−1− GVPT 241, Political Theory: Ancient and Modern (fall, 2010) Professor Alford, 1151 Tydings, 405 4169 Office hrs: Tu. 5-6, Thur. 5-6:30, and by appointment. Often we can talk briefly after class. Please make an appointment even during regular office hours. Often I have meetings with graduate students during these times. The best way to make an appointment is by email: [email protected]. The second best is by voice-mail, 5/4169. While I ask you to make an appointment in order to avoid disappointment, you are always free to drop by during my office hours and see if I am available. I like to talk with students. If you cannot meet me during my office hours, we can arrange another time. Your teaching assistants/discussion leaders will provide their office hours, phone numbers, and so forth in your discussion group. Please visit them too. They are your most immediate and most important contact with this class. They, not the professor, will assign your final grade. Goal of the course: At one level, the goal of this course is impossible: survey 2,500 years of Western political thought in one semester. I have focused on the following three questions: obedience to authority, the meaning of life, and why be ethical or just? That should take us at least a semester to answer. If you are thoughtful, it will take you a lifetime. As much as possible I have tried to make the questions and answers personal, not just abstract and political. For example, the course begins and ends with a discussion of cheating, albeit from two different perspectives. Several things to note about the course: 1. This course is designed not just to teach you about political theory, but to improve your writing. I have assigned two papers. Each may be rewritten once and resubmitted for a better grade. Grammar, punctuation and organization count. Each paper is worth 25% of your final grade for a total of 50%. More details are given at the end of syllabus. 2. Students do not learn if they do not do the reading. There is, I’ve learned over the years, a tendency for some students to skip the lectures and skim the readings. With a little bit of persuasion, these students can often be convinced to come to class and read more carefully. So that we can all benefit (I prefer lecturing to students who have read the material and come to class regularly), I will give 6 pop-quizzes: surprise, unannounced quizzes over the reading material assigned for that day. They will be quite simple: what did the author say about x? The quizzes may be given either in lecture or in discussion section. I will take the best 5 quizzes, each worth 5% of your final grade for a total of 25% . Several of you will likely get a poor grade in the course because you will do everything right but the quizzes 3. I will give you the next day's reading assignment (over which you are “quizzable") on the board every class day. 4. Quizzes cannot be made up; you have one freebie. Late papers will be downgraded one grade per day that classes are in session. 5. There is no midterm. The final will consist of one essay question. The final is worth 25% of your final grade. It will be given during the scheduled final exam period. 6. This course is built around the discussion sections and discussion leaders. Attendance is expected, names will be noted. Most, but not all, pop quizzes will be given there. Your discussion leader is your friend. Please visit him or her often.−2− 7. Professor Alford is responsible for all the grades in the course. See him if you are unhappy with your grade on any assignment, but please see your TA first. 8. I pace my lectures according to how well students seem to understand the material. We may fall behind or jump ahead In any case, I will tell you every lecture where you should be in your readings. You will know what you are responsible for. A NOTE ON LAPTOP COMPUTERS AND OTHER DEVICES Laptop computers may not be used during lecture. There is an exception to this policy. If you habitually take notes on a laptop, or have another need to use a laptop computer, tell your teaching assistant, and he or she will put you on a list of permitted users. Your TA’s will walk around to make sure this policy is followed. Permission will be revoked if you use your laptop for purposes other than taking notes. All other communication devices, from cell phones, I-phones, Androids, etc. etc. should be turned off during the class. No texting please. Your TA’s will set their own policies on laptops in discussion groups. Why this policy? Many students have told me over the past couple of years that it is distracting to have someone sitting next to or in front of them using their laptop computer to search the web, play games, etc. So please don’t. Even if you may not want to pay close attention to the lecture, others do. Topic 1: Do issues of personal morality, including yours, have anything to do with political theory. Weeks 1-2: David Callahan, The Cheating Culture, all. Trickle-down corruption Callahan calls it. “What happens when you’re an ordinary middle-class person struggle to make ends meet . . . and you stop believing that the rules are fair? You just might make up your own moral code. . . . Middle-class Americans are both insecure and cynical these days—a dangerous combination—and many feel besieged by material expectations that are impossible to attain. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that many people are leveling the playing field however they see fit.” (Callahan, 23-24) Topic 2: Individuals Respond to Authority Weeks 3-4 Milgram, Obedience to Authority, all. We consider a shocking experiment. Most people, it seems, will obey an anonymous experimenter and deliver painful electrical shocks to a sick old man. Why? A video of the experiment will be shown. My idea is that most of you are more obedient and compliant than you know, and that what we call individuality is often superficial. My other idea is that the most important question in political theory is what you would do when faced with malevolent authority. Week 5: Browning, Ordinary Men, all. Would you believe that some ordinary men, people much like you and me, would obey orders to slaughter innocent men, women and children, even though they could have refused with no serious consequences? I wonder what you would do. Week 6 and 7 (3