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Politics 2P91: Political Science, Brock University
Political Theory I: Ancient Political Philosophy
Fall, 2014 (D2)
Lectures: Monday: 4-5 AS 202; Thursday 2-3 AS 202
Professor: Dr. L. Bradshaw
[email protected]
Seminars:
Monday 2:00 Professor Bradshaw
Monday 8:00 Marc James
Wednesday 8:00 Marc James
Tuesday 12:00 Ryan Forster
Tuesday 2:00 Ryan Forster
Office: Plaza 339, ext. 4282
Hours: Tues 11-1; Thurs 3-4
Course Description:
Political philosophy in the Western tradition begins with the ancient Greeks. Formative for the tradition of
political thought in the West has been the figure of Socrates who was tried and condemned by a democratic
assembly in Athens for the alleged subversion of the political community. The story of Socrates haunts us still
because of the important questions it raises about the relationship between the individual and politics. We begin in
this course with what is arguably the most important book in the foundations of Western political thought: Plato’s
Republic. The Republic is a dialogue between Socrates and others about the nature of justice. It is here that we
encounter Plato’s famous “ideal city”, an imaginative construction of a city in which rulers are chosen for their
superior capabilities, women rule alongside men and good governance is partnered with communism of property and
children. Also, in the Republic we find Socrates’ classification of regimes, each regime corresponding to a specific
human desire. One of the great and troubling questions posed by this book is whether justice for the city, or the state,
necessarily coincides with what is just or good for the individual. The issues raised in the Republic are prescient.
Though written more than two millennia ago, Plato’s book on justice is a book for our time.
More than half of this course will be spent on the Republic. Lectures will follow the text closely, and
seminars will be devoted to discussion of the weekly assigned reading, especially in relation to how those readings
bear on contemporary issues of justice and politics. Following the Republic, students will read Plato’s Apology of
Socrates (available widely on line) and excerpts from Aristotle’s Politics. Aristotle was Plato’s student, and
pursued many of the same themes as his teacher, though sometimes in disagreement with him. Unlike Plato, who
always wrote in the form of dialogue, Aristotle wrote treatises. For this reason, Aristotle is often heralded as the
father of political science. In Aristotle’s work, we find the famous claim that “man is by nature a political being”,
and we shall explore what Aristotle means by that statement, and in what way his assessment of what is “natural” for
human beings differs from Plato’s understanding. The course winds down with selections from Cicero (Roman
orator and statesman) and Augustine (Christian philosopher of the 3rd century and critic of the pagan (Greek)
philosophers). Cicero was a strenuous defender of liberty, republicanism and the cosmopolitan obligations people
owe to their fellow human beings. Among Augustine’s important contributions to the history of Western political
thought are his formulations of free will, just war and the framing of politics within the two kingdoms of world
(time) and God (eternity).
Course Requirements:
Readings from primary texts are specified for each week. There is not a lot of reading in this course, but the texts are
difficult and students are expected to read carefully. Lectures are important. No lectures will be posted. There are no
designated seminar leaders in this course. Students are expected to contribute to discussions on an ongoing basis,
and seminars will be a forum for students to discuss and clarify the week’s readings. Students should do each week’s
readings in advance of their seminar. Seminar participation counts for 30% of students’ final grades, and is a critical
part of this course. Seminars begin week of September 8.
There will be one major paper, on an assigned topic, to be handed in November 6. All papers will be based on
Plato’s Republic. A set of questions will be distributed.
Guidelines for Writing Essays: Papers should be 8-10 pages, typed, and should be based on the course readings.
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Secondary sources are permissible, but not necessary, and your essay mark is not based on the number of sources
you cite, but on the coherence of your argument. Students are encouraged to read the “Interpretive Essay” on
Plato’s Republic by Allan Bloom. This is a very good essay, and may help students through some of the more cryptic
parts of the dialogue. Employ the “in-text” citation style (author, page number or in the case of Greek texts,
stephanus numbers at page margins), with a list of references following the text. Only references cited in the text are
to be included in the list of references at the end of the essay. For any other style issues, please consult the Chicago
Manual of Style. Plagiarism is a very serious offence, and students should consult the University Statement on
Academic Misconduct in the Undergraduate Calendar (Section VII) available at http://brocku.ca/webcal. There is a
uniform policy in the Political Science Department regarding the submission of essays (and penalties for late
submissions). Students should consult the policy appended to this outline.
There will be a final examination, held in the formal examination period. Examination will be based on the whole
course.
Mark Distribution
Essay:
30%
Final Exam:
40%
Seminar Participation: 30% (eleven seminars)
Important Dates for This Course:
-Tuesday, September 16: last day to drop/switch courses with no financial penalty
-October 13-October 17: Thanksgiving and Reading Week: no classes
-Tuesday November 4: last day to drop this course with no academic penalty
-November 6: essay due: handed to instructor or TA, or deposited in one of the two essay boxes outside the
Political Science Department’s administrative offices on Third Floor of Plaza by 4 p.m.
-November 24-November 28: last week of SEMINARS
-Monday, December 1: final lecture
Required Texts (all available in Brock Bookstore):
* Note: Full texts, rather than a collated edition, have been ordered for this course. The books are classics, and are
not expensive. Total cost of books is under $100.
1) Plato, The Republic. Translated and edited by Allan Bloom. New York, Basic Books
2) Aristotle, The Politics. Translated Carnes Lord. University of Chicago Press
3) Cicero, Selected Works. Translated Michael Grant. Penguin Classics
4) Saint Augustine, The City of God. Translated Henry Bettenson. Penguin Classics
Students will also need to read Plato’s Apology for the week of October 20. (Full text (translated by Jowett) is
available on line.
LECTURE SCHEDULE
PART I: Socrates and Plato
Sept. 4: Introduction to the course
Why study classical political thought?
Sept.8: Three accounts of justice and Socrates’ response: justice is more profitable than injustice
Sept.11: The case for injustice: the challenge of Glaucon and Adeimantus’ and Socrates’ responses
Reading: Republic, Bk. 1, Bk. 2
Sept 15: The education of the guardians
Sept.18: City and soul; political virtues, psychology and justice as health
Reading: Republic, Bk.3, Bk.4
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Sept.22: Sexual equality and the community of wives and children
Sept.25: Philosopher kings and the limits of politics
Reading: Republic, Bk. 5
Sept. 29: The sun and the good
Oct. 2: The cave allegory
Reading: Republic, Bk.6, Bk.7
Oct. 6: The forms and causes of political corruption
Oct. 9: The tyrannical soul
Reading: Republic, Bk.8; Bk.9
Oct. 20: Poets, philosophers and the city
Oct. 23: Philosophy and politics: the trial of Socrates
Reading: Republic, Bk. 10; Plato’s Apology
PART II: Aristotle’s Politics
Oct.27: Why we are ‘political animals’ and the structure of the household
Oct.30: Natural slavery and acquisition
Reading: Aristotle, The Politics, Book 1
Nov.3: Aristotle’s critique of Plato’s Republic: Book 5
Nov. 6: Aristotle on citizenship and the good and bad forms of regime
Reading: Aristotle, The Politics, Book 2: Chapters 1-5 only; and Book 3
Nov.10: Equality, inequality and the causes of revolution
Nov. 13: The active and the contemplative ways of life
Reading: Aristotle, The Politics, Book 4: Chapters 1-12 only; Book 5: Chapters 1-10 only; Book 7: Chapters 1-4
only
Nov.17: Cicero’s debt to the Stoics
Nov. 20: Moral obligations and citizenship
Reading: Cicero, Part Two: How to Live, Cicero: Selected Works: A Practical Code of Behaviour: On Duties, III
only
Nov. 24: Augustine on the nature of sin, critique of Plato and the two cities of God and man
Nov. 27: Just war theory, free will and faith
Reading: Augustine, The City of God, Book XIV (Chapters 3,4,5,27,28); and Book XIX (Chapters
12,13,14,17,24,25,26,27,28)
December 1: Final summary lecture and examination review: no assigned reading
Some questions/thoughts for seminars.
Sept 8:
How does the question of justice arise?
What are the answers given to Socrates by Cephalus , Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus ?
After Glaucon’s and Adeimantus’s argument, Socrates shifts to the just city. Why does Socrates’
friend call the first city a “city of sows”?
Once a luxurious city is outlined, it is clear that the city needs defense. What qualities do soldiers
need?
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Sept 15:
What is the objective of the guardians’ education?
Describe the myth of the metals and discuss its plausibility as a metaphor for the actual structuring
of a community.
Why does Adeimantus object to the city that Socrates is building?
How are the four virtues (justice, courage, wisdom and moderation) distributed among the people?
How do these virtues correspond to the three parts of the soul?
Sept. 22:
The guardian class in the ideal city is to have mating, marriage and child-rearing practices unique
to that class. What is the purpose of this? How do you think these practices would work?
Why is it so difficult for kings to become philosophers, or for philosophers to become kings?
Sept. 29:
How does the analogy of the sun and the good help to illuminate Socrates’ argument?
What is the condition of the men in the cave and what does the light represent?
Why is it so hard to get the one who has ascended into the sunlight to return to the cave?
Oct 6:
There are four kinds of regime (apart from the rule of philosopher-kings) and they are timocracy,
oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. What are the characteristic features of each, and why is there a
necessary decline?
What does Socrates think of democracy?
What is tyranny and how does it come into being?
Does Socrates make a convincing argument that tyranny is the worst way of life?
Oct 20:
What are Socrates’ arguments against poetry?
What is the Myth of Er and why does Socrates tell this story about an afterlife?
Oct. 27:
What does Aristotle mean by claiming that we are ‘by nature’ political? What are Aristotle’s
views on slavery? Why, according to Aristotle, is unlimited accumulation bad for political
community?
Nov.3:
Discuss Aristotle’s critique of Book 5 of Plato’s Republic, specifically Aristotle’s claim that
making the city into too much of a ‘unity’ is antithetical to politics.
Nov. 10:
Justice, according to Aristotle, requires treating equals ‘equally’ and unequals ‘unequally’. What
does Aristotle mean by this, and how does this conception of justice figure into the causes of
revolution?
Nov.17:
Consider Cicero’s advice on duties in relation to Socrates’ pronouncements in the Republic on
the correct order of the soul and the virtues of moderation, courage and wisdom.
Nov.24:
In what way does Augustine’s formulation of the two cities of ‘man’ and ‘God’ affect how we
might think about justice?
Brock University Statement on Academic Misconduct
Because academic integrity is vital to the well-being of the university community, Brock University takes academic misconduct
very seriously. Academic misconduct includes plagiarism, which involves presenting the words and ideas of another person as if
they were your own, and other forms of cheating, such as using crib notes during a test or fabricating data for a lab assignment.
The penalties for academic misconduct can be very severe. A grade of zero may be given for the assignment or even for the
course, and a second offense may result in suspension from the University. Students are urged to read the section of the Brock
University Undergraduate Calendar that pertains to academic misconduct. Students are also reminded that the Student
Development Centre offers free workshops on writing and study skills and on avoiding plagiarism.
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Department of Political Science Policy on Late Essays
The policy of the Department is that essays received by the instructor or deposited in the Political Science Department essay box
(outside the Administrative Assistant’s door) after 4:00 p.m. of the date on which they were due will be penalized two percent
for each day late from Monday through Friday and five percent for the period from Friday 4 p.m. to Monday 8:30 p.m., and that
no paper will be accepted two weeks after the due date.
An essay is considered received when the original hard copy of the paper is in the hands of the instructor or in the box outside
the Political Science Office. Having an essay date-stamped by security, the library staff, or anyone else does not constitute receipt
of the essay by the Political Science Department. Faxing or emailing an essay to the Department or instructor does not constitute
receipt of the essay.
Instructors may establish more restrictive deadlines or more severe penalties in particular courses – check the course outline.
Extensions of due dates are granted only in circumstances that are beyond the student’s control, such as health problems that are
supported by a medical certificate or other clearly equivalent situations.
Time management problems are not grounds for extensions. You are strongly urged to avoid these penalties by beginning work
on essays early in the term, by setting your own target dates for completion that are several days before the due date, and by
carefully budgeting your time.
Policy on Returning Marked Essays
Marked essays will normally be returned during class meetings or at the final examination. Students who are not in
class to receive their essays or do not receive at the final examination can obtain them in two ways.
-directly from the instructor during office hours (unless the instructor specifies in the course outline or by notice
on his/her door that this option is not available), and/or
-directly from the instructor on specific days and at specific times announced in class or posted on his/her door.
Note: Essays that are not picked up within six months after the end of term will be destroyed.