POLS 326, Spring 2011

Reading Schedule  (revised as of 4/2/11) (Refer to the assignments page for reading questions and writing assignments.)

 

Tuesday

Thursday

Feb. 8—Introduction, Syllabus.

Feb 10— What is political theory?  (I)  Start with Rights.  Nussbaum, Introduction. 

Feb 15— What is political theory? (II) Wolin, Chapter One.  

Feb 17— What is political theory? (III)  Selections from E.J. Meehan, Reasoned Argument in Social Science. 

Feb 22— Seeing Justice.  Nussbaum, Chapter One.

Feb 24— Liberalism and Justice.  Nussbaum, Chapter Two.

Mar 1—  Linda Barclay, ÒWhat kind of liberal is Martha Nussbaum?Ó, SATS-Nordic Journal of Philosophy Vol. 4, No. 2, 2003, pp. 5-24.

Mar 3— Wolin, Chapter Nine.  Liberalism and the Decline of Political Philosophy.

Mar 8— Considering Religion.  Nussbaum, Chapter Three.   

Mar 10— Looking back at religion in Western political theory: Wolin, Chapters Four and Five.  

Mar 15—  Same topic, cont.  Wolin, Chapter Six. 

Mar 17— Further into values, community, and politics.  Wolin, Chapter Ten. 

Mar 22— Contemporary complications (I).  Wolin, Chapter Eleven.

Mar 24— Contemporary complications (II).  Wolin, Chapter Twelve.  (Marx)

Mar 29— Turn in short paper II, discussion of where we are in Nussbaum and Wolin. 

Mar 31— Contemporary complications (III).  Wolin, Chapter Thirteen.  (Nietzsche)

Apr 5—Spring Break.

Apr 7—Spring Break.

Apr 12— Contemporary complications (IV).  Wolin, Chapter Fourteen. (Liberalism and Rationalism)  

Apr 14— Limiting the (democratic) state: Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, condensed version; Wolin, Chapter Fifteen.      

Apr 19— Economic Considerations (I).  Nussbaum, Chapter Fourteen; Wolin, Chapter Sixteen.

Apr 21— Economic Considerations (II & III).  Nussbaum, Chapter Eleven.  Also, Samual Freeman, ÒA New Theory of Justice,Ó The New York Review of Books, October 14, 2010.  (A review of A. SenÕs The Idea of Justice)

Apr 26— The case of lesbian and gay rights.  Nussbaum, Chapter Seven.  

Apr 28— Judging the Other.  Nussbaum, Chapter Four.

May 3—  Some Complications—when basic categories are constructed.  Nussbaum, Chapter Ten.

May 5— Democratic possibilities.  Wolin, Chapter Seventeen.

May 10— Justice in Developed Countries. Nussbaum, Chapter Five.

May 12— A claim about method.  Nussbaum, Chapter Nine, and Sakai reading.  

May 17— Summing up. 

May 19— Exam preparation. 

Final Examination Period:  Thursday, May 26, 1-2:50p.m.