The Civil Social Community

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Since antiquity philosophers have argued that individuals are not completely self-sufficient; they require some sort of communal arrangement to fully realize their humanity. In the well-known expression of Aristotle: "Man is by nature a political animal." Yet, the modern age has privileged individuality rather than the collective. A tension has been created between the way in which we regard ourselves as autonomous human beings and the responsibilities we owe to the political and social communities of which we are members. This course will explore the role of political and social communities in respect to individuals and their place in society. We will begin by examining some ideas from classical philosophy concerning the individual's relationship to society before turning to Alexis de Tocqueville's analysis of American democratic society in Democracy in America. The middle portion of the course will examine the work of the contemporary theorist Robert Putnam. In the final part of the course the theories of communitarianism, centered on the ideas of Amitai Etzioni, will be examined. As we proceed through the course, we will investigate several concepts that are at the core of political and social philosophy: the best way to arrange political systems, the relation of the citizen to the state, the responsibilities of individuals to other individuals and the collective, republicanism as an effective way to organize political practice, and the idea of the city.