PSCI 6300
Political Theory I
An intensive examination of the major questions in classical, medieval, modern, and contemporary political philosophy. This course is historically comprehensive in scope and thematically oriented in depth.
2021
Readings
- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. 2, Liberty Fund.
- 1) Syllabus 2) Yasha Mounk, Democracy vs The People, Introduction (p. 1-21).
- 3) David Runciman, How Democracy Ends, Preface (p. 1-15) 4) Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die, Preface (p. 6-13)
- 1) Plato, The Republic, Book 6, 8 (Selections) 2) John Dunn, Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy, Chap. 1: Democracy’s First Coming (p. 1-31)
- 3) Cornelius Castoriadis, “The Greek Polis and the Creation of Democracy” (p. 1-
- in Philosophy, Politics, Autonomy, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991.
- 1) Aristotle, The Politics (Book III, Chap. 6-13, Book IV, Chap. 4, 6-7, 12, 14, Book VI, Chap. 1-4) 2) Hélène Landemore, “Collective Wisdom: Old and New”, in Landemore and Elster
- (eds.), Collective Wisdom: Principles and Mechanisms, Cambridge University Press, 2012.
- 3) Tamer Nawar, “Democracy and Knowledge in Ancient Greece” in The Routledge Handbook of Political Epistemology, pp. 13-23.
- 2) Quentin Skinner, Machiavelli. A Short Introduction, Chap. 3: “The Theorist of Liberty”, p. 54-87.
Undated
Topics
- Ancient Greece (I)
- Ancient Greece (II)
- Machiavelli
- Rousseau
- Tocqueville (I)
- Tocqueville (II) Research Paper Proposal
- Tocqueville (III)
- Schmitt
- Contemporary Theory (I)
- Contemporary Theory (II)
- Mini-Conference Essay Presentation
- Contemporary Theory (III)
- Research Paper due