Political Science 201: INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL THEORY
University of Washington, Spring 2024
https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1720710

**Lecture outlines**
**Midterm exam study guide**

Instructor: Professor Jamie Mayerfeld, jasonm@uw.edu
Lectures: MW 8:30-9:50, Savery Hall 260
Office: Gowen 35

Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:30-3:00; Fridays 10:30-11:30. Visit in person, or by Zoom at https://washington.zoom.us/my/jm278438
TA: Patrich Co

Course Overview:  In this course we study a selection of historical and contemporary texts in order to grapple with fundamental questions of political life. The overarching theme of the course is justice. What is justice? What makes political and economic systems just or unjust? What does it mean to be just towards one another, towards future generations, towards other animals, and towards nature? 

We will study Locke's theory of legitimate government, Marx's critique of capitalism, Mill's defense of individual liberty, and Du Bois's indictment of racial injustice. We will examine contemporary debates between conservatives and progressives on the nature of economic justice. We will study the problem of environmental injustice, with a focus on the climate crisis, and we will ask what justice requires of human beings in their relation to other animals.

We also explore questions relating to freedom, equality, legitimacy, conflict, law, the good life, human nature, democracy, property, citizenship, nature, and the environment.

The thinkers we study share surprisingly little agreement in their answers to the underlying questions. Your objective in the course is to understand and critically evaluate their arguments, and to reach your own reasoned positions on the issues they raise.

Student Requirements: You are required to complete the assigned readings on time and to discuss them in quiz sections.  Your understanding of the readings will be tested in two exams and an essay.  

Readings will be drawn from five books and a series of articles and excerpts in PDF form. The five books, on sale at the University Book Store, and on reserve at Odegaard Library, are:

• John Locke, Second Treatise of Government
• The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, 2nd Edition
• John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
• W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk
• Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, The Collapse of Western Civilization

The PDFs contain writings by Booker T. Washington, John Rawls, Milton Friedman, Winona LaDuke, Stephen Gardiner, Olufemi Taiwo, and Martha Nussbaum.

Evaluation:  Your grade for the course will be calculated as follows:

• Midterm exam, Monday, April 8                                            25%
• 4-5 page essay, due Friday, May 10                                       30%
• Final Exam, Tue. June 4, 8:30-10:20 am                               30%
• participation in quiz section                                                   15%

Essay: Essay topics will be distributed approximately two weeks before the due date.  Please submit your essay electronically via Canvas. The University has a license agreement with Turnitin, an educational tool that flags possible plagiarism and cheating. I will arrange for your essays to be checked by Turnitin. The Turnitin Report will indicate the amount of original text in your work and whether all material that you quoted, paraphrased, summarized, or used from another source is appropriately referenced.

Midterm and Final Exam: Two in-class exams will test your knowledge of the material covered in the course.

Maintaining a Respectful Learning Environment: This course will lead us into discussion of controversial social and political topics.  It is important for discussion be open to a wide range of perspectives and for everyone to feel comfortable about participating.  Learning will be facilitated if all class participants work to engage in class discussions with respect and empathy for one another.  Contradictory views are encouraged, and can contribute to learning as long as everyone remains open to new information and willing to learn from people with different perspectives and life experiences.  It is essential to avoid inflammatory, derogatory and insulting words and personal attacks. Such conduct inhibits learning and prevents the free exchange of ideas.  Students seeking support or information regarding these issues can find resources at

https://www.washington.edu/diversity/.

Disability and Learning: Your experience in this class is important, and the instructors are committed to maintaining an inclusive and accessible learning environment. If you experience barriers based on disability, please seek a meeting with Disability Resources for Student (DRS) to discuss and address your concerns. If you have established accommodations with DRS, please communicate your approved accommodation to the relevant instructor(s) at your earliest convenience so we can accommodate your needs. DRS offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities. You can contact DRS at uwdrs@uw.edu, 011 Mary Gates Hall, 543-8924 (voice); 543-8925 (TDD). http://depts.washington.edu/uwdrs/.

Academic Integrity:  Cheating and plagiarism of any kind are offenses against academic integrity and are subject to disciplinary action by the University.  Plagiarism is copying someone else’s work and presenting it as your own (by not attributing it to its true source).  If you are uncertain what constitutes plagiarism, please ask me or your TA. The Political Science/JSIS/LSJ/CHID Writing Center also offers guidance on plagiarism.

All use of ChatGPT and other AI text generators (including QuillBot) is prohibited. The only exception is for simple spell check or grammar-check, or Grammarly when used for simple grammar checks but not for extensive rewriting. (However, I discourage use of Grammarly altogether.)

By Friday, March 29, at 11:59 pm, you are required to submit a document stating that you will abide by the course policy on ChatGPT and other AI Text Generators. At the end of the course, no later than Tuesday, June 4, at 11:59 pm, you will submit a document stating that you have abided by this policy. Submitting both documents is necessary to earn credit in this class. Both documents must be truthful.  For more discussion of course policy on ChatGPT and other AI text generators, please visit this page.

Religious Accommodations:  Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy, https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form, available at https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Please read assigned texts by the dates indicated.
Starred items (*) will be made available as PDFs.
I reserve the right to alter reading assignments during the term.

Mon. March 25: Introduction to Course and to John Locke

March 27-April 5: John Locke

Wed. March 27: Second Treatise of Government (1689), chapters 1-4, 6

Mon. April 1: Second Treatise of Government, chapter 5                

Wed. April 3: Second Treatise of Government, chapters 7-12, 16, 18-19

**Monday, April 8: Midterm exam.**

April 10-19: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Wed. April 10: Karl Marx, “Estranged Labor” and “The Meaning of Human

      Requirements” (1844) (pages 70-81, 93-101 in Tucker anthology).

Mon. April 15: Karl Marx, “On the Jewish Question,” Part I (1843) (pages 26-46 in Tucker anthology). 

Wed. April 17: Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848), Parts I, II, and IV (pages 473-91, 499-500 in Tucker anthology).

April 22-29: John Stuart Mill 

Mon. April 22: On Liberty (1859), chapter 1 (and 2 if you have time)

Wed. April 24: On Liberty, chapters 2 and 3

Mon. April 29: On Liberty, chapter 4, roughly first half (up to p. 96 in the Penguin edition)

May 1-10: W. E. B. Du Bois

Wed. May 1: The Souls of Black Folk (1903), chapters 1-2: *Booker T. Washington, “Atlanta Exposition Address” (1895); Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, chapters 3-4. (Optional: chapter 6, esp. pages 64-67.)

Mon. May 6: The Souls of Black Folk, chapters 11, 13, 14

Wed. May 8: Continued discussion of The Souls of Black Folk.

*** Friday, May 10: Your essay is due today.***

May 13-17: Contemporary Theories of Justice

Mon. May 13: *John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (1971), excerpts;

Wed. May 15: *Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (1962), Introduction and Chapter 1; *Milton Friedman, “The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits” (1970)

May 20-31: Environmental Political Theory, the Climate Crisis, and Animal Justice

Mon. May 20: Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, The Collapse of Western Civilization (2014)

Wed. May 22: *Stephen Gardiner, “A Perfect Moral Storm” (2006); *Winona LaDuke, Introduction to All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life (1999); *Olufemi Taiwo, “The Fight for Reparations Cannot Ignore Climate Change” (2022)

**Mon. May 27: Memorial Day Holiday – No class.**

Wed. May 29: *Martha Nussbaum, “What We Owe Our Fellow Animals” (2022)

***Final Exam, Tuesday, June 4, 8:30-10:20. ***`