Course: Introduction to Political Philosophy

Topic outline

Introduction
Weekly classes: Thursdays 2 p.m. via Zoom:

https://cuni-cz.zoom.us/j/98287339128

Meeting ID: 982 8733 9128
- Oznámení Forum
Final test exam
20 May - 2 p.m. (CET)

15 June - 12 a.m. (CET)

Dear students,
you will receive 4 randomly generated problems in the online test. You have a total of 30 minutes to answer them. Answers should be relatively comprehensive, broad, well-structured, consistent and based on your own reading and thinking about the issues. It should definitely be a coherent interpretation, not just a collection of quotations or even incomplete sentences. I believe that all those who have attended the class and read all the required readings will pass the exam. I wish you the best of luck.
- Final Test - 20 May Quiz
- Final Test - 15 June - 12 a.m. Quiz
What is Political Philosophy?
Mandatory:
Leo Strauss: What is Political Philosophy (pgs. 343-368)

Recommended:

Sheldon Wolin: Politics and Vision, ch. 1. (pgs. 3-26)

Max Weber: Science as a Vocation (pgs. 1-31)

Check questions:

Why Strauss criticizes Weber's idea of value-free social science?

What's the difference between political philosophy (political theory) and political science?

What one can get from reading classical authors of political philosophy?
In search of a balanced order (Aristotle's concept of "polity")
Mandatory reading:

Aristotle: Politics, Book III, chapters 6-18.

Recommended reading:

Mulgan, Richard G., Aristotle's Political Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.

Check question:

What's the trouble with democracy?

Why a multitude of people can come to better results than an assembly of a few virtuous experts?

What holds a city together? What's distinctive for a city in comparison to other types of association?

What is the law?

Why the rule of one virtuous king might not always be the best option?
- Aristotle's Politics File
Justice I
Mandatory: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Book V, pgs. 81-102.
- Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics File
- Kraut - Aristotle Political Philosophy File
Justice II
Mandatory readings:

Rawls, A Theory of Justice - chapters 1-4, 11-13 (pgs. 3-19; 52-73).

Recommended Readings: Kymlicka: Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction, part 3, pgs. 53-101.
- Rawls - A Theory of Justice File
- Kymlicka - Contemporary Political Philosophy. An Introduction. File
Morality and Politics (Machiavelli)
Mandatory reading:

The Prince, chapters VIII, XV-XVIII, XXV-XXVI (pgs. 30-34; 53-62; 84-90)
- Machiavelli - The Prince File
Morality and Politics II
Weber, Politics as a Vocation, pgs. 76-94
- Weber, Vocation Lectures File
Personal Responsibility and Modern Bureacracy
Mandatory reading:

H. Arendt: Eichmann in Jerusalem, chapter 2 (The Accused pgs. 40-52), chapter 8 (Duties of a law-abiding citizen, pgs. 137-149) and Postscript (pgs. 260-274).
- H. Arendt: Eichmann in Jerusalem File
Morality and Politics III: Truth and Politics
Mandatory Reading:

H. Arendt, "Truth and Politics", in Between Past and Future, New York, 2006, p. 223-259.
- Arendt: Truth and Politics File
Foundations of a Modern State and Modern Political Philosophy (Hobbes)