Maurizio Viroli

Explores the origins of social scientific thought in the history of political philosophy and traces the development of one or more of the social sciences in modern times. Focuses on fundamental ideas about human nature, civil society, and politics, explored through reading such authors as Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Freud.

Explores the origins of social scientific thought in the history of political philosophy and traces the development of one or more of the social sciences in modern times. Focuses on fundamental ideas about human nature, civil society, and politics, explored through reading such authors as Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Freud.

Explores the origins of social scientific thought in the history of political philosophy and traces the development of one or more of the social sciences in modern times. Focuses on fundamental ideas about human nature, civil society, and politics, explored through reading such authors as Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Freud.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

DESCRIPTION:
The purpose of the course is to explore the various ways in which political philosophers, jurists, artists, historians and prophets have discussed the connections between religion and political liberty in Europe and in America. The main theoretical question underlying the seminar is whether republican liberty needs a religious basis or can do without it. Of equal importance is the issue of the analogies and differences between republican religion and different and opposite forms of political religions like monarchical and totalitarian religion. A distinctive feature of the seminar is the study of pictorial sources, like Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s ‘Allegory of Good and Bad Government’, that express with particular eloquence the religious content of republican liberty. The course intends offer students the possibility to compare American civil religion with previous forms of republican religion in Europe, and to invite them to critically reflect on the power of religion in political life.

TEXT:

• Quentin Skinner, Visions of Politics, Cambridge University Press, 2002, vol. II Renaissance Virtues (selection)
• Michael Walzer, Exodus and Revolution
• Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, Harvey C. Mansfield (ed.), Chicago University Press, 1997 (selection).
• Dostoevsky, The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor
• Jean Jacques Rousseau, Of the Social Contract, Hackett edition (selection)
• Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America Charles Mayer edition (selection)

GRADING:
30% participation in class
30% midterm exam
40 % final exam

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

GOV 382M POLITICAL PROPHECY

GRADUATE SEMINAR FALL 2018

M 6:30-9:30

Maurizio Viroli

The Seminar is open to Graduate Students and Seniors

Course Description

The primary goal of the Seminar is to investigate the connections between prophetic language and political and social emancipation. We shall focus on different historical context: the Italian republican experience, the English Revolution, XIX century movements of national and social redemption, the Civil Rights Movement in the USA and examine the texts of Thomas Aquinas, Girolamo Savonarola, Niccolò Machiavelli, Baruch Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes, the XVII century libertine literature, Giuseppe Mazzini, Martin Luther King, as well as contemporary works on prophecy (Michael Walzer, George Shulman). The main intellectual question that shall guide the seminar is why prophetic language seems to be necessary to inspire and sustain movements that pursue political liberty and social justice.

Grading policy

50% participation, 50% final paper. Students are expected to give a scholarly presentation in the seminar.

Texts:

Selected Writings of Girolamo Savonarola Religion and Politics, 1490–1498 Translated and edited by Anne Borelli and Maria Pastore Passaro, Introduction by Alison Brown Foreword by Giuseppe Mazzotta Yale University Press New Haven and London, 2006.

Thomas More, Utopia, edited by George M. Logan, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, edited by Harvey C. Mansfield, Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1989.

Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, edited by Nathan Tarcov and Harvey C. Mansfield, Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1996. 

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, edited by Michael Oakeshott, Penguin, 1982.

Benedict de Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise edited by Jonathan Israel, translated by Michael Silverthorne and Jonathan Israel, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007.

The Treatise of the Three Impostors and the Problem of Enlightenment, Edited by Abraham Anderson, Rowman &Littlefield, Publishers, Inc. 1997.

Michael Walzer, The Revolution of the Saints. A Study in the Origins of Radical Politics, Harvard University Press, 1982.

A Cosmopolitism of Nations: Giuseppe Mazzini’s Writings on Democracy, Nation Building and International Relations, edited and with an introduction by Stefano Recchia and Nadia Urbinati, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2009.  

Michael Walzer, Exodus and Revolution, New York, Basic Books, 1986.

Georg M. Shulman, American Prophecy: Race and Redemption in American Political Culture, University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

Seminar in Political Theory and Philosophy.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Over the last years, I have been devoting most of my research to the connection between republican liberty and religion. My last two books - Machiavelli’s God, and As if God existed, and my current research project on ‘Politics and Prophecy’ - deal with this subject. I would like to offer a course on this topic because I consider it particularly relevant for the intellectual and civic education of UT students.

The purpose of the course is explore the various ways in which political philosophers, jurists, artists, historians and prophets have discussed the connections between religion and political liberty in Europe and in America. The main theoretical question underlying the course is whether republican liberty needs a religious basis or can do without it.  Of equal importance is the issue of the analogies and differences between civic religion and different and opposite forms of political religions like monarchical and totalitarian religion.

In addition to the works of political theorist, we will examine pictorial sources like Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Allegory of Good and Bad Government, in Palazzo Publico in Siena, as well as literary texts, like The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor and Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz (Se questo è un uomo).

The seminars intends offer students the possibility to compare American civil religion with previous forms of republican religion in Europe, and to invite them to reflect on the power of religion in political life. 

Schedule of classes and preliminary reading list

Week I

The gods of the fatherland and the religion of fear : Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods); Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Divinatione (On Divination); Lucretius, De Rerum Natura (On the nature of Universe).

Week II

Sacred kings: Ernst H. Kantorowicz The King’s Two Bodies. A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology. With a new preface by William Chester Jordan.

Week III

The Apocalypse and the end of history: Norman Cohn, The Pursuit Of The Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages

Week IV

The Images of Republican Liberty: Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s ‘Good Government’ in Palazzo Publico in Siena. Quentin Skinner, Visions of Politics, Cambridge University Press, 2002

Week V

Prophecy and Patriotism in XVth century Florence: Donald Weinstein, Savonarola and Florence, Princeton University Press, 1970 (selection); Charles Trinkaus, In our Image and likeness. Humanity and Divinity in Italian Humanist Thought, London, 1970 (selection).

Week VI A religion in the service of Liberty: Niccolò’s Machiavelli reflections on Christianity and Church: Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, Harvey C. Mansfield (ed.)

Week VII The Hebrew Leviathan and the Hebrew Republic: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (third and fourth part); Eric Nelson, The Hebrew Republic: Jewish Sources and the Transformation of European Political Thought

Week VIII The religious origins of radical political thought: Michael Walzer, The Revolution of the saints.

Week IX

The French Revolution and the idea of a Civic Religion: Jonathan Israel, Radical Enlightenment; Jean Jacques Rousseau, Of the Social Contract.  

Week X

The Religious Foundations of the American Liberty: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America; Gordon Wood, The creation of the American Republic.

Week XI Abraham Lincoln’s biblical republicanism: Selected writings of Abraham Lincoln; George Kateb, Lincoln’s Political Thought

Week XII

Religion and Social emancipation: Karl Marx, On the Jewish Question; Michael Walzer, Exodus and revolution; Martin Luther King, A Testament of Hope, Harper & Row, 1968. 

Week XIII

Civil religion and democratic life: Robert Bellah, Civil Religion in America; Robert Putnam, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us.

Week XIV

Political religions and the religion of liberty: Fascism, Nazism and Communism: Emilio Gentile, Politics as Religion, Princeton University Press, 2006; Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz; Benedetto Croce, The History of Europe in the XIX Century. 

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Theoretical Foundations of Modern Politics

GOV 351D/CTI 321

Spring 2016

Professor Maurizio Viroli

Class: TTH 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM in WAG 420

Email: viroli@utexas.edu

The main goal of this course is to offer students a historical and philosophical introduction to political philosophy. Unlike most introductory courses in political theory, GOV 351 does not attempt to cover the whole history of political philosophy from ancient Greece to our time, but focuses on a main theme, namely, the excellence of politics. It uses a few ancient and modern philosophers whose writings are particularly relevant for the topic of the course: Arendt, Aristotle, Cicero, Erasmus, Hobbes, Kant, Machiavelli, Marx, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, Thucydides.

Laptop Policy - No laptops or cell phones should be used, seen, or heard during class. All power point slides will be available online. Please take any additional notes by hand.

Reading List - Books marked with * are required; all the others are recommended.

Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Harcourt Brace

*Aristotle, Politics, University of Chicago Press

*Cicero, On Duties, Cambridge University Press

Constant, “Of the Liberty of the Ancients” in Constant, Political Writings, Cambridge University Press

*Dostoevsky, The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor, Filiquarian Publishing

Erasmus, The Education of a Christian Prince, Cambridge University Press

Gentile, Politics as Religion, Princeton University Press

*Hobbes, Leviathan, Cambridge University Press

*Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Cambridge University Press

*Kant, “What is Enlightenment?,” “Perpetual Peace,” and “Idea for a Universal History,” in Kant, Political Writings, Cambridge University Press

*Machiavelli, The Prince, Oxford University Press

Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, University of Chicago Press

Marx, “The Communist Manifesto” in The Marx-Engels Reader, Tucker ed., Norton

Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, Cambridge University Press

*Rousseau, “Discourse on Inequality” and “Discourse on Political Economy,” in Rousseau, Basic Political Writings, Hackett

Skinner, Renaissance Virtues (selection), Cambridge University Press

*Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Mayer ed., Harper Collins

*Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, Martin Hammond edition, Oxford University Press

Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, Basic Books

*Walzer, Exodus and Revolution, Basic Books

Assignments and Grading

This course will use plus/minus grading. The midterm will consist of a six-page paper (typed and double-spaced) and will constitute 40% of your grade. The final will consist of an eight- page paper (typed and double-spaced) and will constitute 50% of your grade. For each paper you will be given four prompts of which you will choose one to address in your paper.

Attendance will constitute 10% of your grade. You may miss two classes without penalty to your attendance grade, but you will lose one percentage point for each unexcused absence after that. All requests for excused absences must be submitted in writing to your TA with proper documentation at least one week in advance, except in cases of emergency.

Graduate Seminar on ‘Machiavelli and Modern Political Thought’

Professor Maurizio Viroli

TTH. 6:30-8:00; Bat 1.104

Maurizio.viroli@gmail.com

The main goal of the seminar is to offer graduate students the opportunity to explore the historical meaning of Machiavelli’s thought in the context of modern political thought and Italian history and culture.

Special attention will be dedicated to refine the interpretive skills and to learn to avoid the most common misinterpretations that have historically affected the comprehension of Machiavelli’s thought. In addition to the political and historical works, we shall the study Machiavelli’s literary texts and his private letters in order to try to try to understand both the man and the political thinker.

A number of sessions will be dedicated to investigate the historical and theoretical connections between Machiavelli and modern political theorists, in particular Guicciardini, Hobbes, Montesquieu and Rousseau, as well as the impact of Machiavelli’s ideas on the history of Italy and on the foundation of the American Republic.

The seminar is designed for graduate students but it is open to juniors interested in the history of political thought, in political theory, and in the Italian political culture.

Schedule of meetings

Week I: The historical and political context of Renaissance Italy and Humanist Political Thought.

Readings: John M. Najemy, A History of Florence, 1200-1575, Blackwell Pub., 2006, chs. 9-12; Hans Baron, The Crisis of Early Italian Renaissance, Princeton, 1966 (selection); Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, 1978, vol. I. pp. IX-112; Felix Gilbert, Florentine Political Assumptions in the Period of Savonarola and Soderini, in “Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes,” 20 (1957), 187-214.

Week II: A XVIth century man.

Readings: Sebastian De Grazia, Machiavelli in Hell, Princeton University Press, 1989; Maurizio Viroli, Niccolò’s Smile, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002; Anthony Parel, The Machiavellian Cosmos, Yale University Press, 1992.

Week III:  The Prince: the political and intellectual context and the structure of the text

Readings: Machiavelli, The Prince; Francesco Vettori to Niccolò Machiavelli, November 23, 1513; Machiavelli  to Vettori, December 10, 1513, from Machiavelli and His Friends: Their Personal Correspondence, Northern Illinois University Press,1996.

Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, 1978, vol. I. c.5, ‘The Age of Princes’; Felix Gilbert, The Humanist Concept of the Prince and  ‘The Prince’ of Machiavelli’, in ‘Journal of Modern History’, 1939, pp. 449-483; A.H. Gilbert, Machiavelli’s Prince and its forerunners: the ‘Prince’ as a Typical Book de Regimine Principum, Duke University Press, 1938; Machiavelli, The Prince , Oxford University Press, 2005;;  Maurizio Viroli, Machiavelli, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 73-113.

Week IV: The Prince: Political morality and political emancipation.

Readings: Machiavelli, The Prince, chs. XV-XVIII and ch. XXVI; Discourses on Livy, book I, ch. 9, book III.3, 30 and 41.

Leo Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli, Free Press, 1958 (selections); Mark Hulliung, Citizen Machiavelli, Princeton University Press (selections), 1983. Maurizio Viroli, Redeeming the ‘Prince’, Princeton University Press, 2014; Isaiah Berlin, The Originality of Machiavelli, in Studies on Machiavelli, edited by Myron P. Gilmore, Sansoni, Florence 1970; Federico Chabod, Machiavelli and the Renaissance, Bowes and Bowes 1958, Ch.2 (The Prince)

Week V:  Discourses on Livy: The theory of republican liberty.

Readings: Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, book I chs 1-10, 16-60, II; ch.2.

Hans Baron, Machiavelli: The Republican Citizen and the Author of The Prince, ‘English Historical Review’, 76 (1961), pp. 217-253; Colish Marcia, The Idea of Liberty in Machiavelli, ‘Journal of History of Ideas’ (1071), pp. 323-351; Q. Skinner, Machiavelli on the Maintenance of Liberty, ‘Politics’, (1983), pp. 3-15 John P. McCormick, Machiavellian democracy, Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Week VI: War and expansion.

Readings: Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, Book II, Machiavelli, The Art of War, Proem, book I and book VII.  Machiavelli, The Golden Ass. 

Felix Gilbert, ‘Machiavelli: The Renaissance of the Art of War’, in P. Paret (ed.) Makers of Modern Strategy, Princeton University Press, 1986; Mikael Hornqvist, Machiavelli and empire, Cambridge University Press 2004, chs 2,3,4; Vickie B. Sullivan, ‘Machiavelli’s Republicanism’, in .Id. Machiavelli, Hobbes and the Foundation of a Liberal Republicanism in England, Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 80-112.

Week VII: Religion and civic ethos.

Readings: Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, book I, chs. 10-15; book II, ch.2; book III, ch. 1.

Donald Weinstein, Savonarola and Florence. Prophecy and Patriotism in the Renaissance, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1970; Maurizio Viroli, Machiavelli’s God, ch. 1 ‘His God’; J. Samuel Preus, Machiavelli’s Functional Analysis of Religion: Context and Object, in “Journal of the History of Ideas,”  (1979).

Week VIII: The Florentine Histories

Readings: Machiavelli, The Florentine Histories, translated by Laura Banfield and Harvey Mansfield, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. 1988, Dedicatory Letter and Preface to book I; book II ch. 1; book III (all); book IV ch.1, book v, ch. 1; book VI ch.1; book VII chs 1,2,3,4,5,6. Book VIII chs. 1,2.

Anna Maria Cabrini, ‘Machiavelli’s Florentine Histories’, in The Cambridge Companion to Machiavelli, edited by John M.Najemy, Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp. 128-143; Gisela Bock, ‘Civil Discord in Machiavelli’s Istorie Fiorentine’, in Machiavelli and Republicanism, Cambridge University Press, 1990. pp. 181-20.

Week IX: The Comedy of Life. Mandragola

Readings:  La Mandragola (The Mandrake) English translation: Allan Gilbert, Machiavelli, The Chief Works, and Others, Duke University Press, Chapel Hill, N.C. 1989.

Ronald L. Martinez, ‘Comedian, Tragedian: Machiavelli and Traditions of Renaissance Theater’, in The Cambridge Companion to Machiavelli, edited by John M.Najemy, Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp. 206-222.

Week XII Machiavelli and Guicciardini

Readings: Guicciardini, Dialogo del reggimento di Firenze, in Opere di Francesco Guicciardini, edited by Emanuella Lugnani Scarano, Utet, Turin 1983, vol. I, p. 464; English translation: Dialogue on the Government of Florence, translated by Alison Brown, Cambridge University Press, 1994; Francesco Guicciardini, Maxims and reflections of a Renaissance Statesman (Ricordi) Translated by Mario Domandi,  Introd. by Nicolai Rubinstein, Harper and Row, 1965; The sweetness of power : Machiavelli’s Discourses & Guicciardini’s Considerations, translated by James V. Atkinson and David Sices, Northern Illinois University Press, 2002. Francesco De Sanctis, ‘Machiavelli and Guicciardini’, in History of Italian Literature, Barnes and Nobles, 1998.

Week XI:  Machiavelli and Hobbes

Readings:Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, chs. 10, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 21.  

Vickie B. Sullivan, ‘Hobbes on Peace, the Passions, and Politics, in Id., Machiavelli, Hobbes and the Foundation of a Liberal Republicanism in England, Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 80-112.

Week XIII: Machiavelli and Rousseau

Readings: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Economie Politique and  Du Contract Social, in Œuvres Complètes, edited by Bernard Gagnebin and Marcel Raymond, Gallimard, Paris 1964, vol. III, English translation: Rousseau’s Basic Political Writings.

Judith N. Shklar, Men and citizens: a study of Rousseau’s social theory, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1969; Lionel A. McKenzie, ‘Rousseau's Debate with Machiavelli in the Social Contract’, ‘Journal of the History of Ideas’, (1982), pp. 209-228.

Week X:  Machiavelli in the History of Italy

Radings: Maurizio Viroli, Machiavelli’s God, ch. IV.’Machiavelli and the Religious and Moral Reformation of Italy’.

Week XIV: Machiavelli’s Prophecy: The American Republic

Readings: J.G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine political thought and the Atlantic republican tradition, Princeton University Press, 2003., ch. XV ‘The Americanization of Virtue’, pp. 506-552;  C. Bradley Thompson, John Adams’s Machiavellian Moment, in ‘The Review of Politics’, 57 (1995), pp. 389 – 417. See also Karl Walling, Was Alexander Hamilton a Machiavellian Statesman? in ‘The Review of Politics’ 57 (1995), pp. 419- 447. Brian Danoff, Lincoln, Machiavelli, and American Political Thought, in’ Presidential Studies Quarterly’, 30 (2000), pp. 290-310.

Students are requested to write a scholarly paper and to give a presentation in the seminar. The paper can be a refinement and an extension of the presentation. 

Theoretical Foundations of Modern Politics

GOV 351D/CTI 321

Professor Maurizio Viroli

Class: Tuesday-Thursday 1100-12:30.

Email: Maurizio.viroli@gmail.com; Maurizio.viroli@austin.utexas.edu

The main goal of this course is to offer students a historical and philosophical

introduction to political philosophy. Unlike most introductory courses in political theory, GOV 351 does not attempt to cover the whole history of political philosophy from ancient Greece to our time, but focuses on a main theme, namely, the excellence of politics. It uses a few ancient and modern philosophers whose writings are particularly relevant for the topic of the course: Arendt, Aristotle, Beccaria, Cicero, Constant, Erasmus, Hobbes, Kant, Machiavelli, Marx, Rousseau, and Tocqueville and Hannah Arendt.

Reading List

Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Harcourt Brace

Aristotle, Politics, University of Chicago Press

Beccaria, Of Crimes and Punishments, Cambridge University Press

Cicero, On Duties, Cambridge University Press

Constant, “Of the Liberty of the Ancients” in Constant, Political Writings, Cambridge University Press

Erasmus, The Education of a Christian Prince, Cambridge University Press

Hobbes, Leviathan, Cambridge University Press

Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Cambridge University Press

Kant, “What is Enlightenment?,” “Perpetual Peace,” and “Idea for a Universal History,”in Kant, Political Writings, Cambridge University Press

Levi, Survival in Auschwitz

Machiavelli, The Prince, Oxford University Press

__________, Discourses on Livy, University of Chicago Press

Marx, “The Communist Manifesto” in The Marx-Engels Reader, Tucker ed., Norton

Dostoevsky, The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor, Filiquarian Publishing

Rousseau, “Discourse on Inequality” and “Discourse on Political Economy,” in Rousseau, Basic Political Writings, Hackett

Skinner, Liberty Before Liberalism, Cambridge University Press

Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Mayer ed., Harper Collins

Skinner, Renaissance Virtues (selection), Cambridge University Press  

Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars

Walzer, Exodus and Revolution, Basic Books

Schedule of Lectures

Week I

Presentation of the course

Aristotle, Politics, Bk. I, chs. 1-2

Week 2

Aristotle, Politics, Bk. II, ch. 1 and Bk. III (all)

Cicero, On Duties, Bks. I and III

Week 3

Ambrogio Lorenzetti’ Buongoverno

Quentin Skinner, Renaissance Virtues  (selection)

Week 4

Erasmus, The Education of a Christian Prince (all)

Machiavelli, The Prince

Week 5

Machiavelli, The Discourses, Bk. I, chs. 1-13, 15-18, and 40-60

Machiavelli, The Discourses, Bk. II, chs. 1-3; Bk. III, Chs. 1, 3, 7, 8, and 41

Week 6  

Hobbes, Leviathan, Hobbes’ Introduction and chs. 13-22

Hobbes, Leviathan, chs. 26-31 and “A Review and Conclusion”

Week 7

Locke, Second treatise of Government  chs.I-IX

Locke, Second treatise of Government  chs.XI-XIX

Week 8

Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality

Rousseau, On Political Economy and Of the Social Contract

Week 9

Beccaria, Of Crimes and Punishments (all)

Kant, What is Enlightenment and Idea for a Universal History

Week 10

Kant, Perpetual Peace

Constant, The Liberty of the Ancients compared to the Liberty of the Moderns.; Skinner, Liberty before Liberalism (all)

Week 11

Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. I: pp. 9-163 and 173-311

Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. II: pp. 417-497

Week 12

Dostoevsky, The legend of The Grand Inquisitor

Marx, The Communist Manifesto

Week 13

M. Walzer, Exodus and Revolution

Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, chs. 11 and 12.

Week 14

Primo Levi, Survival in Aushwitz

Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars

Assignments and Grading

Midterm 40%

Final 60%

The main goal of this course is to offer students a historical and philosophical

introduction to political philosophy. Unlike most introductory courses in political theory, GOV 351 does not attempt to cover the whole history of political philosophy from ancient Greece to our time, but focuses on a main theme, namely, the excellence of politics. It uses a few ancient and modern philosophers whose writings are particularly relevant for the topic of the course: Arendt, Aristotle, Beccaria, Cicero, Constant, Erasmus, Hobbes, Kant, Machiavelli, Marx, Rousseau, and Tocqueville.

Reading List

Books Marked with * are required all the others recommended

Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Harcourt Brace

*Aristotle, Politics, University of Chicago Press

Beccaria, Of Crimes and Punishments, Cambridge University Press

*Cicero, On Duties, Cambridge University Press

Constant, “Of the Liberty of the Ancients” in Constant, Political Writings, Cambridge University Press

Erasmus, The Education of a Christian Prince, Cambridge University Press

*Hobbes, Leviathan, Cambridge University Press

*Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Cambridge University Press

*Kant, “What is Enlightenment?,” “Perpetual Peace,” and “Idea for a Universal History,”in Kant, Political Writings, Cambridge University Press

*Machiavelli, The Prince, Oxford University Press

__________, Discourses on Livy, University of Chicago Press

Marx, “The Communist Manifesto” in The Marx-Engels Reader, Tucker ed., Norton

Dostoevsky, The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor, Filiquarian Publishing

*Rousseau, “Discourse on Inequality” and “Discourse on Political Economy,” in Rousseau, Basic Political Writings, Hackett

Skinner, Liberty Before Liberalism, Cambridge University Press

*Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Mayer ed., Harper Collins

Skinner, Renaissance Virtues (selection), Cambridge University Press  

Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, Basic Books 

*Walzer, Exodus and Revolution, Basic Books

Gentile, Politics as Religion, Princeton University Press

Schedule of Lectures

Week I

Presentation of the course

Aristotle, Politics, Bk. I, chs. 1-2

Week 2

Aristotle, Politics, Bk. II, ch. 1 and Bk. III (all)

Cicero, On Duties, Bks. I and III

Week 3

Ambrogio Lorenzetti’ Buongoverno

Quentin Skinner, Renaissance Virtues  (selection)

Week 4

Erasmus, The Education of a Christian Prince (all)

Machiavelli, The Prince

Week 5

Machiavelli, The Discourses, Bk. I, chs. 1-13, 15-18, and 40-60

Machiavelli, The Discourses, Bk. II, chs. 1-3; Bk. III, Chs. 1, 3, 7, 8, and 41

Week 6  

Hobbes, Leviathan, Hobbes’ Introduction and chs. 13-22

Hobbes, Leviathan, chs. 26-31 and “A Review and Conclusion”

Week 7

Locke, Second treatise of Government  chs.I-IX

Locke, Second treatise of Government  chs.XI-XIX

Week 8

Rousseau,

“Discourse on Inequality”

“On Political Economy” and “Of the Social Contract”

Week 9

Beccaria, Of Crimes and Punishments (all)

Kant, “What is Enlightenment” and “Idea for a Universal History”

Week 10

Kant, “Perpetual Peace”

Constant, “The Liberty of the Ancients compared to the Liberty of the Moderns.”; Skinner, Liberty before Liberalism (all)

Week 11

Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. I: pp. 9-163 and 173-311

Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. II: pp. 417-497

Week 12

Dostoevsky, The legend of The Grand Inquisitor

Michael Walzer, Exodus and revolution

Week 13

Marx, The Communist Manifesto

Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

 Week 14

Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars

Course review

Assignments and Grading

Midterm 40%

Final 60%

Flag: Global cultures; ethics and leadership.

The main goal of the seminar is to offer students a critical knowledge of the most relevant texts in political philosophy and a good basis for the comprehensive exam in political theory. Particular attention will be dedicated to the discussion of the various methods of interpreting classical works in political philosophy and to the analysis of fundamental concepts like liberty, justice, duty, rights, power, reason, rhetoric, liberalism, republicanism, socialism.

No prerequisites

Grading: students are requested to make a presentation in the seminar on an author or theme of their choice. The presentation will be evaluated in the context of the general participation. They are also requested to write a final paper of 25-30 pages. The final grade will be based on participation (50%) and on the paper (50%)

Reading List

1. Thucydides, Peloponnesian War (Martin Hammond edition, Oxford University Press)

2. Plato, Republic (G.R.F. Ferrari, Cambridge University Press)

_____, Gorgias (Davin Stauffer edition,Cambridge University Press)

3. Aristotle, Politics (Stephen Everson edition, Cambridge University Press)

4. Cicero, On Duties (M.T. Griffin edition, Cambridge University Press

5.Xenophon, Education of Cyrus (Wayne Ambler Cornell University Press)

6. Augustine, City of God, selections (Book II, Chapters 2, 21; V, 12-21; XII, 1-8; XIV, 1-9, 28; XIX, 1-7, 12-17, 21, 24-28)

7. Thomas Aquinas, selections from Summa Theologiae  (all of volume edited by Dino Bigongiari)

8. Machiavelli, Prince (Oxford Classics)

_____, Discourses on Livy (Harvey Mansfield edition, Chicago University Press)

____, The Florentine Histories (Laura Banfield and Mansfield edition, Princeton University Press)

9. Guicciardini, Dialogue on the Government of Florence (Alison Brown edition, Cambridge University Press)

10. Hobbes, Leviathan (Richard Tuck edition, Cambridge University Press)

11. Locke, Second Treatise of Government (Peter Laslett edition Cambridge University Press)

_____, Letter on Toleration (James Tully edition, Hackett Publishing) 

12. Rousseau, First and Second Discourses (The Basic Political Writings, Donald Cress and David Wootton edition, Hackett Publishing)

_____, Social Contract (The Basic Political Writings, Donald Cress and David Wootton edition, Hackett Publishing)

13. Kant, Political Writings (H. Reiss, edition, Cambridge University Press)

14. Hegel, Philosophy of Right (Allen W. Wood edition, Cambridge University Press)

15. J. S. Mill, On Liberty (Stefano Collini edition, Cambridge University Press)

16. Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Harvey C. Mansfield edition, The University of Chicago Press)

17. Marx (and Engels), from The Marx-Engels Reader, (Richard Tucker edition, Norton):

Manifesto of the Communist Party

Theses on Feuerbach

The German Ideology, Part I

18. Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals (Keith Ansell Pearson, Cambridge University Press)

19. Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (Harvest Book)