1 - 5 of 5 results for: PHIL176

(Graduate students register for 276.) What makes political institutions legitimate? What makes them just? When do citizens have a right to revolt against those who rule over them? Which of our fellow citizens must we tolerate?Surprisingly, the answers given by some of the most prominent modern philosophers turn on the idea of a social contract. We will focus on the work of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawls.

Political philosophy in classical antiquity, centered on reading canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle against other texts and against the political and historical background. Topics include: interdependence, legitimacy, justice; political obligation, citizenship, and leadership; origins and development of democracy; law, civic strife, and constitutional change.

Modern political theorists, from Hobbes and Rousseau, to Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss, to Sheldon Wolin and Robert Dahl, have turned to the classical Greek theory and practice of politics, both for inspiration and as a critical target. The last 30 years has seen renewed interest in Athenian democracy among both historians and theorists, and closer interaction between empiricists concerned with 'what really happened, and why' and theorists concerned with the possibilities and limits of citizen self-government as a normatively favored approach to political organization. The course examines the current state of scholarship on the practice of politics in ancient city-states, including but not limited to democratic Athens; the relationship between practice and theory in antiquity (Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, and others); the uses to which ancient theory and practice have been and are being put by modern political theorists; and experiments in democratic practice (citizen assemblies, deliberative councils, lotteries) inspired by ancient precedents. Suggested Prerequisites: Origins of Political Thought OR The Greeks OR other coursework on ancient political theory or practice. (For undergraduate students: suggest but do not require that you have taken either Origins of Political Thought, or The Greeks, or some other course that gives you some introduction to Greek political history or thought. )

Grad students enroll in 276M. What is social change, and how does it work? What, if anything, is our responsibility to contribute to change? Are each of us, as individuals, responsible for contributing to the changes we would like to see (e.g., regarding climate change, inequality, oppression, etc.)? How can that be, if the problems are so huge and our individual contributions so tiny? Are groups (e.g., states, corporations, social classes, racial groups, etc.), as such, responsible for change? How can that be, if responsibility only attaches to agents? Can groups themselves be agents? That seems to require that groups themselves have beliefs and desires. How is that possible? Must groups be agents in order to be responsible for their (collective) behavior, or is group responsibility fundamentally different from individual, personal responsibility? If groups can be responsible (e.g., for climate change), what implications follow for the individuals that comprise the group? How, if at all, is responsibility for what a group does distributed to group members? Can individuals have a duty to create a group, where creating a group is what is required to bring about social change? In this class we will discuss these and related questions.