Course: Introduction to Political Philosophy

Topic outline

Introduction
24. 1. Introduction - What is Political Philosophy?

3. 1. Aristotle - Politics III

Wasilewska, Coughlin

10. 3. class is cancelled

17. 3. Justice - Aristotle & Rawls

Rozner, Kalifa

24. 3. visiting professor - Zoltán Kelemen

31. 3. Morality and Politics Machiavelli & Weber

Blaszcyk, Tárnok

7. 4. Contractarianism: Hobbes & Locke

Hugg, Baubec

14. 4. - Easter Holidays

21. 4. - On modern Liberty: Rousseau and Constant

Van Houut

28. 4. - Civil Disobedience

Kochegov, Kolbasina

5. 5. - Emancipation

Berei, Jiskoot

12. 5. ? The Subjection of Women and Early and Modern Feminism ?

Marinova?

19. 5. - On the Limits of Free Speech: J. S. Mill & H. Arendt

Natsarenus, Morozova
- Oznámení Forum
Final test exam
Not available
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.
- Aristotle's Politics File
- Aristotle Quiz
Justice
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.
Illiberal Democracy: A case of Hungary
Mandatory Readings

F. Zakaria: The Rise of Illiberal Democracy

Viktor Orbán’s speech at Băile Tuşnad (online: https://budapestbeacon.com/full-text-of-viktor-orbans-speech-at-baile-tusnad-tusnadfurdo-of-26-july-2014/)
- Zakaria: The Rise of Illiberal Democracy File
Morality and Politics (Machiavelli & Weber)
Mandatory reading:

The Prince, chapters VIII, XV-XVIII, XXV-XXVI (pgs. 30-34; 53-62; 84-90)

Weber, Politics as a Vocation, pgs. 76-94
Social Contract (7. 3.)
Mandatory for everyone:

Locke, Second Treatise on Government, ch. I-V; pgs. 7-30

required reading for referees: VII-XIII; pgs. 7-30; 40-83
- John Locke - Second Treatise on Government File
- Locke - Question Quiz
Social Contract II (21 March)
Mandatory readings: Rousseau: On the Social Contract (books I+II), pgs. 177-215.
- Rousseau - The Social Contract File
- Rousseau - A Question on Morality in Civil and Natural State Quiz
Civil Disobedience (28 March)
Mandatory Reading:

M. Luther, jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (accessible online: https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html)

J. Locke: Second Treatise on Government, ch. XVIII (Of Tyranny)

J. Habermas, "Civil Disobedience: Litmus Test for the Democratic Constitutional State", Berkeley Journal of Sociology 30 (1985): 96-116.

Recommended Reading:

M. Walzer, "The Obligation to Disobey" Ethics, Vol. 77, No. 3 (1967): 163-175.

H. Arendt, "Civil Disobedience", in: Crises of the Republic, 1972, p. 49-102.

R. Celikates, "Rethinking Civil Disobedience as a Practice of Contestation–Beyond the Liberal Paradigm” Constellations vol. 23, N. 1, 2016.
Emancipation and the "double consciousness" (5 May)
Mandatory:

F. Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, chpt. 5

Recommended:

J.-P. Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew. An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate, pgs. 7-54.

The speakers will prepare an interpretation of both texts.
Justice I
Not available
Personal Responsibility and Modern Bureacracy
Not available
Freespeech, Truth and Politics
Mandatory Reading:

J. S. Mill, On Liberty, ch. II, pgs. 86-120.

H. Arendt, "Truth and Politics", in Between Past and Future, New York, 2006, p. 223-259.
Simulacrum, Hyperreality and Forecasting Mathematical Models
- Jean Baudrillard: Simulacra and Simulation File
Recommended Literature
Susan Moller Okin: Women in Western Political Thought. Princeton 2003 (2nd ed.). https://books.google.cz/books?id=5PzBQlHIuY0C&lpg=PP1&dq=susan%20moller%20okin&hl=cs&pg=PR7#v=onepage&q=susan%20moller%20okin&f=false
Jiné návrhy
Not available