Carleton University Fall 2009
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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. 2 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, University of Toronto 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 Political Philosophy: 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. 3 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 4 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, Calgary, 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 Jerusalem, 136-165. (Course Pack) Sibley, Northern Spirits, 149-157. 5 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