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COR
201-03 Phone: 364-8341 Email: jknippenberg@facstaff.oglethorpe.edu
We begin by reading old books because they raise questions that are essential for any fresh and genuinely free inquiry into social, political, and economic phenomena as they affect our understanding of ourselves and of the world in which we live. Unless we engage in the kind of "intellectual archaeology" that we begin in this course, we are destined to accept unwittingly the answers and "values" with which we have grown up. Our inquiry would be constrained by the circumstances of our upbringing. We would be captives of our time and place. A program of study such as the one we are undertaking here is one very important means of freeing ourselves from this intellectual servitude. An example of what I mean might be helpful. The reason why we study politics and society is that we think that the knowledge we acquire thereby is somehow good for us. At the very least, it is instrumental in the pursuit of our ends: the more we know, the better able we presumably are to achieve or attain what we want--the "good life," if you will. I would like to suggest, however, that this formulation is problematical, for it assumes that our ends or purposes are private and by and large free from political or social determination or influence. That is, it assumes that we alone decide--and perhaps even have a right to decide--from a range of options what we want to pursue. This way of framing the issue presupposes that society and polity are neutral with respect to visions of the human good and/or that they are simply the products of a series of individual choices. In sum, it assumes that our society will let us be virtually anything we want to be. These are debatable--albeit not necessarily false presuppositions. They need to be examined. One of the leading purposes of this course is to examine them. We will do so by reconstructing a thre-sided "debate" between Aristotle, John Locke, and leading representatives of the tradition of Christian political thought. To oversimplify greatly for the sake of introductory clarity, Aristotle is a critic of, and Locke a defender of, the aforementioned presuppositions. (Needless to say, these characterizations will be revised and qualified over the course of the semester.) The result of all this reading and thinking will be, I hope, to make us more thoughtful, self-conscious, and self-critical members and citizens of the society and polity in which we live. Knowing more about our 'roots"--both intellectual and social or political--we will be more intelligent "consumers" of the social scientific information we are sure to encounter later. (Indeed, the position I have preliminarily ascribed to Locke is the leading paradigm in contemporary political science and economics.) TEXTS Please purchase the following books: Aristotle,
Politics and Nicomachean Ethics ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING One major
writing assignment..........................25% ACADEMIC POLICIES AND REGULATIONS In accordance with Oglethorpe's Honor Code, all the work you hand in must be pledged: "I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid in completing this assignment." For the purposes of this course, "unauthorized aid" consists in plagiarism, which means representing someone else's words or ideas as your own. If in completing an assignment you consult secondary sources, be sure to cite them properly. Unless I announce otherwise, you may discuss any assignment with your colleagues, but the work you submit must be your own. Attendance is mandatory. I reserve the right to give the grade "FA" to students who regularly miss class. I am happy to help you plan your academic schedule. To receive an extension, you must request it a week in advance. Unless you have a medical excuse, I will penalize late papers two points per weekday up to a total of ten points. I will not accept any papers more than five weekdays overdue. If for some reason you need to take an "Incomplete" in the course, you must arrange it with me before the end of the semester. We must agree to a contract containing a schedule for the completion of course requirements. You may find the grading scale in the 1998 - 2000 Oglethorpe University Bulletin. TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF READING ASSIGNMENTS I. Locke,
Second Treatise (September 6 - 20) II. Aristotle,
Politics (Sept. 22 - Oct. 4) III. Term Test # 1 (Friday, October 6) IV. St.
Augustine, Political Writings (Oct. 11, 13) V. St. Thomas
Aquinas, On Law, Politics, and Morality (Oct. 16 - 23) VI. Hobbes,
Leviathan (Oct. 25 - Nov. 1) VII. Term Test #2 (Friday, November 3) VIII. Aristotle,
Nicomachean Ethics (Nov. 6 - 17) IX. Augustine
and Aquinas (Nov. 20 - Dec. 1) X. Wollstonecraft,
Vindication (Dec. 4 - 8) XI. Review (December 11) COR 201 The purpose of these questions is to help you pick your way through the readings, so it is in you interest to look at the questions and to try to answer them as you are doing the reading. It is of course most advantageous to do so before we discuss the readings in class, especially since at least once a week I will randomly choose a question dealing with the day's reading and ask you to answer it in class. I should emphasize, however, that you are not "responsible" only for what is in the questions. The questions are intended as signposts, not as exhaustive inventories of the arguments in the books. A caveat: this is not a course in speed reading for comprehension. Many of the works I assign were written carefully and meant to be read carefully, that is, s-l-o-w-l-y. Take your time. Reread the most difficult passages. By the end, you should have a great deal less trouble making your way through very complicated arguments. QUESTIONS LOCKE, SECOND TREATISE OF GOVERNMENT A. Chs.
1 - 5 2. What are the leading or defining characteristics of the state of nature? 3. Are there any rules that are supposed to restrict human beings in the state of nature? How are these rules enforced in the state of nature? Who has the right to enforce them? 4. Why might human beings wish to leave the state of nature? 5. Why, according to Locke, is freedom the most important human "possession"? 6. What distinguishes the state of war from the state of nature? 7. What does Locke mean by property? How do human beings come to have a right to anything in particular? What is the origin of the right to property? Is that origin the same at all times and places? 8. Is there any qualification or limitation on the acquisition of property in the state of nature? 9. What portion of the value of property do human beings contribute by their labor? B. Chs. 6 and 7 1. What is Locke's definition of law? What is the purpose of law? 2. How, according to Locke, can law and freedom be consistent with one another? 3. Why should children obey their parents? Is this duty of obedience unconditional or not? How is this obedience consistent with natural freedom? 4. Why should parents take care of their children? 5. According to Locke, is the family--the relationship between husband and wife--natural? Under what circumstances may a marriage be dissolved? 6. What is the essential characteristic of a political or civil society, according to Locke? How is that essential characteristic connected with its purpose? C. Chs. 8 - 10 1. How can a civil society be constituted by naturally free beings? Why is it in their interest to abandon their natural freedom for the bonds of civil society? 2. How would Locke justify the right of the majority to rule in a civil society? Why should there be majority rule rather than unanimous consent? 3. What, according to Locke, are the principal defects of the state of nature? 4. What are the powers each person has in the state of nature? What becomes of them upon his or her entry into civil society? 5. What, according to Locke, distinguishes one form of government from another? What do all forms of government have in common? What is the source of every government's legitimacy? D. Chs. 11 - 14, 19 1. What is the relationship between the law of nature and the positive law (i.e., the law made by the legislative power in a civil society)? 2. Why, according to Locke, must the laws be promulgated, that is, publicly stated? 3. Why is property more secure where the legislative power resides in "variable assemblies"? 4. Why should the legislative and executive powers be separated, according to Locke? 5. What does Locke mean by the federative power? Which branch of government should possess it? Why? 6. What does Locke mean by "prerogative"? Why is it necessary for the executive to have prerogative? 7. Under what circumstances are governments dissolved from within? 8. According to Locke, are the people likely or unlikely to seek to overturn their government? How would advise someone who thought it necessary to overthrow a government to behave?
A. Book I, chs. 1 - 13 1. What distinguishes the city, or political partnership, from others? To what other partnerships does Aristotle compare the city? What are the ends or purposes of these various partnerships? 2. Why is man, according to Aristotle, a political animal? What characteristic decisively distinguishes him from other animals? How does this characteristic find its expression in the city? 3. What kind of human being is by nature a slave, according to Aristotle? Why does the master deserve to rule the natural slave? What makes the mater's rule good for the slave? 4. Are all those who are actually slaves natural slaves, in Aristotle's view? 5. According to Aristotle, in what way does expertise in household management govern acquisition or acquisitiveness? 6. How precisely does Aristotle understand the relationship between husband and wife in the household? What does he mean when he says that the "deliberative element" in the female "lacks authority"? B. Book III, chs. 1 - 18 1. By virtue of which rights or attributes is a human being a citizen of a city? Which commonsensical rights and attributes does Aristotle rule out as defining citizenship? Why does he rule them out? 2. According to which criterion or criteria should we decide whether a city is the same or different? How is it possible for the same people to constitute two or more different cities at different times? 3. On what does the goodness or virtue of the citizen depend? Is civic virtue precisely the same in every city or does it differ from one city to another? If it differs, why does it differ? 4. What virtue is required of someone who rules? What virtue is required of someone who is ruled? 5. What does Aristotle mean by the word "regime"? In what respect does the regime define the character of the city? 6. What distinguishes a good regime from a bad regime, according to Aristotle? How many kinds of good regimes are there? How many kinds of bad regimes are there? List the good and bad regimes. According to what criteria are they classified? 7. What, according to Aristotle, essentially distinguishes democracy from oligarchy? 8. What is wrong with the oligarchic and democratic definitions of justice? What is the kernel of truth that each definition contains? 9. What would the city have to be--that is, what sort of association or partnership--for the oligarchic definition to be adequate? What sort of partnership would the city have to be for the democratic definition to be simply true? What, in Aristotle's view is the defect of each of these understandings of the city? What does this imply about Aristotle's own understanding of the city? 10. What precisely is the kernel of truth contained in the claim of the people (or the many) to deserve to rule? What might make them better judges of the city's good than any other potential ruler or ruling body? 11. According to Aristotle, what qualities should be rewarded or recognized by being given political authority? 12. Does Aristotle believe that everyone's claims to political recognition or desert can always and unproblematically be satisfied? What sorts of difficulties does he mention? 13. What are the various types of kingship? 14. What is the case for being ruled by the best human being? What is the case for being ruled by the best laws? 15. Which sorts of people are apt for kingly, aristocratic, and political rule? Why?
1. According to Aristotle, what sorts of questions is "political science" supposed to investigate? What kinds of recommendations for what kinds of circumstances should a "political scientist" be prepared to make? 2. Rank the various regimes from best to worst. Which is the best of the bad regimes? Which is the worst? 3. What is the best kind of democracy, according to Aristotle? Why? 4. What is the best kind of oligarchy, according to Aristotle? Why? 5. What does Aristotle mean by a "polity"? What makes it a good regime? How is it a mixture of democracy and oligarchy? 6. Why is a polity in which the middle class rules the best generally practicable regime? What characteristics make the middle class a particularly decent ruling class? 7. What, according to Aristotle is the prerequisite for political stability? SAINT AUGUSTINE 1. What "goods" does the earthly city seek? Why, according to Augustine, are these goods not unconditional, unalloyed, or unmitigated? 2. What does Augustine mean by "final good" and "final evil"? What does he believe is the final good? What does he believe is the final evil? 3. How does Varro arrive at the conclusion that there are 288 possible philosophical schools? 4. In what does the "astonishing vanity" of the pagan philosophers consist? Why, according to Augustine, is their aim impossible? 5. Does virtue make you happy, according to Augustine? 6. What sorts of peace does Augustine identify? How does he define them? 7. Is anyone a natural slave, according to Augustine? 8. What is the relationship between the household and the city? Do households that do and do not "live by faith" interact differently with the earthly city? 9. What is the relationship between the heavenly city and the earthly city? 10. What is the necessary condition of justice, according to Augustine? A. Law 1. What is Aquinas' definition of law? 2. What is "the first principle in practical matters"? 3. In what way do human beings partake of the eternal law? 4. What is the relationship between human law and natural law? To what extent is human law authoritative and binding, according to Aquinas? 5. What is the difference between human knowledge and divine knowledge? 6. Why is divine law necessary, according to Aquinas? 7. What is "the proper effect of law"? 8. To what extent and under what circumstances do human beings partake of the eternal law? What weakens human participation? What strengthens it? 9. In what respects is the natural law the same for all human beings? In what respects is it different? 10. In what two ways may the human law be related to the natural law? 11. Why does human law not seek to restrain all vices? Why does it not seek to prescribe all virtues? B. Property 1. Why is it necessary for human beings to possess property, according to Aquinas? 2. Why is
it "unjust and unlawful" to sell something for more than it
is worth or buy it 3. What sorts of trading does Aquinas praise? What sorts does he blame? Why? 4. Why is
it blameworthy to lend at interest, but not blameworthy to borrow at interest, HOBBES, LEVIATHAN A. Chs. 6, 8, 10, and 11 1. What does Hobbes mean by voluntary motion? Endeavor? Appetite or desire? Aversion? Good and evil? Magnanimity? Glory and vainglory? Deliberation? Will? Happiness or felicity? 2. What does Hobbes mean by virtue? Prudence? 3. What, according to Hobbes, is the relationship between thought and desire? 4. What
does Hobbes mean by power? What is power good for? 6. What distinguishes one voluntary action from another? Is the difference essential or accidental? Are all desires and aversions fundamentally the same or fundamentally different, in Hobbes's view? B. Chs.
13 - 15 2. What are the causes of quarrel, according to Hobbes? Would the elimination of any of them make a substantial difference in the prospects for peace? 3. What are the leading features of the state of war? Is there any such thing as injustice in this state? In other words, can anyone do something in the state of war that is unjust or not right? 4. What is the "right of nature"? 5. What is the "law of nature"? What is its source? Are human beings obliged to obey it? How or why? 6. Under what circumstances are covenants or contracts valid? Under what circumstances are they invalid or not obligatory? 7. What does Hobbes mean by justice and injustice? 8. Why does the law of nature enjoin complaisance? Why does it proscribe pride? 9. In what simple maxim can the laws of nature be summarized? 10. What does Hobbes mean by moral philosophy? 11. In Hobbes's opinion, is the law of nature really a law? Why or why not? ARISTOTLE, NICOMACHEAN ETHICS A. Book I, chs. 1 - 5, 7 - 9 1. Why, according to Aristotle, is politics "the most sovereign and most comprehensive master science"? 2. What, in Aristotle's view, is "the highest good attainable by action"? What are the opinions about the good held by others? 3. What distinguishes the highest good from other goods? 4. What, according to Aristotle, is "the proper function of man"? 5. How can politics contribute to an individual's attainment of the highest good? B. Book I, ch. 13; Book II; Book VI, chs. 1, 2, 5, 8, and 13 1. With respect to what end and what sorts of considerations must the "political scientist" study the human soul? Is his interest ultimately theoretical or practical? 2. According to Aristotle, what are the major kinds of virtue? 3. How can moral virtue be engendered or inculcated? How, in other words, do human beings become virtuous? 4. How does Aristotle distinguish between an act that merely appears virtuous and one that truly is so? What human characteristics have to accompany a proper action so as to make it truly virtuous? 5. What
does Aristotle mean by emotions, capacities, and characteristics? Why
is 6. Why and in what respects is a morally virtuous act or emotion a mean? Through what capacity does a human being recognize the mean in an action or emotion? What, in other words, is the chief intellectual component of moral virtue? 7. What does Aristotle mean by practical wisdom or prudence? What sorts of things does the prudent person know? 8. Is a human being prudent because he is morally virtuous or virtuous because he is prudent? What is the precise relationship between the two? C. Book III, chs. 6-12 1. With respect to what emotion is courage a virtue? 2. How is "true courage" distinguished from civic courage? How is it distinguished from the courage of those who are spirited? 3. What does Aristotle mean by self-control or moderation? With respect to what emotion is it a virtue? How is it related to courage? 4. Why is self-indulgence more reprehensible than cowardice? 5. Try to explain why courage and self-control might be necessary prerequisites to the possession and exercise of the other virtues. Why, in other words, does Aristotle treat them first? D. Book IV 1. What does Aristotle mean by generosity or liberality? Between what two extremes is it a mean? 2. Why does generosity deal with the use rather than the acquisition of wealth? 3. How is magnificence different from generosity? How can this difference be understood as a difference in kind or quality rather than a difference of degree or quantity? 4. What does Aristotle mean by high-mindedness (or magnanimity or greatness of soul)? How can it be understood to be the peak of virtues? What does the high-minded man honor or hold in esteem? 5. With respect to what emotion is gentleness the virtue? 6. Why, according to Aristotle, is the sense of shame not a virtue? AUGUSTINE AND AQUINAS 1. How, according to Augustine, should a Christian emperor comport himself? 2. What is "the mother and guardian of all the virtues in a rational creature"? Why is this foundation so important? 3. In what does human happiness consist? What were its characteristics before the Fall? Why cannot human beings be happy in this world here and now? 4. Why, according to Aquinas, is justice a general virtue? In what way is it a general virtue? 5. What does Aquinas mean when he says that justice is about operations, not passions? How do justice and the other virtues complement or relate to one another? Why is justice "foremost among all the moral virtues"? 6. How is covetousness opposed to justice? How is it opposed to liberality? WOLLSTONECRAFT, VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN 1. In what does the dignity of humanity consist? What is the basis of human nobility? 2. What is the role of reason in the development of civilization? 3. Why are
hereditary or otherwise prescriptive distinctions of rank barriers to
4. According to Wollstonecraft, what are the principal influences forming the character of women? 5. What
is the goal of "the most perfect education"? 7. How does the equal education of women contribute to social progress altogether? 8. Describe
what in Wollstonecraft's view is the typical relationship between a man
and a woman in marriage. In what ways is the relationship unequal? Is
the woman subordinate in every respect or not? How is the relationship
bad for the woman? For the man? For society?
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