Fall 2013 Office Hours: MW 8:30-9:30 & by appointment

Prof. S.A. Lloyd MHP 205c Email: lloyd@usc.edu

CORE 104: Change and the Future

For millennia, human societies have been forged through institutions of political authority, law, and religion. These institutions evolve, reform, collapse and reemerge. Democracy is as new as the Arab Spring and as old as ancient Greece, while theocracies and authoritarian regimes exist in our century again as they did in humanitys distant past. Religious fundamentalisms and codes of law are resurging today even while secular systems of international law are expanding. This course provides a conceptual foundation for understanding and assessing systems of political, legal, and religious authority. Through study of some major works in Western philosophy, social theory, and literature, we will address such questions as What justifies some having political authority over others? How does technological advance raise new problems in containing institutional control of individuals? How are conflicts between personal conscience and religious authority, or between religious and secular authorities, to be resolved? What justifies private ownership of resources that everyone needs? Is the authority of law due to human convention, to its connection to morality, or to an origin in divine command? Does human nature require government? How should we deal with unjust or oppressive regimes? Addressing these normative questions concerning the moral justification of our institutions and what values are worth promoting requires more than an empirical investigation of how various institutions actually operate. Rather than learning science, we will be doing philosophy, with the help of playwrights and novelists.

Required Readings
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. Plato, Apology. John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism and On Liberty. Sophocles, Antigone. Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan. Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South. Short excerpts from works by Robert Paul Wolff, Aquinas, Augustine, Machiavelli, Karl Marx, and John Rawls will be provided on Blackboard.

Requirements
Midterm Exam, September 25 (15%) Paper 1, due October 23 (20%) Paper 2, due November 20 (20%) Final Exam, December 16, 8-10 a.m. (30%) Consistent, informed and constructive participation in both class and section (15%)

Provisional Schedule of Topics and Readings

Week 1: The scope and limits of legitimate political authority Sophocles, Antigone Week 2: Civil disobedience and conscientious refusal Plato, Apology Rawls, conscientious refusal (BB) Week 3: The anarchist challenge Wolff, excerpt from In Defense of Anarchism (BB) Kavka, Why Even Morally Perfect People Would Need Government (BB) Weeks 4 & 5: Hobbes on the justification and scope of political authority; Midterm exam Hobbes, Leviathan Intro and chapters 12-15, 17-18, 21, 29-32, 43, Review & Conclusion. Entry on Hobbess moral and political philosophy in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Plato.stanford.edu. Week 6: Religious authority, the state, and the individual Shaw, Saint Joan Aquinas, excerpts (BB) Augustine, excerpts (BB) Week 7: Aristotles secular conception of virtue as the end of government Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Books I, II, III, IV, VI, VII, VIII, X. Week 8: Uses of religion to instill virtue and to stabilize social order Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, pp. 1-76 Machiavelli, excerpts (BB) Rousseau, The Social Contract, Book IV, chapter 8 Mill, On the Utility of Religion Week 9: Locke on limited government and the justification of private property Locke, Second Treatise of Government, chapters I-IX, XI, XII, XIV, XV, XVIII, XIX begin Gaskell, North and South

Week 10: Critiques of Lockean consent theory Hume, Of The Original Contract and Of Government (BB) Marx, excerpts (BB) complete Gaskell, North and South Week 11: Meritocracy The Meritocracy Myth (BB) A Living Inheritance (BB) Atwood, Oryx and Crake Week 12: Equality of Opportunity Rawls, excerpts (BB) Dworkin, Why Liberals Should Care About Equality (BB) Weeks 13 & 14: Mills Utilitarian justification of government and its limits Mill, Utilitarianism, chapters I, II, V Mill, On Liberty, chapters I, III, IV Week 15: Possible Futures: How should we shape society? Discuss Oryx and Crake; course review and final exam preparation

COURSE POLICIES No recording or streaming of lectures is permitted. Internet posting of course materials is prohibited. Please turn off your cell phones during class. U.S.C.s academic integrity standards will be strictly enforced for all assignments in this course. Please be sure to observe all quotation and citation conventions. All written work must be yours alone. Please consult your Scampus guidebook to inform yourself of the details of these standards, and bring to me or your T.A. any questions or uncertainties you may have as to what they require. Any academic integrity violation will result in an F for the course. No late papers will be accepted, but you may turn in any of your papers prior to the due date if you wish. There will be no make-up exams, so be sure to mark exam dates on your calendar. No passing grade will be assigned to any student who has not taken the final exam.
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776