International Summer School 2012 IS178: Politics in Thought and Action Tutor: Thomas Akehurst T.Akehurst@sussex.ac.

uk
Course overview
Is violence an inevitable part of politics? Should animals be granted rights? Do we have a duty to protect the environment? Is liberalism fundamentally opposed to religion? This course examines contemporary political issues by combining close reading of political theory and the study of concrete case studies. Students will be encouraged to debate and critically analyse their own beliefs and values. We will also investigate how political ideas live in historical contexts, being formed by, and shaping, political realities. The course will enhance students analytic skills and develop their abilities to create and sustain a reasoned argument. Week 1 Political Philosophy This week we look at the practice of political philosophy, how it can be done so that it engages with the real world. We discuss the politics of the classroom: how the academy is not a neutral political space, but one in which certain relationships of power are played out, and we look at two concrete case studies of how philosophy can be politically driven: the distortion of American philosophy by McCarthyism, and the influence of nationalist assumptions on the apparently politically aloof practice of British philosophy. Week 2 Democracy, Representation Crisis! In this unit we examine the idea of democracy in the early twenty-first century particularly at the idea of representative democracy as practiced in countries like Britain and the USA. We look at the tensions between democracy and elitism, and at representative democracy as method of securing elite control. Do we trust the people? Is modern democracy government by the people at all? Week 3 Nature and Politics This week we look at the politics of nature should animals be granted legal rights equivalent to human rights? Can the systematic internment and slaughter of millions of higher mammals be justified? We also examine how the boundaries between the human and natural worlds might be rethought allowing us to contemplate the possibility of including not just animals, but the environment, in a more inclusive democracy. Week 4 Violence and Politics This final week looks at the relationship between violence and politics and focuses around two rival views of the place of violence in the political world, represented by Hannah Arendt and Franz Fanon. We will also examine case study material from recent history, in order to gain a more

detailed understanding of how violence has informed, guided, or hindered, political processes.

Teaching methods There will be one 2-hour lecture and two 2-hour seminars per week throughout the course. Learning outcomes By the end of the course students will be able to: Engage in political and political philosophical debates on representation, the environment and violence and politics Critically evaluate political and political philosophical arguments Develop their own well-founded perspectives on the themes of the course Research in depth a subject of their selection Participate constructively in democratic dialogue about topics of major political importance

Indicative Reading List

Week 1 Political Philosophy Lecture Class: Introductory Seminar 1: Doing political philosophy in the real world Raymond Geuss Philosophy and Real Politics (Princeton, 2008), Introduction and pp37-55 [course reader] bell hooks Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (Routledge, 1994) Chapter 3 Embracing Change: teaching in a multicultural world [course reader]. Seminar 2: The Politics of Philosophy John McCumber Time in the Ditch: American Philosophy in the McCarthy Era (Northwestern University Press, 2001) Introduction and Chapter 1 Philosophys Family Secret [course reader]. Thomas Akehurst British Analytic Philosophy: the politics of an apolitical culture History of Political Thought Vol. XXX. No. 4. Winter 2009 [available via the University of Sussex Electronic Library: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/electronic]. Week 2 Democracy, Representation Crisis! In this unit we examine the idea of democracy in the early twenty-first century particularly at the idea of representative democracy as practiced in countries like Britain and the USA. We look at the tensions between democracy and elitism, and at representative democracy as method of securing elite control. Do we trust the people? Is modern democracy government by the people at all? Lecture Class The idea of democracy Seminar 2 Theoretical Pillars of representative democracy: elitism and fear of the masses.

James Madison The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection The Federalist Papers no. 10 1787 [available on the Internet at http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fed_10.html]. Edmund Burke Speech to the Electors of Bristol 1774 [available on the Internet at: http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch13s7.html]. Joseph Schumpeter Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, (Routledge 1994 [1942]). Chapters 21 The Classical Doctrine of Democracy and 22 Another Theory of Democracy [Copies available in the library. Also available electronically via the University of Sussex library catalogue]. Seminar 3 Crisis of representation? Case study: American democracy Sheldon Wolin Democracy Incorporated : Managed Democracy and the Spectre of Inverted Totalitarianism (Princeton University Press, 2008) Chapter 8 The Politics of Superpower: Managed Democracy Chapter 10, Domestic Politics in the Era of Superpower and Empire [available electronically via the University of Sussex library catalogue]. Week 3 Nature and Politics This week we look at the politics of nature should animals be granted legal rights equivalent to human rights? Can the systematic internment and slaughter of millions of higher mammals be justified? We also examine how the boundaries between the human and natural worlds might be rethought allowing us to contemplate the possibility of including not just animals, but the environment, in a more inclusive democracy. Lecture Class Boundaries of Politics: can nature be political? Seminar 1: Animals and Politics Peter Singer All Animals are Equal in Singer and Regan eds Animal Rights and Human Obligations (Prentice Hall 1989) [course reader]. Lawrence C. Becker The Priority of Human Interests Animal Rights and Human Obligations [course reader]. Tom Regan The case for Animal Rights in Animal Rights and Human Obligations [course reader]. R.G. Frey "The Case against Animal Rights in Animal Rights and Human Obligations [course reader]. Martha C. Nussbaum Beyond Compassion and Humanity: Justice for Nonhuman Animals Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions ed Cass R. Sunstein, Martha C. Nussbaum (OUP, 2004) [course reader]. Julian Baggini You wont find Chimps having this debate The Guardian (2006) [Available on the internet at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/jun/13/animalwelfare.world]. Seminar 2: Bringing the environment into politics Latour, Bruno Politics of Nature (Harvard University Press, 2004) 57-90 [course reader]. Week 4 Violence and Politics Lecture Class Politics and Violence the role of the state

Seminar 1 Violence and Politics: Two perspectives Hannah Arendt On Violence (Harcourt Publishers 1970) 35-87 [course reader]. Frantz Fanon The Wretched of the Earth (Penguin, 1990 [1963]) 27-84 [course reader]. Seminar 2 Case studies Materials will be provided by the instructor. Additional Reading by week Week 1 Akehurst, T.L. The Cultural Politics of Analytic Philosophy: Britishness and the Spectre of Europe (2010) Amadae, S. M. Rationalizing capitalist democracy (2003) Babich, Babette Hey! Can't you smile! Women and status in philosophy. Radical Philosophy, no. 160, pp. 36-38, Mar 2010-Apr 2010 De-Shalit, Avner, Political Philosophy and Empowering Citizens, Political Studies 52:4 (2004), 802-818. Glendenning, Simon The Idea of Continental Philosophy (2006) Graham, Gordon, Practical Politics and Philosophical Inquiry, The Philosophical Quarterly 28 (1978), 234-241. Meyers, Diana T Feminist social thought: a reader (1997) Re, Jonathan, Michael Ayers, and Adam Westoby. Philosophy and Its Past 1978. Re, Jonathan. Philosophical Tales 1987 Reisch, George How the Cold War Transformed Philosophy of Science: To the icy slopes of logic (2005) Reuben, Julie A. The making of the modern university: intellectual transformation and the marginalization of morality (1996) Rorty, Richard, J.B. Schneewind, and Quentin Skinner, eds. Philosophy in History: Essay on the Historiography of Philosophy 1984 Week 2 Dahl, Robert A Democracy and its critics (1998) Dunn, J. Getting democracy into focus, Open Democracy, 20 October 2005, http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-opening/focus_2944.jsp Dunn, J Democracy: the Unfinished Journey 508BC to AD 1993 (1992) Dunn, J Setting the People Free: the Story of Democracy (2005) Herman, Edward S, Chomsky, Noam Manufacturing consent: the political economy of the mass media (1994) Honderich, Ted After The Terror (2003) Koggel, Christine ed Moral Issues in Global Perspective (1999) Saward, Michael Democracy (2003) Saward, Michael (ed) Democratic Innovation: deliberation, representation, and association (2000) Schumpeter, Joseph A., Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, (1942) Wolff, Jonathan An Introduction to Political Philosophy Revised edition (2006) Chapter 3 Who Should Rule Week 3

Adams, Carol The sexual politics of meat : a feminist-vegetarian critical theory (2000) Armstrong, Susan, Botzler, Richard G. (eds) Animal Ethics Reader (2003) Baxter, B. 'The Concept of Ecological Justice: Objections and Replies' in A Theory of Ecological Justice (2004) Casper Bruun Jensen Review Essay: Experimenting with Political Ecology Human Studies (2006) 29: 107122 Cavalieri, Paola and Singer, Peter eds The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity (1993) Goodin, Robert Enfranchising the Earth and its Alternatives Political Studies 1996 XLIV 835-849 Koggel, Christine ed Moral Issues in Global Perspective (1999) Singer, Peter (ed) In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave (2005) Smith, M. (ed) Thinking Through the Environment: A Reader (1999) Sunstein Cass R., Nussbaum, Martha C. (eds) Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions (2004) Week 4 Besteman, Catherine Lowe Violence: a reader (2003) Erlenbusch, Verena Notes on violence: Walter Benjamins relevance for the study of terrorism Journal of Global Ethics, Vol. 6, No. 2, August 2010, 167-178. Frazer, E. and Hutchings, K. (2008) 'On politics and violence: Arendt contra Fanon' Contemporary Political Theory. vol. 7, issue. 1, pp. 90 - 108. Hobbes, Thomas Leviathan Honderich, Ted After The Terror (2003) Keane, J. Violence and Democracy, (2004) Lawrence, Bruce B, Karim, Aisha On violence: a reader (2007) Lenin, I.V. (1918) The State and Revolution http://www.marxists.org/ archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch01.htm Tronto, J. (2004) 'Frantz Fanon', Contemporary Political Theory, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 245 - 252.