History of Political Ideas

This course will introduce students into the key ideas, thinkers and texts of the Western tradition of political thought. It adopts a chronological approach, beginning with Greek origins of political ideas and covering the most important ideational developments in antiquity, Middle Ages and the modern era, concluding with the political aspects of F. Nietzsche’s philosophy.

(Please note that this course does not include ideas born in the 20th century. It is to be followed in the Spring semester by the course “Contemporary Ideologies”).

This course will introduce students into the key ideas, thinkers and texts of the Western tradition of political thought. It adopts a chronological approach, beginning with Greek origins of political ideas and covering the most important ideational developments in antiquity, Middle Ages and the modern era, concluding with the political aspects of F. Nietzsche’s philosophy.

The chronological approach does mean a mere linear reconstruction of major ideas - the course will attempt to address - in a comparative manner - a few fundamental questions, dilemmas and controversies of the Western political philosophy and theory, such as:

1. The problem of knowledge (considered also as the basic problem of legitimacy) - what do we know?, in what way? (revelation, faith, experience, reason, different types of rationality).

2. Human nature and the nature and character of social and political institutions.

3. The question of justice and the social aspects of human conduct.

4. The problem of power and authority.

This course does not require any previous specific knowledge of political ideas (though it would be very helpful). However, participants are expected to be familiar with fundamental political and social concepts, they should also know the basics of the history of Western civilization.

Topics (classes):

1. Ancient political thought – Greek beginnings

- The concept of polis, Athenian democracy

- Sophists and Socrates (relativism vs. rationalism & ethical intellectualism)

- Plato (theory of ideas, ideal state, critique of democracy)

- Aristotle (origins of the state, the best political order, Plato and Aristotle - similarities and differences)

2. Political dimension of Christian Thought

- Early Christianity, its understanding of power and social order

- St. Augustine

- St. Thomas Aquinas (comparison with St. Augustine)

3. Early Modern Political Thought

- Thomas More (utopianism, anti-utopias)

- Niccolò Machiavelli (various interpretations, “Prince” and “Discourses” – are these works consistent?, Renaissance republicanism)

- Thomas Hobbes (human nature, the state of nature, social contract, understanding of authority)

4. Enlightenment

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (the state of nature, critique of civilization & progress, social contract, general will vs. the will of all, understanding of freedom)

- Immanuel Kant (liberal motifs)

5. Liberal thought (aristocratic and classical period)

- John Locke (the state of nature, social contract and vision of authority – in comparison with Hobbes)

- John Stuart Mill (utilitarian justification of the liberal order)

6. Two faces of early conservatism

- Joseph de Maistre (French Revolution, the problem of change, human nature, critique of rationalism)

- Edmund Burke (in comparison with de Maistre)

7. Socialism and communism

- Karl Marx (“scientific” vs. “utopian” socialism, theory of history and socio-economic development, justification of revolution)

8. Political aspects of F. Nietzsche’s philosophy (critique of Christianity, liberalism and democracy, question of nihilism, death of God, Übermensch, Nietzsche and fascism)

In case of topics 1-6, each of them will be discussed during two consecutive classes.

READING:

Assorted Primary Texts – selected fragments of:

Plato’s “Republic”

Aristotle’s “Politics”

St Augustine’s “City of God”

St. Thomas’ “Treatise on Law”, selections of “Summa”

More’s “Utopia”

Machiavelli’s “Prince

Hobbes’ “Leviathan”

Rousseau’s “Social Contract”

Kant’s “Perpetual Peace”

Locke’s “Two Treatises on Government”

J.S. Mill’s “On Liberty” and “Utilitarianism”

Burke’s “Reflections on the Revolution in France”

Marx’s & Engel’s “Communist Manifesto”

Nietzsche’s “Genealogy of Morals” and “Twilight of Idols”

Supplementary reading:

* J.S.McClelland, “A History of Western Political Thought” (selected chapters),

* I. Adams, R. W. Dyson, Fifty Major Political Thinkers, Routledge, New York 2003, (selected fragments),

* Socrates (by Debra Nails) and Plato's Ethics and Politics in The Republic (by Eric Brown), at: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html

* E. B. Portis, Reconstructing the Classics. Political Theory from Plato to Marx (chapters: St. Augustine and the Politics of Sin, St. Thomas Aquinas and the Politics of Salvation), Chatham House Publishers, Chatham, NJ 1998, pp. 49-63, 65-81.

* Isaiah Berlin, The Question of Machiavelli, “The New York Review of Books”, volume 17, number 7 · November 4, 1971 (or on-line at: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/10391).

* E. B. Portis, Reconstructing the Classics. Political Theory from Plato to Marx (chapter: Rousseau and the Politics of Citizenship), pp. 135-150.

* Kant's Social and Political Philosophy (by Frederick Rauscher), at:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-social-political/

* E. B. Portis, Reconstructing the Classics. Political Theory from Plato to Marx (chapter 10, Mill and the Politics of Character), pp. 153-167.

* Edmund Burke (by Ian Harris), at: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/burke

* Donald F. Busky, Communism in History and Theory: From Utopian Socialism to the Fall of the Soviet Union, (chapter 3: Utopian Socialism in the Nineteenth Century) pp. 67-83.

All texts will be submitted to participants in the digital format.

The list may be slightly altered - though not extended - during the course.

Assessment:

1. Regular attendance - required. Two absences are allowed without consequences. In case of greater number of absences, some additional reading or an extra assignment paper may be required.

2. Active participation in class discussions, based first of all on assigned reading - recommended.

3. Short mid-term exam (in-class essay, 40 minutes) - required.

4. Final written examination (in-class essay, 80 minutes) - required.

Important: in order to complete the course, student needs to meet formal criteria (attendance) and to receive at least a passing grade (“3”) from the final exam.

The final exam ("zaliczenie na ocenę") will be held on the last day of classes.

Grade distribution (approximately):

Attendance, participation in class discussions: 20%

Mid-term exam: 25%

Final examination: 55%