Contemporary Political Philosophy 2012-13 MA in Political Philosophy – Universitat Pompeu Fabra Syllabus
Prof. Sonia Arribas Departament d’Humanitats Office 20.257 [email protected]
The main objective of this course is to provide an introduction to the works of some of the most influential 20th-21st Century political philosophers. The course is organized around three thematic areas: (1) What is Political Philosophy? (2) Definitions of the Political (3) Radical Voices. We will analyze the concepts articulated by these philosophers, paying attention to their divergent perspectives on some of the most important questions of contemporary political philosophy.
Each class will consist of about ¼ lecture, ¼ presentations by students, and ½ class discussion. Each student is expected to participate in class discussions in an informed way. This will require careful and attentive reading of the assigned material before we discuss it in class.
Grade: ¼ Class discussion + ¼ Oral presentation or Written review + ½ Final exam
(1) What is Political Philosophy? Session 1. Wednesday, April 3rd: −Leo Strauss, “What is Political Philosophy,” in What is Political Philosophy and Other Writings (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1973), pp. 9-55. Secondary: −James F. Ward, “Experience & Political Philosophy: Notes on Reading Leo Strauss,” Polity, Vol. 13, Nº 4 (Summer, 1981), pp. 668-687
Session 2. Wednesday, April 10th: −Quentin Skinner, “Preface,” in The Foundations of Modern Political Thought. Vol. 1 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. ix-xv. −J. G. A. Pocock, “Political ideas as historical events: political philosophers as historical actors,” in Political Thought and History. Essays on Theory and Method (Cambridge: UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 51-66. Secondary: −Ian Ward, “Helping the Dead Speak: Leo Strauss, Quentin Skinner and the Arts of Interpretation in Political Thought,” Polity, Vol. 41, Nº 2 (April 2009), pp. 235-255.
Session 3. Wednesday, April 17th: −Neal Wood, “The Social History of Political Theory,” Political Theory, Vol. 6, Nº 3 (Aug., 1978), pp. 345-367. −Ellen Meiksins Wood, “The Social History of Political Theory,” in Citizens to Lords. A Social History of Western Political Thought from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (London and New York: Verso, 2008), pp. 1-27.
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(2) Definitions of the Political Session 4. Wednesday, April 24th: −Carl Schmitt, “Chapter 1: Definition of Sovereignty,” in Political Theology. Four Chapters on the Concept of Theology (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985), pp. 5-15. −Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), pp. 19-79. Secondary: −William E. Scheuerman, “Carl Schmitt’s Critique of Liberal Constitutionalism,” The Review of Politics, Vol. 58, Nº 2 (Spring, 1996), pp. 299-322.
Session 5. Wednesday, May 8th: −Jürgen Habermas, “The Public Sphere,” in Jürgen Habermas on Society and Politics. A reader, ed. by Steven Seidman (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989), pp. 231-236. −Jürgen Habermas, “Introduction: Preliminary Demarcation of a Type of Bourgeois Public Sphere,” in The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1989), pp. 1-26.
Session 6. Wednesday, May 15th (with Matthew Hoye, Max Weber Fellow, European University Institute): −Hannah Arendt, “What is Authority?” and “What is Freedom?” in Between Past and Future. Six Exercises in Political Thought (New York: The Viking Press, 1961), pp. 91- 141 and 143-171.
(3) Radical Voices Session 7. Wednesday, May 22nd: −Antonio Gramsci, “State and Civil Society,” in Selections from Prison Notebooks, ed. by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (London: Lawrence & Wishhart, 1973), pp. 206-276.
Session 8. Wednesday, May 29th: −Simone de Beauvoir, “Introduction”, “Woman’s Situation and Character” and “The Independent Woman,” in The Second Sex (London: Vintage, 1997), pp. 13-29, 608-639 and 689-724. Secondary: −Alice Jardine, “Interview with Simone de Beauvoir,” Signs, Vol. 5, Nº 2 (Winter, 1979), pp. 224-236.
Session 9. Wednesday, June 5th: −Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (New York: Routledge, 1990), pp. 1-10 and 194-202. −Peter Osborne and Lynne Segal, “Gender as Performance. An Interview with Judith Butler,” Radical Philosophy, Nº 67 (Summer, 1994), pp. 32-39.
Session 10. Wednesday, June 12th: Final Exam
March, 2013
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