Modern Political Thought Political Science 232 Course Syllabus Fall 2006

Professor: Catherine Lu Email: catherine.lu@mcgill.ca Phone: 514-398-4817 Office Hours: Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 2:30-4 pm, at 3465 Peel Street, Room 304, or by appointment. Important Course Schedule Information: Course lectures: 10:05-11:25 am Tuesdays and Thursdays, Adams Auditorium. Starting the week of September 18, course lectures will be shortened to one hour, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, running from 10:05-11:00 am. Exception: Midterm, Thursday, November 9 will take the entire 80 minutes (10:0511:25 am). Course conferences: Mandatory one-hour conferences (at various times, please sign up on Minerva) will start the week of September 18. The conference discussion schedule is at the end of this syllabus. Course Description: This is an introductory course to themes in contemporary political thought, specifically the themes of liberty, equality and community as they have developed in the twentieth century. Works of leading modern and contemporary theorists such as Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, Isaiah Berlin, John Rawls and Charles Taylor will illuminate philosophical contestations in the development of contemporary political theory. Students will gain an understanding of the historical and philosophical development of liberalism, socialism, communitarianism, feminism, and multiculturalism. Required Texts: Course pack available at the McGill Bookstore. George Orwell, Nineteen-Eighty-Four (Penguin, 1948), available at Paragraphe Bookstore at 2020 McGill College Ave. Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto (Penguin, 1848), available at Paragraph Bookstore at 2020 McGill College Ave. Free versions are also available on the internet. Assignments: 1. 1 short paper (1300-1500 words, due Oct. 12). Further instructions will be provided. 2. Course midterm (80 minutes, Nov. 9). 3. Conferences (10 weeks starting the week of Sept. 18). 4. Final Exam (to be scheduled in the final exam period).

Grade Distribution: 1 short paper Midterm Conferences Final Exam Policies:

30% 30% 10% 30%

1. Please ensure that you have done the readings by the beginning of the week in which they will be discussed. 2. The short paper topics and instructions will be distributed on September 14. Late policy: the short paper will be penalized 2/3 of a letter grade per day late. For example, if your paper was worth an A, but was one day late, you would receive a B+ instead. If your paper was worth a B, but was two days late, it would receive D. This policy does not apply if you are seriously ill or distracted by a serious emergency, but in the event of such circumstances it is your responsibility to inform me in person before the assignment is due so that we can make other arrangements. Being ill one for or two days before the paper is due, however, will NOT be a sufficient reason to waive the entire late penalty. These assignments should be submitted to me before the start of the lecture on the due date, but can also be submitted at the Political Science Department Office (Leacock 414), where the date of the stamp the office provides (along with verifying signature) will be considered the date of submission. (Papers submitted to the Political Science Department Office on the due date will not be date-stamped. Only late papers will be date-stamped.) 2. The course midterm will take up the entire 80 minutes of the course lecture period on Thursday, November 9. Further instruction will be provided. If you are absent for emergency medical or family reasons, an alternative assignment will be arranged. The alternative arrangement is only open to those who can provide a valid medical/family reason for missing the midterm. If you cannot provide a valid reason for your absence, you will receive a 0 for the missed midterm. 3. You may submit written work in either English or French. 4. Teaching Assistants. Teaching assistants will lead the conferences, and do most of the grading of your assignments and final exam. To assist you, they will also hold regularly weekly office hours. 5. Process of grade appeal on assignments. You must submit your paper to me or my mailbox in Leacock 414, with a one-page note explaining why you think you deserve a higher grade. The head Teaching Assistant will then re-grade your paper. If you are still unsatisfied after the re-assessment, you can re-submit the assignment to me (original copy with TA comments), along with the one-page note. I will then re-evaluate the paper, but reserve the right to raise or lower the grade, and my decision is final.

6. Academic Integrity. McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the code of student conduct and disciplinary procedures. For the Facultys policies vis--vis suspected plagiarism cases, please see www.mcgill.ca/integrity.

Course lecture and reading schedule Sept 5 I. Introduction A short history of the twentieth century Themes of the twentieth century: Oppression, Inequality, and War Sept 7 II. Liberty Politics, Language and Freedom George Orwell, Politics and the English Language, in his Inside the Whale and Other Essays. Toronto: Penguin Books, [1946], pp. 143-157. Sept 12, 14 Freedom and other course themes in Orwells 1984 George Orwell, Nineteen-Eighty-Four, Penguin [1948] NOT IN COURSE READING PACKAGE.

Sept 14 Distribution of short paper topics and discussion of essay writing Week of Sept 18 CONFERENCES BEGIN As of this week, course lectures will be shortened to one-hour lectures, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 10:05-11:00 am. Sept 19, 21 The Liberalism of Fear Judith Shklar, The Liberalism of Fear, in Nancy L. Rosenblum, ed. Liberalism and the Moral Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 21-38. Alan Ryan, Liberalism in R. Goodin and P. Pettit ed., A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001, p. 291-311. Sept 26, 28 Positive and Negative Liberty Berlin, Isaiah. Two Concepts of Liberty, in his Four Essays on Liberty. London: Oxford University Press, 1969 [1958].

Oct 3 and 5 III. Equality Equal Respect, Equal Opportunity and Equal Condition Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron, in his Welcome to the Monkey House. New York: Dell, 1968, pp. 7-14. Bernard Williams, The idea of equality, in Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Anthology. Goodin and Pettit eds. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997, pp. 465-475. [Originally published 1973.] Richard Arneson, Equality, in A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, R. Goodin and P. Pettit eds., Oxford: Blackwell, 1993, pp. 489-507. Week of October 10 NO CONFERENCES THIS WEEK October 10 OCT 12 CLASSES CANCELLED DUE TO HOLIDAY SHORT PAPER DUE

October 12, 17 Communism Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto [1848] NOT IN COURSE READING PACKAGE. Marx, Estranged Labor from his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in The Marx-Engels Reader, Robert C. Tucker ed., 2nd edn. New York, W.W. Norton, 1978, pp. 70-93. Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx: His Life and Environment. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978, Chapter 6 on Historical Materialism, pp. 89-116. October 19 Social Groups and the Politics of Oppression Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2001, pp. 193-221. Iris Marion Young, Five Faces of Oppression, Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990, pp. 39-65. October 24, 26, 31 Justice as Fairness J.S. Mill, Utilitarianism [1863], in Utilitarianism, On Liberty, Essay on Bentham, ed. Mary Warnock. New York: Penguin/Meridian, 1962, pp. 256-278, pp. 296321. John Rawls, Justice as Fairness, in Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Anthology, Goodin and Pettit eds. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997, pp. 187-202. [Originally published 1958.] John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: Political Not Metaphysical, Philosophy and Public Affairs 14, 3 (1985). Will Kymlicka, Liberal Equality, in his Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 53-101. 4

November 2, 7 Feminism and the Public/Private Distinction Susan Moller Okin, Justice, Gender and the Family (U.S.: Basic Books, 1989), chapters 5 and 6, pp. 89-133. Carole Pateman, Feminist Critiques of the Public/Private Distinction, The Disorder of Women, Stanford University Press, 1989, pp. 118-140. November 9 COURSE MIDTERM (full 80 minutes 10:05-11:25 am) November 14, 16 IV. Community Communitarianism, Patriotism and other Loyalties Alasdair MacIntyre, Is Patriotism a Virtue? In Ronald Beiner ed. Theorizing Citizenship. (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995), pp. 209228. [Originally published 1984.] Simon Keller, Patriotism as Bad Faith, Ethics 115, 3 (April 2005), pp. 563-592. November 21, 23 Liberal Justice and Minority Rights Kymlicka, Will. Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995, Chapters 2 and 6, pp. 10-33, 196-202, 107-130, 219-224. November 28, 30 Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition Taylor, Charles. The Politics of Recognition, in Charles Taylor, Philosophical Arguments (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995). Dec 5 REVIEW SESSION

CONFERENCE DISCUSSION SCHEDULE Week of Sept 18 Sept 25 Oct 2 Oct 9 Oct 16 Oct 23 Oct 30 Nov 6 Nov 13 Nov 20 Nov 27 Introduction, Orwell (1946 and 1948) and Shklar (1989) Berlin (1958) Williams (1973) and Arneson (1993) NO CONFERENCES THIS WEEK Marx (all) and Young (1990) Mill (1863) and Rawls (1958) Rawls (1985) and Kymlicka (2002) Okin (1989) and Pateman (1989) MacIntyre (1984) and Keller (2005) Kymlicka (1995) Taylor (1995)