Prof. Mark Tunick tunick@fau.edu

Description: This 3-credit course introduces students to important works of political and ethical theory spanning 2,000 years. These works address fundamental questions about government: Why do we need government and what makes it legitimate? What form of government is best? No one in their right mind would decide how best to cure a disease by taking a vote of all citizens, so why decide how best to run society by taking a vote? Is the best government one that allows individuals to do whatever they please? If not, how much freedom should individuals be permitted? Can revolutionaries, discontent with traditions they regard as unjust, simply build a new society from scratch, or are some of our traditions necessary, or natural? If some are, which? Is a society just if a small fraction of people possess most of the wealth and if not, should any measures be taken to redistribute resources more equitably? Many of our readings also address fundamental ethical questions such as how do we determine which actions are right or wrong? If doing what is right goes against one's self-interest, why do what is right?
This course satisfies the Honors College core requirement in Culture, Ideas, and Values; the Social and Behavioral Analysis Group B requirement; and the Global Citizenship--Ethics requirement, as well as the political theory requirement for the Political Science Concentration; it is an elective for the Law and Society concentration. It is also a Gordon Rule course. You must achieve a grade of "C" (not C-minus) or better to receive credit towards this requirement. Finally, this class meets the University-wide Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) criteria, which expect you to improve your writing over the course of the term. If this class is selected to participate in the university-wide WAC assessment program, you will be required to access the online assessment server, complete the consent form and survey, and submit electronically a first and final draft of a paper. There are no prerequisites for this course. No late papers without valid medical excuse; no make-up quizzes or exams. Consult the FAU catalog for FAU's policy on incompletes.

Goals: Students should leave the course with an appreciation for some of the central concerns of political theorists, and an improved ability to think critically about primary texts and to develop arguments by citing texts and considering counterarguments.
Requirements: Students should come to class prepared to discuss the readings. Class will consist of either discussion, or a combination of lecture and discussion. Participation is essential. Class meets TR 4:00pm to 5:20pm.
The following texts are required and available for purchase at the bookstore or online: The Broadview Anthology of Social and Political Thought, Volume 1: From Plato to Nietzsche ed. Bailey et. al. (9781551117423; $59.95 new, $44.95 used); Charles Dickens, Hard Times (Signet Classics, 9780451530998, $4.95 new). All political theory readings below refer to the selections in the Broadview text, with the exception of some additional excerpts to be found at the course's Canvas site.
Grading will be based on class participation (25%), which will be based on quizzes and/or brief writing assignments and discussions; 2 papers of at least 6 pages each, the first of which will be turned in twice: as a draft, and as a revision that responds to feedback to the draft (25% for each paper=50%), and a take-home essay-based final exam (25%). Papers and exam essays will require responding to prompts and providing critical analysis of the assigned texts and construction of an interpretive position, and will be graded by the quality of the critical analysis, extent to which relevant texts are drawn on and properly cited, and the coherence, lucidity, precision, and elegance of the writing. Substantial feedback will be provided to each writing assignment. Work handed in late will be penalized.
Attendance: The participation grade will be reduced 1/3 for each unexcused absence beyond 1. Quizzes not taken on time cannot be made up.
Students agree to adhere to the honor code, http://www.fau.edu/divdept/honcol/academics_honor_code.htm

Schedule of Topics and Readings: The readings listed under each class are to be done prior to that class meeting. Be sure to read all footnotes. See Canvas for updated schedule of topics and readings as this page will not be updated.

8/21. Introduction: Read "The Greeks and the Greek Polis Lecture Notes" in Canvas.

8/23. The Greek polis
Rdg: Plato, Apology, and Crito (Broadview: 17-35; also in Canvas for those who ordered the textbook late); begin reading Lecture notes on Socrates and Plato, pp. 1-4 (Canvas)
For those interested: Thucydides, from History of Peloponnesian War (Broadview: 3-10, which will be referred to in class).
Mini-paper prompt available in Canvas.

8/28. Socrates and Plato
Rdg: Plato, Republic Bk 1 (Broadview: 37-53); Williams, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, pp.26-29, 47-54 on 'Nominalizations' (up to exercise 3.7)(Canvas); Lecture notes on Socrates and Plato (Canvas).
For those interested: Online version of Republic (Shorey)
Brief writing assignment on Socrates due.

8/30. Plato's Republic; mini writing-workshop
Rdg: Plato, Republic Bks 2-4 (Broadview: 53-83); Williams, Style, pp. 54-66 (Canvas) [Note: Republic pp. 77-79 (from 436c-439a) are difficult/obscure--don't get frustrated; things becomes clearer at 439b]. Plato and the Republic Lecture Notes (in Canvas)
Assignment: Canvas Writing Assignment Quiz (available 1st day of class, due 8/30).
Note: those of you who have difficulty with punctuation should work through the 'Appendix' in Williams, Style prior to working on your first paper (pp. 221-42).

9/4. Plato's Republic
Rdg: Plato, Republic Bks 5-9 (Broadview: 83-120) and Bk 10 (Canvas): read 612c7 to the end (including the 'Myth of Er'); class handout with 'wipe the slate clean' passages, 501a and 541a.
For those interested: read the entire Bk 10 (Canvas)

9/6. Aristotle
Rdg: Lecture Notes on Aristotle (Canvas); Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics: Read the following selections: Bk 1:1-5, 7-10, 13, Bk 2:1-2, 4-9, Bk 10 (Broadview: 130-32, 134-38, 139-41, 142-47, 171-77)
Quiz on Aristotle (Canvas)
For those interested: Bk 5 (on justice); Bk 8 (on friendship); in addition, Bk 6 (on Types of knowledge) is available in Canvas.
Video clip: Berkeley in the 60's (dvd in library): Mario Savio's speech at Sproul Hall (at youtube)

9/11. Aristotle
Rdg: Aristotle, Politics: Bk 1:1-6, 8-10; Bk 2:1-5, 7-8; Bk 3:1, 4-12; Bk 4:1-2, 4, 11; Bk 5:1, 8, 11; Bk 7: 1-3, 13 (Broadview:177-81, 182-4, 187-92, 194-97, 204, 206-13, 219-20, 221-23, 226-28, 233-42)
Recommended: Bk 2:9-11 (on Spartan, Cretan, Carthaginian constitutions)
Paper One Draft Due

9/13. Machiavelli and the Rennaissance
Rdg: Lecture Notes on Machiavelli and the Renaissance (Canvas); Machiavelli, Mandragola ('The Mandrake Root')(Canvas).
Quiz in Canvas

9/18. Machiavelli
Rdg: Machiavelli, The Prince (Broadview: 346-375); and Machiavelli, Discourses Bk I: Intro, chs. 1-2; Bk II: chs. 2, 20, 29: Bk III: ch. 9 (Broadview: 376-89)
Quiz in Canvas

9/20. Thomas Hobbes [Constitution Day: in lieu of class, read lecture notes on Hobbes, available in Canvas. Students are invited to the Constitution Day event at the Boca campus; makeup discussion on Hobbes may be scheduled as needed]
Rdg: Hobbes, Leviathan (1660), Introduction and Part One chs 10-14 (Broadview: 407-431)
Leviathan Study Questions in Canvas.
Quiz in Canvas

9/25. Thomas Hobbes
Rdg: Hobbes, Leviathan: Part Two chs 15-21 (Broadview: 431-464)
Quiz in Canvas

9/27. Thomas Hobbes
Rdg: Hobbes, Leviathan: Part Two chs 26-30 (Broadview: 464-490)
Quiz in Canvas

10/2. The Putney Debates and the English Revolution
Rdg: Putney Debates (1647)(Canvas) ; 'An Agreement of the People' (online)
Revision of Paper One due

10/4. John Locke
Rdg: Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1690), Preface, chapters 1-5 (Broadview: 491-510)

10/9. Locke's Constitutional theory
Rdg: Locke, Second Treatise, chapters 6-15 (Broadview: 510-542)
For those interested: Tunick, "John Locke and the Right to Bear Arms," History of Political Thought 35(1):50-69 (2014), online.

10/11. Locke on the right of rebellion
Rdg: Locke Second Treatise, chapters 16-19 (Broadview: 542-561); Williams, Style, 96-110 (stress and emphasis), and 209-220 (Canvas).
Canvas Writing Assignment Quiz 2 in Canvas.

10/16. Burke and Conservatism
Rdg: Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, online; Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)(Broadview 828-34; and 'Burke Additional Readings 1' in BB); "On Geographic Morality" (Broadview 834); and Burke Additional Readings 2 (Canvas)
Burke Lecture Notes and "Enlightenment and French Revolution Background" Lecture notes in Canvas
For those interested: Complete text of Reflections available at google books; Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792): Intro, chs. 1-2, 5, 9, 12-13 (Broadview: 786-805, 812-15, 816-27)

10/18. The Burke-Paine Debate
Rdg: Paine, Rights of Man (excerpts)(Canvas)
Video clip from the film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, on youtube.

10/23. Jeremy Bentham: against Burke and Paine
Rdg: Bentham, Anarchical Fallacies (Canvas); and The Book of Fallacies (Canvas); Bentham Lecture Notes (Canvas)
Paper Two Due (prompt availalbe October 11)

10/25. Bentham's Utilitarianism
Rdg: Bentham, from Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789); Offenses against Oneself; Panopticon (Broadview: 876-94); Bentham's Utilitarianism Lecture Notes (Canvas)

10/30. Dickens' critique of utilitarianism
Rdg: Charles Dickens' Hard Times (1854).
Note: Plan to read this novel so you are ready to discuss it during this class.
Clip 1 and Clip 2 from Preston Sturges' film Sullivan's Travels (1941)

11/1. Immanuel Kant: against Bentham's utilitarianism
Rdg: Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (1785)(Broadview: 727-41); reread Machiavelli, The Prince ch. 18 (Broadview: 364-5); Lecture Material in Canvas.

11/6. G.W.F. Hegel: against Burkean conservatism, utilitarianism, and Kant
Reading: Hegel, Philosophy of Right (1821), Preface (Broadview: 848-9, 855-60); Hegel Lecture Notes in Canvas

11/8. Hegel's conception of freedom
Rdg: Hegel, Philosophy of Right (Broadview: 861-75); additional excerpts (Canvas)--read paragraphs consecutively. Hegel's Conception of Freedom Lecture Notes in Canvas

11/13. Marx and the Young Hegelians
Rdg: Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (1844); German Ideology (1845); "Theses on Feuerbach" (1845)(Broadview: 981-990, 1006-30); Marx Lecture Notes in Canvas

11/15. Marx's critique of capitalism
Rdg: Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto (1848)(Broadview: 1031-46)
For those interested: John McMurtry, "Monogamy: A Critique" (Marxist criticism of monogamous marriage), Monist 56(4):587-99 (1972)(Canvas); "A Modern Marx," Economist May 3, 2014, online (reviewing Thomas Piketty, Capital in the 21st Century, also available online); and Michael Moore: Capitalism: A Love Story (dvd available in the library).

11/20. Nietzsche
Rdg: Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1886)(Broadview: 1057-1074); Nietzsche Lecture Notes in Canvas

11/22: No Class (Thanksgiving)

11/27. Nietzsche
Rdg: On the Genealogy of Morals (1887)(Broadview: 1075-95)

11/29. Concluding Remarks
Rdg. for take home final: Marquis de Sade, "Yet Another Effort, Frenchmen, If You Would Become Republicans" from Philosophy in the Bedroom (Canvas)
Take Home Final Exam

For further reading:
Greeks, Plato, Aristotle
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition; E.R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational; W. Jaeger, Paideia; H.D.F. Kitto, The Greeks; Martha Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy; Bruno Snell, The Discovery of the Mind; Leo Strauss, The City and Man; G. Vlastos, Plato's Universe; Sheldon Wolin, Politics and Vision, chapter 2; J.L. Ackrill, Aristotle the Philosopher; E. Barker, The Politics of Aristotle, Introduction
Machiavelli:
A. H. Gilbert, Machiavelli's Prince and its Forerunners; Hanna Pitkin, Fortune is a Woman; J.A. G. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment
Hobbes:
D.P. Gauthier, The Logic of Leviathan; Terry Heinrichs, "Hobbes and the Coleman Thesis," Polity 16(4):647-66 (1984), at jstor ; C.B. Macpherson, The Theory of Possessive Individualism, Hobbes to Locke; Richard Tuck, Hobbes
Locke:
Richard Ashcraft, 'Revolutionary Politics and Locke's Two Treatises', Political Theory (Nov. 1980), at jstor; John Dunn, Political Thought of John Locke (1969); Peter Laslett, ed. Locke's Two Treatises, Introduction; James Farr, “‘So vile and miserable an estate’: The problem of slavery in Locke’s Political Thought,” Political Theory 14:263-89 (May, 1986), at jstor; Alex Tuckness, 'Punishment, Property, and the Limits of Altruism: Locke's International Asymmetry', APSR 102(4):467-79 (2008), at jstor; Mark Tunick, "John Locke and the Right to Bear Arms," History of Political Thought 35(1):50-69 (2014), online.
Burke and the French Revolution
Burke, "Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful," "Speech on Fox's East-India Bill," A Vindication of Natural Society, Letter to a Member of the National Assembly
Isaac Kramnick, The Rage of Edmund Burke, Portrait of an Ambivalent Conservative (psychobiography) (1979); C.B. Macpherson, Burke (1980); Michael McConnell, "Establishment and Toleration in Edmund Burke's 'Constitution of Freedom'", Supreme Court Review 1995:393-462 (1995); Peter Stanlis, Edmund Burke: The Enlightenment and Revolution (1991)
Hegel
Hegel, Early Theological Writings, Natural Law, Propaedeutik, Philosophy of History, Philosophy of Mind (Vol. 3 of the Encylopaedie), Phenomenology of Spirit, Political Writings (especially the essays "The German Constitution" and "The English Reform Bill"); Shlomo Avineri, Hegel's Theory of the Modern State; Hugh Reyburn, The Ethical Theory of Hegel (1921); Steven B. Smith, Hegel's Critique of Liberalism (1989); Mark Tunick, Hegel's Political Philosophy (1992); Tunick, "Are there Natural Rights?--Hegel's Break with Kant," in Collins, ed. Hegel and the Modern World (1994); Tunick, "Hegel's Justification of Hereditary Monarchy," History of Political Thought, vol. 12, no. 3 (1991), available online; Tunick, "Hegel on Justified Disobedience," Political Theory 26:514-535 (August 1998), available online at jstor; Tunick, "Hegel's Claim about Democracy and his Philosophy of History," in Dudley, ed. Hegel and History (2009); Tunick, "Hegel and the Consecrated State," in Hegel on Religion and Politics, ed. Angelica Nuzzo (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2013).
Marx, Marxism, and Left Hegelianism
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, Capital; Shlomo Avineri, The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx; Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx; Terrell Carver, Engels (1981); Engels, Origin of Family, Private Property, and the State; Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity; Lawrence Stepelevich, ed. The Young Hegelians: An Anthology (1983); Thomas Piketty, Capital in the 21st Century (Harvard University Press, 2014), online

Additional notes:
Attendance Policy: Students are expected to attend all of their scheduled University classes and to satisfy all academic objectives as outlined by the instructor. The effect of absences upon grades is determined by the instructor, and the University reserves the right to deal at any time with individual cases of non-attendance. Students are responsible for arranging to make up work missed because of legitimate class absence, such as illness, family emergencies, military obligation, court-imposed legal obligations or participation in University-approved activities. Examples of University-approved reasons for absences include participating on an athletic or scholastic team, musical and theatrical performances and debate activities. It is the student’s responsibility to give the instructor notice prior to any anticipated absences and within a reasonable amount of time after an unanticipated absence, ordinarily by the next scheduled class meeting. Instructors must allow each student who is absent for a University-approved reason the opportunity to make up work missed without any reduction in the student’s final course grade as a direct result of such absence.

Policy on Accommodations In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), students who require reasonable accommodations due to a disability to properly execute coursework must register with Student Accessibility Services (SAS) and follow all SAS procedures. SAS has offices across three of FAU’s campuses -- Boca Raton, SU 131 (561-297-3880); in Davie, LA 131 (954-236-1222); in Jupiter and all Northern Campuses, SR 111F (561-799-8585). Disability services are available for students on all campuses. For more information, please visit SAS website at www.fau.edu/sas/.

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) Center Life as a university student can be challenging physically, mentally and emotionally. Students who find stress negatively affecting their ability to achieve academic or personal goals may wish to consider utilizing FAU’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) Center. CAPS provides FAU students a range of services – individual counseling, support meetings, and psychiatric services, to name a few – offered to help improve and maintain emotional well-being. For more information, go to http://www.fau,edu/counseling/

Academic Integrity Policy: Students at Florida Atlantic University are expected to maintain the highest ethical standards. Academic dishonesty is considered a serious breach of these ethical standards, because it interferes with the university mission to provide a high quality education in which no student enjoys an unfair advantage over any other. Academic dishonesty is also destructive of the university community, which is grounded in a system of mutual trust and places high value on personal integrity and individual responsibility. Harsh penalties are associated with academic dishonesty. For more information, see University Regulation 4.001 and http://www.fau.edu/divdept/honcol/students/honorcode.html

Classroom Etiquette Policy: In order to enhance and maintain a productive atmosphere for education, personal communication devices, such as cellular telephones and pagers, are to be disabled in class sessions.

Policy on Recording in Class The Honors College of FAU prohibits the audio and/or video recording of class lectures and discussions without the express permission of the instructor. Students who record class lectures or discussions without express permission may be subject to disciplinary action under the FAU Student Code of Conduct, Regulation 4.007; the FAU Code of Academic Integrity, Regulation 4.001; or the Honors College Honor Code. Unless otherwise expressly permitted by the instructor, permission to record class lectures or discussions applies exclusively to the individual student who receives such permission from the instructor whose class is to be recorded. In no case shall recording occur without notice to all students in the class that the lecture and discussions may be recorded. The recording may not be replicated, accessed, utilized by, or made available to any other student or individual without the permission of the instructor. Students who request recording of class lectures or discussions under the Americans with Disabilities Act must contact Student Accessibility Services to obtain such permission or accommodation, and must otherwise comply with the requirements of SAS. Information for the SAS is available at http://www.fau.edu/sas/. This policy remains subject to existing policies, procedures, and regulations of FAU, all of which shall continue to apply. This policy is not intended to address recordings or videos taken by faculty or FAU officials.

updated 8-20-18