
Session 20 Reader, ed. Robert C. Tucker (W.W. Norton, 1978).
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accumulation under capitalism, as
outlined by Marx?
 What is the distinction between “use
value” and “exchange value,”
according to Marx?
Week 11 – Karl Marx and “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” in The Marx-Engels Reader,  Why do Marx and Engels believe
Session 21 Friedrich ed. Robert C. Tucker (W.W. Norton, 1978). that capitalism will be overthrown
Engels by the working class?
 According to Marx and Engels, what
normative and institutional
advances have been wrought by the
capitalist order?
 How do they deploy bourgeois
categories of thought and action to
criticize capitalism itself?
Week 11 – Sigmund Freud Civilization and Its Discontents, trans. James Strachey (W.W.  Based on your reading of Civilization
Session 22 Norton, 1989), pp. 5–50. and Its Discontents, what are we to
make of Freud’s famous claim that
“Where id was, there shall ego be”?
 What are the two “instincts” or
“drives” identified by Freud?
Week 12 – Sigmund Freud Civilization and Its Discontents, trans. James Strachey (W.W.  Of what relevance is Freud’s
Session 23 Norton, 1989), pp. 51–104. conception of sublimation for
political theory?
 What (if any) are the resonances
between Freud’s account of the
mechanisms of physic repression
and Marx’s theory of alienation?
Week 12 – Herbert “Introduction” and Chapter 1, in Eros and Civilization (Beacon  In what sense is Marcuse’s analysis
Session 24 Marcuse Press, 1966). an attempt to “marry” the insights
of Freud and Marx?
 Marcuse views “instrumental
reason” as a category that has come
to exert increasing control over the
transformation of “external” nature
(through science, technology, and
industry) as well as the
transformation of “internal” nature
(through individuation and various
forms of psychosocial domination).
Discuss.
Week 13 – Herbert Chapter 2, in Eros and Civilization (Beacon Press, 1966).  Explain Marcuse’s concept of the
Session 25 Marcuse “performance principle.” How does
this idea differ from Freud’s notion
of the “reality principle”?
 What does Marcuse wish to suggest
with the term “surplus repression”?
Week 13 – Carl Schmitt The Concept of the Political (University of Chicago Press,  How does Schmitt define “the
Session 26 1996), pp. 19–53. political”?
 How does his definition differ from
some of the liberal conceptions of
politics that we encountered earlier
in the course?
Week 14 – Carl Schmitt The Concept of the Political (University of Chicago Press,  Why does Schmitt argue that war
Session 27 1996), pp. 53–79. and justice have nothing to do with
each other?
 In what sense does Schmitt’s
critique of the liberal idea of politics
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resonate with that of Marx? How is
it different?
Week 14 – Review Session No required readings.
Session 28

Textbook(s)/Supplementary Readings
Aristotle
 Castoriadis, Cornelius. “The Greek Polis and the Creation of Democracy,” in Philosophy, Politics, Autonomy: Essays in Political Philosophy
(Oxford University Press, 1991).
 Finley, M.I. Politics in the Ancient World (Cambridge University Press, 1991).
 Salkever, Stephen. Finding the Mean: Theory and Practice in Aristotelian
Philosophy (Princeton University Press, 1994).

Niccolo Machiavelli
 Berlin, Isaiah. “The Question of Machiavelli,” in The New York Review of Books, 17 (7), 1971. Available at:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/10391.
 Skinner, Quentin. Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2001).
 Wolin, Sheldon. “Machiavelli: Politics and the Economy of Violence,” in Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political
Thought (Princeton University Press, 2004).

Thomas Hobbes
 Baumgold, Deborah. Hobbes’s Political Theory (Cambridge University Press, 1988).
 Skinner, Quentin. Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes (Cambridge University Press, 1996).
 Sommerville, Johann. Thomas Hobbes: Political Ideas in Historical Context (Palgrave Macmillan, 1992).

John Locke
 Ashcraft, Richard. Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (University Press of Kansas, 1992).
 Dunn, John. The Political Thought of John Locke (Cambridge University Press, 1982).
 Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Oxford University Press, 1979).
 Tully, James. A Discourse on Property: John Locke and His Adversaries (Cambridge University Press, 1980).

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 Althusser, Louis. “Rousseau: The Social Contract,” in Montesquieu, Rousseau, Marx: Politics and History (Verso, 1983).
 Colletti, Lucio. “Rousseau as Critic of ‘Civil Society,’” in From Rousseau to Lenin (New Left Books, 1972).
 Masters, Roger. The Political Philosophy of Rousseau (Princeton University Press, 1976).

John Stuart Mill

 “Introduction,” in The Classical Utilitarians, ed. John Troyer (Hackett Publishing Company, 2003).

Immanuel Kant
 Scruton, Roger. Kant: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2001).

G.W.F. Hegel
 Hegel, G.W.F. “Enlightenment,” in The Phenomenology of Mind, trans. J.B. Baillie (Harper & Row, 1967).
Karl Marx
 Balibar, Etienne. The Philosophy of Marx (Verso, 1996).
 Wheen, Francis. Karl Marx: A Life (W.W. Norton, 2001).

Sigmund Freud
 Freud, Sigmund. Totem and Taboo, trans. James Strachey (W.W. Norton, 1989).

Herbert Marcuse
 Marcuse, Herbert. One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society (Beacon Press, 1964).

Carl Schmitt
 Agamben, Giorgio. State of Exception. Kevin Attell (trans.) (University of Chicago Press, 2005).
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 Cristi, Renato. Carl Schmitt and Authoritarian Liberalism: Strong State, Free Economy (University of Wales Press, 1998).
 Mouffe, Chantal, ed. The Challenge of Carl Schmitt (Verso, 1999).
 Wolfe, Alan. “A Fascist Philosopher Helps Us Understand Contemporary Politics,” in The Chronicle Review 50 (30), 2004, p. B16. Available
at: http://www.stanford.edu/~weiler/Wolfe_on_Schmitt_044.pdf