Political Philosophy (Themes in Political Philosophy)
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Logical Fallacies- The Adam Smith Institute (Link Introduced by Prof. Tracy Lightcap, LaGrange College)
0. INTRODUCTION
2/6 Orientation: Introducing the Course; advance planning
2/8 Politics and Philosophy: "The Movement of the Mind (Adorno)" and the Body ... towards Freedom?
So, why do we need political philosophy and why do we need to study it? Address this question by using key concepts explored in class today, viz., disastrous, idea/ideology, movement, possible, risk, temporal art, tautology, unpalatable, etc. Make sure you incorporate your reading of at least two texts (i.e., apt, not just any, quotations from readings above) into your journal.
I. POWER AND THE LOCATIONS OF TRUTH
2/15 Death of Socrates: Is political life hostile to reason and vice versa? We shall start our journey from an "imprisoned" reason ...
Prison, in a sense, is a location of truth, a certain kind of truth. In what sense? Its political signification extends beyond, let's say, "a place where you go when you've done something wrong." Even seemingly straightforwad cases of, for instance, a back street drug dealer ending up being dealt with by the prison guards, or a stock broker ending up breaking his bank in order to stay away from the prison, when examined surgically, deeply and comprehensively, reveal something about a certain triangular tension or interaction among law, order and justice, centered around power, or force. Cases of political prisoners or conscientious objectors in or risking being sent to jail are even more complex and dramatic, due to the performative or embodied articulation of that tension. Explore and further elaborate on this dynamic notion of political truth as a vectorial tension by contextualising an example or examples of your choice: Dr. King, Mandela, Peltier, Socartes, Zinn, etc; Gramci and Negri, both Italian philosophers who thought in prison, are also intriguing examples.
2/20 Socratic Parrhesia [size: 584k] What forces one to speak truths? How does parrhesia, a political practice, lead to ethical care?
Explain the meaning and political importance of Parrhesia in your own words while incorporating some of Foucault's key descriptions (his words) into your text: what it is and why it is important. Make sure you perform a studied reflection: if you end up merely stating your loose and loosely arranged opinions without considering supporting arguments or counterarguments from the required reading, you have learned virtually nothing. Show, exactly in writing, where engaged reading and independent reflection occur.
II. POWER OVER/OF PEOPLE
2/22 Subjective Formation of Power Aim for a forensic understanding of ways the political subject arises/gets established.
Read: Foucault, "The Subject and Power" [size: 13.8MB], Power. Vol. 3 of Essential Works of Michel Foucault 1954-1984
Read: Miller, "Political Authority," Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction [PPVSI 19-36]
What is the "problem of political obligations" [Miller, PPVSI 31]? Explain and illustrate the structure of the problem by summarising, in some detail, the key arguments of Foucault's "The Subject and Power."
@Option 1 (minimal requirement): Summarise the key arguments of Foucault's "the Subject and Power."
@Option 2 (advanced level): The question on which you must focus, while reconstructing Foucault's argument, is (1) what a new kind of political subjectivity he seeks to uncover and cultivate looks like, i.e., how that differs from some traditional notions of political agency, and (2) if Foucault is largely successful, or unsuccessful, in potentialising political resistance: whether and how his theory of power has space for the power of people as well.
2/27 Power over the Body Aim for a forensic understanding of the political permeability/malleability/expansiveness of the body.
Read: Foucault, "Docile Bodies" [size: 19.8MB], Discipline and Punish
Read: Miller, "Freedom and the Limits of Government," Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction [PPVSI 55-73]
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@Suggestion1: Summarise the key arguments of "Docile Bodies" or "Freedom and the Limits of Government"
@Suggestion2 (advanced level): Foucault's analysis of the mechanism of power production and circulation has produced an insightful proposition that "power as such does not exist" but it passes through the body or any bodily unit, like blood, permeating almost every fiber of political being, or system. In other words, according to Foucault, a political power is not "possessed" but, rather, "exercised." A soldier is not born but "made," for instance, as the chapter "Docile Bodies" shows; and the soldier thus produced can and does often display not only blind and automatic submissiveness but honour and courage which, as one would hope, empowers that very militarised subject. While using or critically engaging with some of the key points or actual passages of Foucault's "docile bodies," plus at least one more text from the required or recommended reading(s), analyse specifically and concisely how power aries, travels and reproduces itself in the example(s) of your choice.
3/1 In-class Exam1
3/6 Powers of Metaphors, Words and Images Aim for a forensic understanding of rhetorical workings of political discourse.
Read: Martin Cohen, Ch3: Hobbes' Wicked World, in Political Philosophy: From Plato to Mao [Login, Netlibrary]
Analyse any aspects of academic politics, while drawing on Lakoff's theory of "metaphoric" concepts and Hobbes's theory of "personification" as a form of representation.
@ Option1 (minimal requirement): Explain Lakoff's theory of "metaphoric" concepts and Hobbes's theory of "personification."
@ Option 2 (advanced level): "The social schimatisation of perceptions" (Adorno) is often reflected in the institutionalisation and normalisation of ranking systems, prevalent, for instance, in American academic culture too. Analyse any aspects of academic politics, while drawing on Lakoff's theory of "metaphoric" concepts and Hobbes's theory of "personification" as a form of representation, as well as on your own context; for instance, what are the "metaphorical" strengths and weaknesses of LaGrange College, with which you are currently affiliated. What would be that "air" of being a LaGrange college student (cf. Foucault on "the air of being a soldier" we studied last time)? To give another example: analyse the concrete, sociopolitical dimension of this metaphor, "the seats of learning": what that does, not just means. For an informed and substantial exploration of this question, I advise you to read and use this illuminating article, "the Social Logic of IVY League Admissions," as a reference - not strictly required but strongly recommended.
3/13 Tyrannical Power and Its Strategies Aim for a forensic understanding of the modernity of geo-political, micro-technology.
Read: Martin Cohen, "Machiavelli and the Psychology of the State," in Political Philosophy: From Plato to Mao [Login, Netlibrary]
The (in)visibility of power, "the nightmare of childhood coming true" (Adorno) ....
@ Option1: analyse similiarities and differences between prison and school, drawing on Foucault's theory of panoptical power.
@ Option 2: analyse some of the key strategies of tyrannical rule by introducing a couple of concrete, real life examples, contemporary or historical; show evidence of reading at least two texts from the list above by incorporating appropriate citations into your journal.
III. JUSTICE AND CONTRACT/RECIPROCITY
3/15 Crito and Justice: Under what conditions is a citizen obligated to obey civic commands?
Read: Nathanson, "Super Patriotism" [size: 14.5MB], Should We Consent to be Governed?
Read: Miller, "Justice," Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction [PPVSI 74-91]
Nathanson argues that Socrates in Crito is an embodiment of "super patriotism," whereas deLue reads it as a case of "a defense of critical inquiry," closer to what Nathanson means by "critical citizenship." The conundrum here is that the Socrates of Crito, after trial, seems so oddly, and radically, different from the defiant, critical philosopher of Apology, on trial. What is your position on this issue? Write an informed, analytic journal that explores this Socratic question, "is an unjust law still a law?"
@ Option 1: Address the question above by relating Miller's ideas on Justice to the argument Nathanson or deLue is advancing.
@ Option 2: Address the question above by engaging, critically, with the case of Nathanson vs. deLue.
3/20 The Social Contract: "Man is born free; everywhere he is in chains."
Read: Martin Cohen, "Reflections on Rousseau: autonomy and democracy," The Social Contract Theorists [Login, Netlibrary]
A commitment to justice is a reciprocal duty among citizens in modern democratic societies. What does "reciprocity" mean in this context? And why is this political duty reciprocal, in this case?
@ Option 1: Answer those two questions above by using the social contract theory/model proposed by Socrates, Rousseau, or Hobbes, or Locke.
@ Option 2: Given that the achievement of social justice is the ultimate political goal of democracy, given that justice is given as both the premise and the telos of democracy, it should be possible for the political animals to imagine a society arising out of "free," unconditional acts of giving - giving justice to one another, as it were, like it is a pure gift. Adorno, however, laments the capitalist mode of socio-political interaction where the general law of reciprocity, or generosity, degenerates into the restricted rules of mutual bribery or enslavement. Discuss briefly the possibility of the political economy of gift-giving, against the social contract theory of Rousseau, Emerson or Rawls.
IV. JUSTICE AND GENDER/SEXUALITY
3/22 Sexual/Gender Politics: Does gender matter? If so, why so? If not, why not?
Read: Fausto-Sterling, "the Five Sexes" [RGS 33-39]
Read: Hale, "Are Lesbians Women?" [RGS 46-57]
Summarise any two of the required and recommended reading materials, while actively relating one to the other, and argue your position logically and critically, regarding the issue discussed therein; this is not to ask you to "make up your mind" but to ask you to try and think clearly and philosophically about the issues to do with gender politics.
3/27 The Sexual Contract: How the social and the sexual, as categories, intersect and interact in concrete situations.
Where is love? Explore links between political insights and ethical values: why and how insights into political physics refine and strengthen ethical sensibility. Can one "do the right thing" without understanding things correctly, without facing the harsh, political reality of human affairs head-on? Can one be committed to solving political issues without having ethical concerns about them? Keep the political dialectic of "one" (particular and universal) in mind, while addressing the following question(s).
@ Option 1: Summarize and critically examine any two of the reading materials above that show opposing views: while comparing or contrasting their viewpoints, you must be able to articulate at least briefly, and conclusively, your own viewpoint arising out of the study of the materials.
@ Option 2: "The genesis of political power lies in Adam’s conjugal or sex right, not in his fatherhood." (Pateman, "The Fraternal Social Contract"). Reconstruct that argument: what are the premise, background and ramifications of that proposition? And then conclude your brief analysis by critically evaluating the insights and limits of Pateman's model.
3/29 In-class Exam2
4/2 No Class: Spring Break
4/5 No Class: Spring Break
V. JUSTICE AND RACE
4/10 Human Races: One and/or Many, an Enduring Puzzle
(for inspiration): Adorno, "I.Q.," Minima Moralia
Read: Mills, "But What Are You Really?" [RGS 173-193]
What is meant by, or are examples of, the system of racial classification as "vertical," not "horizontal" [RGS 174ff]? And then, alternatively, can you imagine a system of "quace" rather than of race? [RGS 174ff]? Will quacial system be more ideal than racial system, ideal in terms of contributing to the realisation of social equality and justice? Explore all three questions while reading Mills' article (the whole article, not just that passage), and using any one of the other articles introduced above; make evident your critical study and creative use of them.
4/12 The Racial Contract: How the social and the racial, as categories, intersect and interact in concrete situations.
(for inspiration): Adorno, "Mélange1, 2," Minima Moralia
Read: Wasserstrom, "Racism, Sexism and Preferential Treatment" [RGS 270-84]
The myth, the violence, and the dream, of "the melting pot" ...
@ Option 1: Summarize in some detail the key contention of any one article from the list above; clearly show the focus of your interpretation. And then in the second half of your journal, evaluate the argument: do you (dis)agree with the author of your choice? Be precise and critical.
@ Option 2: Mills contends, in "Naturalized" Merits"," that "the "Racial Contract" as a theory is explanatorily superior to the raceless social contract in accounting for the political and moral realities of the world and in helping to guide normative theory" (120, emphases added). Explain why that might be or is the case, both by using any of the articles above and drawing on any relevant, concrete examples you can think of. Conclude your journal by briefly evaluating Mill's argument: do you (dis)agree with Mills? If so, to what extent and in what sense?
A reflection on the political collectivity of prejudice and hatred, a key theme of the film, the Shadow of Hate;
show also evidence of a further mini-study of any case or theme introduced in the documentary. For instance, the political links between eugenics and religion, which Christine Rosen explores; see also "Eugenics:Profane and Sacred." Alternatively, you can write on any aspect of political philosophy, freely, drawing on your study so far.
VI. JUSTICE AND CLASS
4/19 Marxism: "The Point is to Change the World."
(for inspiration): Adorno, "Deviation1, 2," Minima Moralia
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@ Option1: What is the alternative picture of the world that Marx and Engels project? Drawing on your reading of the required material above, provide a summary account of both the old world and the new world, portrayed and envisioned in there; make sure you do not just summarise the texts but reconstruct their views in your own words. Remember, you the active reader are never the same as a Spark Notes or a Cliff Notes: they are either inferior or superior to you, depending on how you use it.
@ Option2: Take any example(s) of consumer-oriented marketing strategies and offer a brief, informed Marxist analysis of the example(s) of your choice, focusing on ways in which capitalism as a "desiring machine" (Gilles Deleuze) capitalises on the human fondness for profits and ranked existence. Make sure you incorporate at least a few, specifically Marxist concepts (e.g., alienation, the capital, commodification, fetishism, materialism, the means of production, etc.) into your analysis, which should be as concrete as possible, and incisive.
4/24 In-class Exam3
4/26 Race, Gender and Class: from "a poor black (or any coloured) woman" to "a rich white man"
Free topic: justify (show clearly), however, how and why the topic you are discussing bears relevance to the social-political questions on race, gender and class. One example would be: Is America, the land of freedom and equality, a class-based society? What kind of class system does it have? Think of the technocrats, as opposed to beaurocrats, for instance.
VII. Utopia/Dysotopia: Back to Plato/Aristotle?
5/1 Republic: Where?
Read: Martin Cohen, Ch1: Plato's Utopia, in Political Philosophy: From Plato to Mao [Login, Netlibrary]
Summarise, and discuss, at least three philosophical attempts at defining justice, made in The Republic Book 1 and Book 2; and why they failed to pass the test of Socratic reasoning. You must be able to reconstruct the argument and counter-argument,
5/3 War and Peace: War is Peace?
Summarise the key argument of Schall, "When War Must be the Answer," and combine your engaged/critical analysis of Schall's premises with a reading of an article of your choice; for instance, you can introduce Kant, or Aristotle, or Orwell, or Strauss, briefly in that context. Alternatively, you can write on any aspect of political philosophy, freely, drawing on your study so far. Whatever the case, you must use and cite from a reading material (any of the above), while undertaking a critical analysis of the issue(s) of your choice. If you have not learned, or demonstrated, anything significant through the process of writing a journal, you cannot claim a credit. No loose statement of a mere "opinion," please; cats and dogs too have opinions. Do not insult your own intelligence.
5/8 In-class Exam4
