Philosophy 201, Term 2, Semester 1: Political Philosophy (Liberalism and Libertarian Communitarianism)

Room: MTB 316 (280 on the new system)
Email: collierj@ukzn.ac.za
Phone: 260-3248
Office Hours: Monday after class, or by appointment (catch me before or after class) I am usually in my office all day when I am not in class..

Course Outline (rough guide)

The main topics for the course will be contemporary libralism and libertarian communitarianism. Both these topics cover a number of different variations. We will look at classical liberalism as put forth by J.S. Mill (which some of you will aready have studied), some variants on liberalism, and John Rawls' A Theory of Justice for a form of liberalism that comes close to satisfying the motivations for libertarian communitarianism. Libertarian communitarian comes under various names, such as anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, libertarian socialism, and, more recently, ecological communitarianism. Whereas Liberalism is the dominant political model in the Western world (and more and more so in other countries), libertarian communitarianism has never been put into effect, except for a brief period in Spain at thte beginning of the Spanish Civil War, and on a smaller scale in some parts of nations (Kerala, India), and on a more local scale. We will look at Kropotkin, Rober Paul Wolff, Murray Bookchin, Noam Chomsky, and various other sources, both supportive and critical.

Most of the readings on Liberalism are in the text, Steven M. Kahn (ed), Political Philosophy: The Essential Texts, OUP 2005. These include:
Mill, On Liberty (also on the course CD)
Rawls, A Theory of Justice
Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia
Nussbaum, The Feminist Critique of Liberalism

I will post a few other readings as we go along.

The first assignment can be found here. It is due May 7, 2008.
The second assignment can be found here. It is due May 23, 2008.

Week 1-2: Mill, Contemporary Liberalism

Read Mill, On Liberty. Here are some Notes on Mill. They may help your revisions.
Thursday we will cover an article on Liberalism in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. You will find it here. This article is also a good source for background readings and further research.
Friday I will give a lecture on the anarchist critique of liberalism. I'll try to find a suitable text before then.

Background reading on liberalism: On your CD you will find two papers by Glaston on liberalism that will be very helpful in understanding the nature of contemporary liberalism. Sandel Proc Rep.pdf gives some less useful background on liberal ideals. Walzer Lib and Sep.pdf discusses the importance of separation for liberalism. This idea is the most basic difference from that of communitarianism. You may find these papers useful for your assignments.

Week 3-4: Rawls, Nozick, Nussbaum
After Mill, we will do selections from John Rawls, A Theory of Justice. My notes can be found here.
That will be followed with Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia. Nozick notes are here.

And then Nussbaum, The Feminist Critique of Liberalism. My notes on Nussbaum are here.

Supplementary readings:
Toward a General Theory of Anarchafeminism, Howard J. Ehrlich, Social Anarchism, 19, 26 Dec 2005.
Anarchism, Feminism and the Individual, Colin Wright, Social Anarchism, 19, 26 Dec 2005.

Week 5 Introduction to Anarchism, Communitarianism

Peter Kropotkin, Anarchism, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910.

Robert Paul Wollf, In Defence of Anarchism. (New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1976). Part One is the part we will study in detail.

    "The work that has done most to retard meaningful analysis and criticism of the anarchist position is Wolffs In Defense of Anarchism." John     P. Clark (reference just below).
Noam Chomsky, Notes on Anarchism, from For Reasons of State, 1970.

Supplementary readings:
Peter Kropotkin, Anarchism: Its Philosophy and ldeal. San Francisco: Free Society, 1898.
Anarchism and the Question of Human Nature, Thomas Martin, Social Anarchism, 37, 28 Jun 2006. (Recent return to Kropotkin's ideas)
John P. Clark, "What Is Anarchism?" in J. Roland Pennock, & John W. Chapman, eds., Anarchism: Nomos XIX. New York: New York           University Press, 1978. (A good elementary account that tries to clear up misconceptions and avoids oversimplifying.)

George Woodcock, "Anarchism," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1967.
Harry Frankfurt, The Anarchism of Robert Paul Wolff, Political Theory, Vol. 1, No. 4, November 1973, pp. 405-414.

Here are my notes on the anarchist critique of liberalism and the central ideas of anarchism.
Here are might notes on Wolff on autonomy and legitimacy.

Week 6 Applications of Anarchism: community and ecology

Gandhi in South Africa, Andrew Nash, UKZN.

Murray Bookchin,What Is Social Ecology?,  originally in Environmental Philosophy: From Animal Rights to Radical Ecology, edited by         M.E. Zimmerman, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993.
Supplementary readings:

Murray Bookchin, Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm. 1995.

Assignments:
2 short papers (1250-2000 words)of equal value for the term work. Assignment 1 is on Rawls, and can be found here. It is due on May 7, 2008. Assignment 2 is on Robert Paul Wolff, and can be found here. It is due on May 23, 2008.