The course examines the continuing relevance of some of the greatest or most influential figures in the history of modern political philosophy. To do so, it studies the answers their work suggests to various central questions that arise in reflecting on political life. More specifically, we shall consider some of the main ideas of the following five historical authors: Thomas Hobbes; John Locke; Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Karl Marx; and John Stuart Mill.
We shall also examine work related to these historical precursors by various contemporary Anglo-American philosophers. In previous years, authors we discussed included Elizabeth Anderson, Tom Christiano, G.A. Cohen, Ronald Dworkin, David Estlund, Niko Kolodny, Japa Pallikkathayil, Joseph Raz, Samuel Scheffler, Seana Shiffrin, Hillel Steiner, Zofia Stemplowska, Anna Stilz, Philippe Van Parijs, and David Velleman.
The questions we shall address will include the following.
- Do we need a state, and, if so, why?
- Under which conditions, if any, do we have a moral duty to obey a government’s commands,
- Under which conditions, if any, do we have a moral right to overthrow an illegitimate government?
- Do individuals possess rights that the state has a moral duty to respect and protect?
- How, if at all, can freedom of speech be justified?
- What’s wrong with paternalism?
- What’s so good about democracy?
- Can private property be justified? If so, how should it be distributed? If not, why not?
- How do capitalism, socialism, and communism differ? Are there good reasons to favour one system over another? What role does unconditional basic income play in answering this question.
Week One: Hobbes on Conflict in the State of Nature Primary Reading to be read before Class 1
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Chapters 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, and “Review and Conclusion”