Introduction to Political Theory:
Insiders, Outsiders and the Perspective of Political Criticism
Spring 2021
Tu, Th 10:00-11:20
Zoom link for lectures: https://washington.zoom.us/j/95063913882
Professor: Noga Rotem
Office hours: Thursday 1-3 pm, or by appointment
https://washington.zoom.us/j/2307576389
Teaching assistant: Mathieu Dubeau
Office Hours: Wednesday 10:00 am-12:00 pm, or by appointment
Who is best situated to theorize about and criticize a society? an insider or an outsider? Can a foreigner or a newcomer be a good lawgiver in a society that she or he is not intimately familiar with? Does being an exile rob one of a perspective? Or does distance illuminate flaws in society that one would not have noticed otherwise? This selective survey of major texts in the history of western political thought, will explore these questions and others, focusing on the role of the political theorist as a spectator and as a critic of society. How do different thinkers establish their impartiality? Does it require abandoning one’s standpoint? Is it identical to being a “voice from nowhere”?
Most of the thinkers that we will read negotiated at least two identities, two loyalties, or two places, with one foot in and one foot outside of the political context about which they wrote. To give a few examples: Aristotle was a foreigner in Athens, Machiavelli an exile who was banned from political office in Florence, Arendt was a stateless exile who fled Nazi Germany and wrote most of her political works after migrating to the US. Fanon and Beauvoir were both foreigners in their own societies—both describe in their writings the immense pain and psychological damage that result from their striving to be included—to be insiders—in societies that nevertheless forcefully and violently rejected and excluded them because of their race or gender.
How did the doubling of place and identity of all these thinkers affect their perspective and their political insight? And what do they have to say about the conditions that enable political critique? In sum: what are the worldly (i.e., cultural, institutional, economic, political) conditions of political theory?
This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students are responsible for all of the assigned reading as well as active participation in quizzes and three written papers.
Schedule:
*=on canvas
The schedule is subject to change, based on the pace of the class.
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Week |
Date |
Theme |
Reading assignment |
pages |
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Week 1 |
Tue, March 30th |
Introduction: what is political theory? How do we form a critical perspective? |
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Thu, April 1st |
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Sonali Chakravarty, "Derek Chauvin and the Myth of the Impartial Juror," Boston Review, March 17th 2021
Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”*
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14 |
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Week 2 |
Tue, April 6th |
What is justice; The analogy of the city and the soul
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Plato, Republic, Books 1 & 2 Read: pp. 1-15; 36-56 (327a-339b; 357a-376d2) |
36 |
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Thu, April 8th |
The poets and their expulsion; The just order in the city and in the soul |
Plato, Republic, Books 3 & 4 Read: 56-61; 70-73; 79; 96-105; 112-122; 126-135 (376d3-379b2; 389d8-392c5; 397e10-398b5; 411e3-422a3; 427e6- 435c2; 439a9- 445e3) |
37 |
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April 8th: first assignment circulated |
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Week 3 |
Tue, April 13th |
The philosopher-king; The world as it appears inside and outside of the cave |
Plato, Republic, Books 5, 6 & 7 Read: 164-169; 181-195; 198-204; 208-214; 236-7 (471b6-476b7; 487e3-501a6; 504a4-508c2; 514a-520e; 540c9-541b4) |
38 |
|
Thu, April 15th |
Moral virtue; Practical knowledge; Critique of Plato |
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics* Read: books I & II |
34 |
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Sunday, April 18th: first assignment due |
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Week 4 |
Tue, April 20th |
Good man vs. good citizen; What does it take to make a good ruler |
Aristotle, Politics* Read: book III (chapters 1-13, 15-18), book IV (chapter 1) |
33 |
|
Thu, April 22nd |
A science of politics I: The best perspective of an adviser to the prince; Machiavelli’s realism; Virtue and morality; |
Machiavelli, The Prince: Dedicatory letter, chapters 1-10 (pp. 3-39) |
36 |
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Week 5 |
Tue, April 27th |
Appearance vs. Reality; Fortune and its role in politics |
Machiavelli, The Prince: chapters 12-25 (pp. 42-87)
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45 |
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April 27th: Midterm assignment circulated |
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Thu, April 29th |
A science of politics II: Hobbes as a ‘textual bureaucrat’ Hobbes’s theory of the passions
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Hobbes, biographical poem*, Leviathan, vol I Read: introduction, chapters 1,2, 4, 6, 10 (only pp. 150-152)
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38 |
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Week 6 |
Tue, May 4th |
The state of nature; Hobbes’s theory of representation |
Leviathan, vol II Read: 160-170, 183-210, 216-222
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34 |
|
Thu, May 6th |
Hobbesian sovereignty |
Leviathan, frontispiece, volume II Read: 223-238; 260-266; 271 |
23 |
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Week 7 |
Tue, May 11th |
General will; sovereignty; the lawgiver |
Rousseau, The Social Contract* Read: Books I & II, pp. 156-191 |
35 |
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May 11th: midterm assignment is due |
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Thu, May 13th |
Historical materialism; theory and action |
Marx, Communist Manifesto*
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15 |
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Week 8 |
Tue, May 18th |
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Marx, On the Jewish Question*
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26 |
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Thu, May 20th |
Outsiders in their own world: Gender |
Beauvoir, The Second Sex* Read: 3-17; 46-48; 148-152; 208-209; 279; 283; 294-295; 311-312 |
32 |
|
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Week 9 |
Tue, May 25th |
Outsiders in their own world: Race |
Fanon, Black Skin White Masks,* intro, chapter 5
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38 |
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Thu, May 27th |
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Fanon, continued
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Week 10 |
Tue, June 1st |
The banality of evil and the failure to put oneself in the other person's shoes |
Arendt Eichmann in Jerusalem* (selections)
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TBD |
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June 1st: take-home exam circulated |
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Thu, June 3rd |
The worldly conditions of political theory; plurality |
Arendt, The Human Condition* Selections from the “Work” section |
TBD |
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Tues, June 8th: take-home exam is due |
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