Carleton University Fall 2013 Department of Political Science PSCI 5306 F North American Political Traditions

2013 Topic: Canadian and American Political Thought: Topical Encounters

Thursdays 11:25am-2:25pm Please confirm location through Carleton Central

Instructor: Dr. Robert Sibley Office: Loeb B643 Office Hours: Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tel.: (613) 520-2600 x.3214 Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

COURSE DESCRIPTON:

“To the discussion of those deep underlying intellectual, moral, and spiritual issues which have made such chaos of the contemporary world we Canadians are making very little contribution.” So opined political scientist Frank Underhill after the Second World War. Is this still true (assuming it was in the first place)? Or would Underhill be pleased with what’s happened to the Canadian intellectual landscape in the last half-century?

One way to address that question is to set representative Canadian thinkers against some equally representative American thinkers, comparing the thinking of each group on a variety of topics. Such is the intent of this seminar. With George Grant, the best-known Canadian nationalist thinker, famous for his book Lament for a Nation,” as our primary “Canadian,” representative, we consider a variety of Canadian and American theorists with a view to prompting a dialogue on various topical issues, including, among others, nationalism, liberalism, technology, and contemporary imperialism. Some of the primary thinkers against which we will set Grant include Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin. Others such as Charles Taylor, James Doull, Michael Ignatieff, Barry Cooper, Ian Angus, Brian Barry, James Ceaser and Francis Fukuyama, will make brief appearances. It must be emphasized that this seminar requires a lot of reading (and, presumably, some thinking),l but by the end students should possess a reasonable comparative grasp on some of the central political debates of our time as they pertain to North American political thought.

REQUIRED TEXTS should be available at Carleton Bookstore, but I have placed a number of the needed books on RESERVE at the library. As well, many texts are available as e-books, and, presumably, students will be find essays through Carleton’s library research facility by using the citations and references I’ve provided below. Also, the Course Pack should be available at Carleton University Bookstore.

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Janet Ajzenstat, The Once and Future Canadian Democracy: An Essay in Canadian Democracy, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003.

Hannah Arendt, On Revolution, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963. Arendt, Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought, enlarged edition, Penguin, 1954.

David Cayley, George Grant in Conversation, CBC Ideas, Anansi Press, 1995. ISBN O-88784- 553-3

George Grant, Lament for a Nation, The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism, Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1965. ISBN 0-88629-257-3

George Grant, Technology and Empire: Perspectives on North America, Anansi Press, 1969. ISBN 0-88784-605

Grant, Technology and Justice, Anansi Press, 1986. ISBN 0-88784-152

Grant, Time as History, edited and with an introduction by William Christian, Press, [1969] 1995. ISBN 0-8020-7593-2.

The George Grant Reader, edited by William Christian and Sheila Grant, University of Toronto Press, 1998. ISBN0-8020-7934-2

Michael Ignatieff, Empire Lite: Nation-building in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, Penguin, 2003. ISBN 0-14-301491-9

Ignatieff, The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror, Penguin, 2004.

Robert Sibley, Northern Spirits: John Watson, George Grant and Charles Taylor – Appropriations of Hegelian Political Thought, McGill-Queen’s University, 2008. ISBN 978-0- 7735-3303-5.

Leo Strauss, On Tyranny: The Strauss-Kojeve Debate, ed. Victor Gourevitch and Michael S. Roth, University of Chicago Press, 2000, 133-212. ISBN 0-226-77687-5

Strauss, Natural Right and History, University of Chicago Press, 1950. ISBN 0-226-776694-8

Strauss, An Introduction to : Ten Essays by Leo Strauss, ed. Hilail Gildin, Wayne State University Press, 1975. ISBN 0-8143-1902-5

Eric Voegelin, The New Science of Politics: An Introduction, University of Chicago Press, 1952 ISBN 0-226-86114-7

Voegelin, Science, Politics and Gnosticism, intro. Ellis Sandoz, ISI Books, 2004.

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Course Pack: Available at Carleton University Bookstore

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Seminar participants will be expected to contribute weekly to the discussion, demonstrating evidence of reflection on the assigned materials. Generally, depending on class numbers, each session will involve four presentations. Over the seminar each participant will be expected to give THREE 10-15 minute seminar PRESENTATIONS on assigned sets of texts. Presentation assignments will be arranged during the first class on Sept. 5, hopefully. This should give students sufficient time to reflect on the material.

Seminar participants will also be expected at the beginning of each class to submit a 2-3 page SUMMARY/COMMENTARY on the salient issues discussed by the class in the previous week’s seminar. Please note, these summaries are not to be a reworking of the texts, but rather an attempt to attention to and grasp of the class discussion, albeit within the context of the material under study.

Summaries will be read and returned ASAP.

TERM PAPERS ARE DUE DEC. 3. LATE PAPERS WILL BE PENALIZED unless there are valid reasons for the lateness. See references below.

Seminar Presentations: Worth 30% Seminar Summaries: Worth 30% Term Paper 40% (Topics to be discussed with the instructor.)

CLASS SCHEDULE:

Sept. 5: INTRODUCTION -- Thinking with George Grant

General discussion of the course material, intention of the course, requirements, and doling out assignments.

In Search of a Seminar Theme – discussion of the following readings. Students are expected to HAVE read this material for the first class, and, therefore, prepared to discuss it with a view to considering an overarching theme for the seminar.

John Burbidge, “Hegel in Canada,” Owl of Minerva, 25, 2, (1994): 215-219. (Course Pack) Ron Dart, “Charles Taylor and the Hegelian Eden Tree: Canadian Compradorism, Clarion Journal of Spirituality & Justice, April 16, 2007. Available at http://www.clarion- journal.com/clarion_journal_of_spirit/2007/04/charles_taylor_.html (Course Pack) David MacGregor, “Canada’s Hegel,” Literary Review of Canada, (Feb. 1994): 18-29. (Course Pack) Sibley, Northern Spirits, 3-12. ON RESERVE

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Sept. 12: NATIONALISM -- Grant’s Lamentation

Grant, Lament for a Nation.

Ajzenstat, The Once and Future Canadian Democracy, 3-69 and 102-115. David Cayley, George Grant in Conversation, 1-45. Barry Cooper, “A imperio usque ad imperium: The Political Thought of George Grant,” in George Grant in Process: Essays and Conversations, Toronto, 1978, 22-39. (Course Pack) Gad Horowitz, “Conservatives, Liberalism and Socialism in Canada: An Interpretation,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, 32, 2, (1966), 143-171. (Also available in The Development of Political Thought in Canada: An Anthology, Katherine Fierlbeck, editor, Broadview Press, 2005), 207-238. (Course Pack) David Peddle and Neil Robertson, “Lamentation and Speculation: George Grant, James Doull and the Possibility of Canada, Animus, 7 (2002), 1-29. (Course Pack) Sibley, Northern Spirits, 111-127.

Sept. 19: NATIONALISM and IDENTITY – Grant’s Anguish

Grant, “Canadian Fate and Imperialism,” in Technology and Empire, 63-78. Grant, “Have we a Canadian Nation?” in Collected Works of George Grant, Vol. 1, University of Toronto, 127-135. (Course Pack) James Doull, “The Philosophical Basis of Constitutional Debate in Canada,” Philosophy and Freedom: The Legacy of James Doull, edited by David G. Peddle and Neil G. Robertson, University of Toronto Press, 393-465. ON RESERVE

Janet Ajzenstat, “The Political Nationality,” in The Canadian Founding: John Locke and Parliament, McGill-Queen’s, 2007, 88-109. (Course Pack) Ian Angus, “The Social Identity of English Canada,” in A Border Within: National Identity, Cultural Identity and Wilderness, McGill-Queen’s, (1997), Chap. 2, 11-47. ON RESERVE Barry Cooper, “Did George Grant’s Canada Ever Exist? in George Grant and the Future of Canada, ed. Yusuf K. Umar, , 1992, 151-64. (Course Pack) Cooper, “Western Political Consciousness,” in Political Thought in Canada, ed. Stephen Brooks, Irwin Publishing, 1984, 213-38. (Course Pack) Horowitz, “Tories, Socialists and the Demise of Canada, etc.” in H.D. Forbes, ed., Canadian Political Thought, Oxford, 1985, 352-368. (Course Pack) Robert Martin, “A Lament for British North America,” in Rethinking the Constitution: Perspectives on Canadian Constitutional Reform, Interpretation and Theory, edited by Anthony A. Peacock, (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 1996): 3-16. (Course Pack) Peddle and Robertson, “Freedom and the Tradition: George Grant, James Doull and the Character of Modernity,” in Athens and , 136-165. (Course Pack) Sibley, Northern Spirits, 149-157.

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Sept. 26: THE MALAISE OF LIBERALISM – Grant and Taylor: An imaginary encounter

Grant, The George Grant Reader, 128-153 (esp. “The Triumph of the Will”). Grant, English-Speaking Justice, 1-68. Charles Taylor, The Malaise of Modernity.

Sibley, Northern Spirits, 239-253. Frank Underhill, “Some Reflections on the Liberal Tradition in Canada,” in Canadian Political Thought, edited by H.D. Forbes, Oxford University Press, 230-240. (Course Pack)

Oct. 3: LIBERALISM AND MODERNITY -- Grant and Strauss (and Kojeve)

Grant, “Tyranny and Wisdom,” in Technology and Empire, 81-109. Strauss, On Tyranny, 133-212.

Alexander Duff, “Response to the Strauss-Kojeve Debate: George Grant’s Turn from Hegel to Christian Theism,” in Athens and Jerusalem, 108-123. (Course Pack) H.D. Forbes, “George Grant and Leo Strauss,” in George Grant and the Subversion of Modernity, ed. Arthur Davis, University of Toronto Press, 1996, 169-198. (Course Pack) Michael Gillespie, “George Grant and the Tradition of Political Philosophy,” in By Loving Our Own, Carleton Universty Press, 1990, 123-131. (Course Pack) Grant Havers, “Leo Strauss’s Influence on George Grant,” in Athens and Jerusalem, 124-135. (Course Pack) Robert Pippin, “Being, Time and Politics: The Strauss-Kojeve Debate, History and Theory, 2, (1992), 138-161. (Course Pack) Pippin, “The Modern World of Leo Strauss,” Political Theory, 20, 3, (Aug. 1992), 448-472. (Course Pack) Sibley, Northern Spirits, 158-176 and 271-280

Oct. 10: MODERNITY AND HISTORY – Grant, Strauss and Arendt

Arendt, “The Concept of History” in Between Past and Future, 41-90. Arendt, “The Meaning of Revolution,” in On Revolution, 21-58. Grant, “Time as Historical Process,” “Nietzsche and Time as History,” in Time as History, 3-15 and 28-41. Strauss, “Natural Right and the Historical Approach,” in Natural Right and History, 9-34. (This essay is also available in Strauss, An Introduction to Political Philosophy: Ten Essays by Leo Strauss, ed. Hilail Gildin, Wayne State University Press, (1975), 99-124. Strauss, “The Three Waves of Modernity,” in An Introduction to Political Philosophy, 81-98.

Ronald Beiner, “Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss: the Uncommenced Dialogue, Political Theory, 18, 2, (May 1990), 238-254. (Course Pack) Steve Buckler, “Coming Out of Hiding: Hannah Arendt on Thinking in Dark Times,” The European Legacy, 6, 5, (2001), 615-631. (Course Pack) 6

James W. Ceaser, “The American Context of Leo Strauss’s Natural Right’s and History,” Perspectives on Political Science, 37, 2, (Spring 2008), 69-74. (Course Pack) James Ceaser, “The American Context of Leo Strauss’s Natural Right and History,” Perspectives on Political Science, 37, 2, (Spring 2008), 69-74. (Course Pack) Dick Howard, “Reading Hannah Arendt’s On Revolution after the Fall of the Wall,” no date, n.p. (Course Pack) William Carey McWilliams, “Leo Strauss and the Dignity of American Political Thought,” The Review of Politics, 60, 3, (1997), 231-246. (Course Pack) Vivasvan Soni, “Classical Politics without Happiness? Hannah Arendt and the American Revolution, Cultural Critique, 74, (Winter 2010), 32-47. (Course Pack) Nathan Tarcov, “Leo Strauss: Critique and Defense of Liberalism,” delivered at the Conference on Leo Strauss: Religione e Liberalismo, Fondazione Maga Carta, Rome, May 13, 2001. (Course Pack) Thomas G. West, “Leo Strauss and the American ‘Founding,’” The Review of Politics, 53, 1 (Winter 1991), 157-172.

Oct. 17: MODERNITY AND TECHNOLOGY – Grant and Voegelin: An Attempted Dialogue

Grant, “The Minds of Men in the Atomic Age” and The George Grant Reader, 51-58; 418-434; and “Thinking about Technology,” and “Research in the Humanities,” in Technology & Justice, 11-34 and 35-77l. Voegelin, “Introduction,” and “Gnosticism – The Nature of Modernity,” in The New Science of Politics, 1-26 and 107-132. Ian Angus, “Grant’s Critique of Technology,” in A Border Within,” 75-104. ON RESERVE Murray Jardine, “Eric Voegelin’s Interpretation of Modernity, A Reconsideration of the Spiritual and Political Implications of Voegelin’s Therapeutic Analysis,” in The Review of Politics, 57, 4, (Autumn 1995), 581-605. (Course Pack) John Von Heyking and Barry Cooper, “‘A Cow is Just a Cow:’ George Grant and Eric Voegelin on the United States,” in Athens and Jerusalem: George Grant’s Theology, Philosophy and Politics, edited by Ian Angus et al, Toronto, 2006, 166-189. (Course Pack)

Oct. 24: TECHNOLOGY AND MODERNITY – Grant, Arendt and Voegelin: Toward a Dialogue

Grant, “In Defence of North America,” in Technology and Empire, 15-40. Grant, “Nationalism and Rationality,” “Technology and Modernity” in The George Grant Reader, 103-107 and 387-398. Grant, “The Uses of Freedom: A Word and Our World,” Queen’s Quarterly, 62 (1955), 185-197. (Course Pack) Arendt, “What Is Freedom?” “The Crisis in Culture” and “The Conquest of Space and the Stature of Man,” in Between Past and Future, 143-171, 197-226 and 265-280. Voegelin, “Gnosticism – “The Puritan Case” and “The End of Modernity,” in The New Science of Politics, 133-161 and 134-189; and

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READING BREAK

Nov. 7: TECHNOLOGY AS ONTOLOGY -- Notes for a Grant-Voegelin Exchange

Grant, “Value and Technology,” 387-398. “The Computer Does Not Impose on Us the Ways It Should Be Used,” in The George Grant Reader, 407-434. Grant, “Temporality and Technological Man” and “Time as Mastery,” in Time as History, 16-27 and 57-69. Voegelin, “Hegel – A Study in Sorcery,” in Published Works, 1966-1985, Vol 12, The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, 213-276. ON RESERVE Voegelin, “Ersatz Religion -- Mass Movements in Our Time,” in Science, Politics & Gnosticism, 61-87.

Nov. 14: EMPIRE AT THE END OF HISTORY

Grant, “Empire Yes or No? in The George Grant Reader, 43-50. Grant, “Ideology in Modern Empires,” Perspectives on Empire, 189-197. (Course Pack) Michael Ignatieff, Empire Lite, Ignatieff, The Lesser Evil,

Lars Rensman, “Europeanism and Americanism in the Age of Globalization: Hannah Arendt’s Reflections on Europe and America,” European Journal of Political Theory, 5, 2, (no date), 139- 170. (Course Pack) Francis Fukuyama, The End of History? The National Interest, (Spring 1989), n.p. (Course Pack) Robert Nisbet, “Hannah Arendt and the American Revolution,” Social Research, 44, 1, (Spring 1977), 63-79. (Course Pack) Leonard R. Sorenson, “Leo Strauss and the Defense of Western Civilization,” The European Legacy, 13, 2, (2008), 193-221. (Course Pack) Sibley, Northern Spirits, Chaps. 4, 5, 8, 9, 25, 26. (I refer regularly to John Watson’s, The State in Peace and War, 1918. It will be ON RESERVE.)

Nov. 21: PHILOSOPHIZING IN A NEW AGE OF IMPERIALISM

Grant, “Nietzsche and the Ancients,” in Technology & Justice, 75-95. Grant, “Nietzsche: Revenge and Redemption,” in Time as History,” 57-69. Grant, “Leo Strauss and Political Philosophy,” in Athens and Jerusalem, 87-92. (Course Pack)

Ian Angus, “Athens and Jerusalem?” A Critique of the Relationship between Philosophy and Religion in George Grant’s Thought, Journal of Canadian Studies, 39, 2, (Spring, 2005), 81-104. (Course Pack) Barry Cooper, “George Grant and the Revival of Political Philosophy,” in By Loving Our Own, 97-121. (Course Pack) 8

Lisa Disch, “How Could Hannah Arendt glorify the American Revolution and revile the French?” European Journal of Political Theory, 10, 3, (2011), 350-371. (Course Pack) James M. Rhodes, “Philosophy, Revelation and Political Theory: Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin, The Journal of Politics, 49, 4, (Nov. 1987), 1036-1060. (Course Pack) Sandoz, “The Philosopher’s Vocation: The Voegelinian Paradigm,” The Review of Politics, 71, 1, (2009), 54-67. (Course Pack) Steven B. Smith, “Philosophy as a Way of Life: The Case of Leo Strauss,” The Review of Politics, 71, 1, (2009), 37-53. (Course Pack)

Nov. 28: IN THE MEANTIME, WAITING FOR THE GODS?

Eric Voegelin, “Wisdom and the Magic of the Extreme,” in Published Essays, 1966-1985, Vol. 12, The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, 315-375. ON RESERVE William Christian, “The Magic of Art,” in By Loving Our Own, 189-202. (Course Pack) Ronald Beiner, “George Grant, Nietzsche and the Problem of a Post-Christian Theism,” in George Grant and the Subversion of Modernity, 109-138. (Course Pack) Ellis Sandoz, “Gnosticism and Modernity,” Republicianism, Religion, and the Soul of America, University of Missouri, 2006, 145-155. (Course Pack) Sandoz, “Medieval Rationalism or Mystic Philosophy: The Strauss-Voegelin Debate,” in Republicianism, Religion, and the Soul of America, 121-144. (Course Pack) Grant Havers, “Between Athens and Jerusalem: Western Otherness in Leo Strauss and Hannah Arendt,” The European Legacy, 9, 1, (2004), 19-29. Gilles Labelle, “Can the Problem of the Theologico-Political Problem be Resolved?” Thesis Eleven, 87, (Nov. 2006), 63-81. (Course Pack)

Dec. 5: SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

For consideration:

Is there a distinctive Canadian political philosophy comparable to peculiarly American political thought?

What are some of the distinctive features of Canadian political thinking in relation to American thought?

Are Canadians unconscious Hegelians?

Would Frank Underhill be pleased?

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Academic Accommodations

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Grading: Assignments and exams will be graded with a percentage grade. To convert this to a letter grade or to the university 12-point system, please refer to the following table.

Percentage Letter grade 12-point scale Percentage Letter grade 12-point scale 90-100 A+ 12 67-69 C+ 6 85-89 A 11 63-66 C 5 80-84 A- 10 60-62 C- 4 77-79 B+ 9 57-59 D+ 3 73-76 B 8 53-56 D 2 70-72 B- 7 50-52 D- 1

Grades: Final grades are derived from the completion of course assignments. Failure to write the final exam will result in the grade ABS. Deferred final exams are available ONLY if the student is in good standing in the course.

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Official Course Outline: The course outline posted to the Political Science website is the official course outline.