INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL THOUGHT
V53.0100
T, Th: 2:00 – 3:15 pm
Instructor: Loretta Sorensen
Office: 726 Broadway, Rm 725.
Office Hours: T, Th: 11 am - 12 pm
E-mail: loretta.sorensen@nyu.edu
The purpose of this course is to introduce the most important texts and ideas in Western political thought. Although any such list is necessarily selective, for the most part the readings we will discuss are considered the core of the of the political thought canon.
Recitation: 15 percent
Midterm Exam: 40 percent
Final Exam: 45 percent
The recitation grade will reflect attendance, participation, and performance on short papers. Each student will write eight two-page papers addressing a question about the week’s assigned reading. You may choose which eight weeks to write in. Teaching assistants will distribute the question for the following week during each week’s recitation. Papers are due in your teaching assistant’s box not later than noon Monday.
Required Texts (Available in Bookstore)
Plato. Republic. Translated by Allan Bloom. BasicBooks, 1968/1991.
Aristotle. Politics. Cambridge, 1996.
Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. Translated by Harvey Mansfield. Chicago, 1995.
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Penguin, 1985.
Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. Cambridge, 1988.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Basic Political Writings. Hackett, 1987.
Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. Hackett.
Marx, Karl. The Marx-Engels Reader. Norton, 1978.
January 21: Introduction
January 23: Plato
Republic, Books I-II
January 28: Plato
Republic, Books III-IV
January 30: Plato
Republic, Book V
February 4: Plato
Republic, Books VI-VII
February 6: Plato
Republic, Books VIII-IX
February 11: Aristotle
Politics, Book I, chapters 1-6, 12-13
February 13: Aristotle
Politics, Book II, chapters 1-5; Book III, chapters 1-5
February 18: Aristotle
Politics, Book III, chapters 6-13; Book IV, chapters 3-12
February 20: Aristotle
Politics,
Book VII
February 25: Machiavelli
The Prince, Chapters 1-12
February 27: Machiavelli
The Prince, Chapters 12-26.
March 4: Review
March 6: Midterm Examination
March 11: Hobbes
Leviathan, Chapters 11, 13-15
March 13: Hobbes
Leviathan, Chapters 17-18, 21, review/conclusion pgs. 717-722.
March 18 – 20: Spring Recess!
March 25: Locke
Second
Treatise of Government, Chapters
1-5
March 27: Locke
Second
Treatise of Government, Chapters 7-9, 11-13 (§149)
April 1: Locke
Second Treatise on Government, Chapters 16, 19
April 3: Rousseau
Discourse on Inequality, Part I
April 8: Rousseau
Discourse on Inequality, Part II
April 10: Rousseau
On the Social Contract, Book I.
April 15: Rousseau
On the Social Contract, Book II, Book III chapters 13–15,
Book IV chapters 1-2.
April 17: Mill
On Liberty, Chapters 1-2.
April 22: Mill
On Liberty, Chapters 3-5.
April 24: Marx
On
the Jewish Question, p. 26–46; Economic
and Philosophic
Manuscripts of 1844, p. 70–93, 101–105.
April 29: Marx
The
Communist Manifesto, p. 469–491, 499–500.
The German
Ideology, p. 193–200.
May 1: Review
May 13: Final Examination, 2:00 – 3:50 pm