The Politics and Persecution of Philosophy

(4 Credits)

Philosophers have long questioned their relationship to authority. Why is philosophy sometimes seen as a threat to power, and what happens when even thought and speech become persecuted and criminalized? What is the relationship between the practice of philosophy and the questioning of laws? This course looks at the writings of philosophers and thinkers throughout history who examined this problem or were themselves targeted for repression–from Ancient Greece, China, and the Middle East, to the founders of European Enlightenment and American democracy, to 20th century Black radicals, revolutionary feminists, and decolonial thinkers. Figures include Socrates, Laozi, Thomas Paine, Emma Goldman, Leo Strauss, Martin Luther King Jr., Huey P. Newton, Angela Davis, bell hooks, and more.