Introduction to Western Political

Philosophy

POL 203
Dr. Taimur Rahman

Spring Semester 2015

Department of Humanities and Social
Sciences

LAHORE UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT

SCIENCES
 Lahore University of Management Sciences

POL 203 – Introduction to Western Political Philosophy

Instructor: Dr. Taimur Rahman

Office: Room 123, Main Academic block

E-mail: [email protected]
Office Hours: TBA

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

Introduction to Western Political Philosophy will acquaint students with some of the key ideas of
the Western political tradition, including various conceptions of human nature, reason, self-interest,
autonomy, democracy, free will, sovereignty, and the moral rights and obligations of the citizen. In
so doing, it seeks to foster students‘ ability to assess competing theoretical paradigms and to draw
upon these frameworks to critically evaluate political questions and problems in the world today.

Two 100-minute sessions per week

Open to all
Compulsory for Political Science majors

ASSESSMENT

Attendance: 10%
Midterm: 40%
Final: 50%
 COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: Introduction and Course Overview

Session 2: Lecture on the development of Political Philosophy

Week 2 : Plato

Plato. ―The Allegory of the Cave,‖ in Book VII of The Republic. G.M.A. Grube (trans.) (Hackett
Publishing Company, 1992). Also available at: http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html

Questions for discussion

What role do the metaphors of shadow and light play in Plato‘s text?
What claims does Plato make for the concept of reason?
How is reason related to the political in Plato?

Week 3: Aristotle

Aristotle. Excerpts from Politics. Pp. 59–100, in Social and Political Philosophy: Readings from
Plato to Gandhi, eds. John Somerville and Ronald Santoni (Anchor, 1963).

Questions for discussion

Who qualifies as a citizen for Aristotle?
What are the three basic types of political association identified by Aristotle?
What are the corrupted forms of each of these types?
What is the polis, according to Aristotle?
How does it differ from the household?

Week 4: Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli, Niccolo. Excerpts from The Prince. Pp. 100–26, in Social and Political Philosophy:
Readings from Plato to Gandhi, eds. John Somerville and Ronald Santoni (Anchor, 1963).

Questions for discussion

How does Machiavelli‘s account of the political differ from Plato‘s and Aristotle‘s?
How does Machiavelli‘s notion of reason differ from the claims for reason advanced by
these earlier thinkers?
What are the basic aims of politics for Machiavelli?
According to Machiavelli, where does political power reside?
What are the chief objectives of the prince in his view?

Week 5: Thomas Hobbes

Hobbes, Thomas. Excerpts from Leviathan. Pp. 139–68, in Social and Political Philosophy:
Readings from Plato to Gandhi, eds. John Somerville and Ronald Santoni (Anchor, 1963).

Questions for discussion

How Hobbes describe the state of nature?
What is the social contract for Hobbes?
How does Hobbes characterize the obligations and responsibilities of the sovereign?
How are the citizens of the social contract positioned vis-à-vis the sovereign?
 How does Hobbes‘s notion of citizenship differ from the views of Plato, Aristotle, and
Machiavelli?
Why is Hobbes considered (by some) as ―the founding father of liberalism‖?

Week 6: John Locke

Locke, John. Excerpts from The Second Treatise on Civil Government. Pp. 169–204, in Social
and Political Philosophy: Readings from Plato to Gandhi, eds. John Somerville and Ronald
Santoni (Anchor, 1963).

Questions for discussion

How does Locke‘s version of the social contract differ from Hobbes‘s?
How does Locke define natural rights?
What role does money play in Locke‘s theory?
How does Locke‘s idea of the rights and obligations of the citizen differ from that of
Hobbes?

Week 7: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Excerpts from The Social Contract. Pp. 205– 38, in Social and
Political Philosophy: Readings from Plato to Gandhi, eds. John Somerville and Ronald Santoni
(Anchor, 1963).

Questions for discussion

How does Rousseau‘s notion of the social contract differ from Locke‘s and Hobbes‘s?
What is the general will for Rousseau?
Rousseau portrays the will of a legitimate sovereign as effectively identical to
the general will of the citizens. In what sense is this account different from the theories of
Locke and Rousseau?

Week 8: Revision session & Midterm

Week 9: John Stuart Mill

Mill, John Stuart. Excerpts from On Liberty. Pp. 302–41, in Social and
Political Philosophy: Readings from Plato to Gandhi, eds. John Somerville and Ronald Santoni
(Anchor, 1963).

Questions for discussion

Why is Mill‘s thought classified as ―utilitarian‖?
How is the principle of utilitarianism related to that of equality in Mill?
On what terms does Mill criticise the principle of majority rule?

Week 10: Immanuel Kant

Kant, Immanuel. ―An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?‖ in Perpetual Peace
and Other Essays, ed. Ted Humphrey (Hackett Publishing Company, 1983.

―Perpetual Peace,‖ in Perpetual Peace and Other Essays, ed. Ted Humphrey (Hackett
Publishing Company, 1983).
 Questions for discussion
How does Kant distinguish between the public and the private use of reason?
What does Kant mean when he claims that enlightenment is ―man‘s emergence from self-
imposed immaturity‖? Which institutions, beliefs, and practices is he directly challenging?
Of the accounts human reason that we have examined so far, which are closest to Kant‘s?
Which are most at odds with it?
For Kant, why is the nation-state at risk if it imposes no conditions on those attempting to
enter its borders?

Week 11: G.W.F. Hegel

Hegel, G.W.F. ―Independence and Dependence of Self-Consciousness: Lordship and

Bondage,‖ in The Phenomenology of Mind, trans. J.B. Baillie (Harper & Row, 1967).
Supplementary reading

―Enlightenment,‖ in The Phenomenology of Mind, trans. J.B. Baillie (Harper & Row, 1967).

Questions for discussion

Hegel, history is assumed to operate ―behind people‘s backs.‖ What is meant by this
claim?
What does Hegel see as the telos (or goal) of Reason?
As described by Hegel, what is the relationship between master and slave?
Why is this relationship a ―dialectical‖ one?
What process is Hegel attempting to elucidate with his famous term Aufhebung?

Week 12: Karl Marx

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party, in The Marx-Engels
Reader, ed. Robert C. Tucker (W.W. Norton, 1978).

Questions for discussion

In what sense is Marx‘s analysis an extension of Hegel‘s?
How does he depart from Hegel?
How does Marx critique the liberal notion of rights?
What is alienation for Marx?
According to Marx, why is the process of production key to understanding the organization
and history of human society?
How does Marx define class?
Why does Marx believe that capitalism will be overthrown by the working class?
How does Marx‘s concept of the political differ from those that we have examined thus far?

Week 13-14: Revisions & Finals

 The Republic

By Plato

Written 360 B.C.E

Translated by Benjamin Jowett

Table of Contents

Book VII

Socrates - GLAUCON

And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: -
-Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the
light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their
legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being
prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is
blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you
will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players
have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

I see.
And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues
and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the
wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.

You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.
Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one
another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?

True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to
move their heads?

And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?

Yes, he said.
And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were
naming what was actually before them?

Very true.
And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they
not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came
from the passing shadow?

No question, he replied.
To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

That is certain.
And now look again, and see what will naturally follow it' the prisoners are released and
disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to
stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp
pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his
former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what
he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his
eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will be his reply?
And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and
requiring him to name them, -will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows
which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?

Far truer.
And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which
will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which
he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?

True, he now
And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held
fast until he 's forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and
irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to
see anything at all of what are now called realities.

Not all in a moment, he said.

He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the
shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects
themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled
heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the
sun by day?

Certainly.
Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will
see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.
 Lahore University of Management Sciences
POL 102 – Introduction to Western Political Philosophy
SSULQJ 201

Instructor: Dr. Richard Ganis

Office: Room 318, PDC Building
E-mail: [email protected]
Office Hours: TTH -2pm

Format for Lectures: Four 100-minute sessions per week

Prerequisites: Open to all; compulsory for Political Science majors
Course Level: 100

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

Introduction to Western Political Philosophy will acquaint students with some of the
key ideas of the Western political tradition, including various conceptions of human
nature, reason, self-interest, autonomy, democracy, free will, sovereignty, and the
moral rights and obligations of the citizen. In so doing, it seeks to foster students‘
ability to assess competing theoretical paradigms and to draw upon these
frameworks to critically evaluate political questions and problems in the world today.

ASSESSMENT

Attendance: 5%
Class Participation: 10%
Two 1–2 page reading summaries (in-class, unannounced):* 15%
Midterm examination: 30%
Final take-home paper: 40%

————
*Three unannounced reading summaries will be given. Your two highest marks will count
toward your final grade; your lowest score will be thrown out. In each summary, you will be
asked to provide a brief (at least one page, but not more than two) précis of the key terms
and concepts set forth in the reading assigned for that session. You will not be asked to
summarize material from previous or future sessions

GRADE SCALE

98-100: A+
93-97: A An ―absolute‖ grading system will be used: the
90-92: A- mark I assign is the mark you receive,
87-89: B+ regardless of how your classmates perform on
83-86: B their assessments.
80-82: B-
77-79: C+
73-76: C
70-72: C-
60-69: D
59 and below: F