Syllabus

I. Description

How should people live together in society? Is democracy really the best form of government? Can a society “legislate morality”? What do individuals owe their government? What does their government owe them? We will consider these and related questions through an introductory survey of works by major political philosophers such as Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Mill, and Marx. We will also explore ramifications for issues such as freedom of speech, religious liberty, affirmative action, economic inequality, criminal punishment, civil disobedience, and revolution. 

II. Aims and Requirements

This course has several aims:

1. to introduce students to the subject matter, aims, and methods of political philosophy
2. to familiarize students with some major contributions to the history of political philosophy
3. to enable students to read and to interpret political-philosphical texts
4. to enable students to argue, both in conversation and in writing, about both political-philosophical questions and attempts to answer them

To advance these aims, students will be required to take quizzes and an exam, to write essays, and to attend class and to participate in class discussions.

1. Four quizzes will be given in class.
• The dates of the quizzes will not necessarily be announced in advance, but all of the possible quiz questions will be provided, as study questions designed to aid students in their reading, at least 5 days prior to the dates when they may be asked on quizzes. In other words, the quizzes may be surprises, but the questions won’t be.
• On days when quizzes will be given, quizzes will be available starting at 6 p.m. and must be completed—without the aid of texts, notes, or other persons—by 6:20 p.m. On these days, students who arrrive late or who want to study before looking at the quiz may do so without penalty, though of course they must still finish by 6:20.
• If a student misses a class in which a quiz might have been given, then he or she should contact the instructor (in class, by e-mail or phone, or during office hours) within 5 days to arrange to take a make-up quiz, if necessary. The questions on the make-up quiz will be drawn not only from the list of possible quiz questions for the class that was missed, but also from the lists of possible quiz questions for the two previous classes. Otherwise, students who take make-up quizzes would be advantaged relative to students who do not (since they would be studying a list of questions from which they know quiz questions will be drawn), which would tend to encourage students to be absent. Naturally, this effect must be avoided.
2. Two essays of 5 or 6 pages each will be due.
• The essays will be due in class on May 27 and June 12.
• Essays submitted later than these deadlines but not later than June 20 will be accepted, but will be assessed a penalty of one third of a letter grade per business day late. For example, a B essay due on a Thursday but turned in on the following Monday would receive a grade of C+. Exceptions to this penalty rule may be made when a paper is late due to factors which a student could not reasonably be expected to control, such as an illness or a family emergency. An essay submitted on a day when class does not meet should be marked with the date on which it is being submitted and placed in the mailbox marked EGGLESTON in room 1001 of the Cathedral of Learning between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
• If a student anticipates that meeting one or both or these deadlines will be a problem, then he or she should contact the instructor at least 5 days before the deadline(s) in question; extensions will be granted in reply to reasonable requests. Last-minute requests for extensions will not be granted, except in cases in which a student would be exempt from the late-paper penalty anyway.
• Suggested topics for the first essay will be available by May 20; for the second essay, by June 3.
3. A comprehensive final exam will be given in class on June 19. If a student misses the final exam, then he or she should contact the instructor as soon as possible to arrange to take a make-up exam.
4. Attendance will be taken, and discusssions will be held, in every class.

Final grades will be determined by these factors. Quizzes (and class participation) and the final exam will, together, be 50 percent more important than the essays; and the quizzes (and class participation) will be 50 percent more important than the final exam. So, 36 percent of the final grades will be determined by quizzes and class participation, 24 percent by the final exam, and 40 percent by the essays.

It is possible that these requirements will change, as may other plans reported on this syllabus. Revisions will be stated on the World Wide Web site at the address given above. For more about the Web site, see “V. Additional Resources,” below.

III. Schedule

We will meet twelve times from May 13 to June 19, on Tuesdays and Thursdays in room 340 of the Cathedral of Learning. Class will start at 5:45 p.m on May 13 and at 6 p.m. thereafter, finishing by 9 p.m. Following is a list of the works which should be read prior to class. Items followed by (S) are only suggested, not required. All others have been carefully selected for their relevance to our purposes and are required.

IV. Books and Photocopies

The following seven books are sold by the Pitt Book Center. In addition, a custom course packet called Selections from Hume’s Essays is sold by Copy Cat at 3945 Forbes Avenue for $1.50. Although each of these eight items contains required reading, other suitable editions of the same texts, or other books containing suitable editions of the required reading, may be used instead. For a list of the required reading, see the schedule, above.

V. Additional Resources

The instructor will have office hours in area E of room 1428 in the Cathedral of Learning at the following times and will be available at other times by appointment:

• Tuesdays, from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m.
• Wednesdays, from 1:45 to 2:45 p.m.
• Thursdays, from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m.

Furthermore, the World Wide Web site at the address given above includes links to several useful documents, including

• this syllabus
• revisions to the requirements and other plans reported on this syllabus
• study notes for each class and/or author, including
• background information about the reading assignment(s)
• study questions from which the quiz questions will be drawn
• suggestions for further reading
• an outline of topics to be covered in class
• guidelines for writing a philosophy essay