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Political Theory Core
Spring 2005
Professor Dimitri Landa
Seminar Meeting: Thursday 2-4pm
Room 747, 726 Broadway
Office: Room 749, 726 Broadway
Office Hours: Wednesday 3:00-5:00
e-mail: dimitri.landa@nyu.edu
Seminar Requirements:
2 short (4-5 page) thought papers on required and recommended readings for a chosen week
- due at the beginning of next week's meeting
1 medium-size (15-20 page) research paper
active participation in seminar discussions
Readings:
The following books and editions are required for this seminar:
Aristotle, Politics . Ed. Stephen Everson, second edition. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan . Ed. with Introduction by Edwin Curley. Hackett Publishing
Company, 1994.
John Locke, Two Treatises of Government . Ed. Peter Laslett. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration. Ed. James Tully. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1990.
Bernard Manin, The Principles of Representative Government . Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1997.
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince . Ed. Quentin Skinner and Russell Price. Cambridge
University Press, 1988.
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty and Other Writings . Ed. Stefan Collini. Cambridge University
Press, 1990.
John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: a Restatement . Harvard University Press, 2001.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract . Trans. Donald A. Cress, revised edition.
Hackett Publishing Company, 1988.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality . Trans. Donald A. Cress. Hackett
Publishing Company, 1992.
I will also make available for copying various articles and book chapters required for the
course (see below).
Schedule of Sessions:
Session 1: Political Theory: the why and the how
Isaiah Berlin, "Does Political Theory Still Exist?" In Berlin, Concepts and Categories:
Philosophical Essays . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Alasdair MacIntyre, "The Indispensability of Political Theory." In D. Miller and L.
Siendentop, The Nature of Political Theory . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983, 17-33.
John Rawls, "Four Roles of Political Philosophy." In Justice as Fairness: a Restatement , 1-5.
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Recommended:
Quentin Skinner, "Motives, Intentions, and the Interpretation of Texts" and "Some
Problems in the Analysis of Political Thought and Action." In James Tully, ed.,
Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and His Critics . Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1989.
David Miller, "Varieties of Political Theory." Political Studies, 1992.
Session 2: Public Morality and the State I
Aristotle, Politics Book 1, Chs. 1-7; Book VII, Chs. 1-3, 13-15; Book 3, Chs. 1-5, 6-18;
Book 4, Chs. 1-9.
Recommended:
Richard Kraut, Aristotle: Political Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 2002.
Fred D. Miller, Nature, Justice, and Rights in Aristotle's Politics. Oxford University Press,
1997.
Session 3: Public Morality and the State II
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince.
Michael Walzer, "Political Action: the Problem of Dirty Hands." Philosophy and Public
Affairs , 1973, 160-80.
Bernard Mandeville, "Fable of the Bees." In Bernard Mandeville, Fable of the Bees: or Private
Vices, Publick Benefits. Ed. F. B. Kaye. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1995.
Recommended:
Isaiah Berlin, "The Originality of Machiavelli." In Against the Current: Essays in the History
of Ideas. Penguin Books, 1982, pp. 25-79.
Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society , Part V, Sections III-V.
J. G. A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic
Republican Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975.
Maurizio Viroli, From Politics to Reason of State: The Acquisition and Transformation of the
Language of Politics, 1250-1600. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Gisela Bock, Quentin Skinner, and Maurizio Viroli, eds., Machiavelli and Republicanism ,
Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Mary Dietz, "Trapping the Prince: Machiavelli and the Politics of Deception"
American Political Science Review Vol. 80, No. 3. (Sep., 1986), pp. 777-799.
Session 4: Liberty and the Social Contract I
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan , Part 2, Chs. 13-21, 26, 29, 30.
Russell Hardin, "Hobbesian Political Theory." Political Theory Vol. 19, No. 2. (May, 1991),
156-180.
Recommended:
Jean Hampton, Hobbes and the Social Contract Theory . Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Quentin Skinner, Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes. Cambridge University
Press, 1997.
Quentin Skinner, Hobbes and Civil Science. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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Session 5: Liberty and the Social Contract II
John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government .
Jean Hampton, "Contract and Consent." In R. E. Goodin and P. Pettit, eds., A
Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy . Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1993, 379-
94.
Recommended:
John Dunn, The Political Thought of John Locke . Cambridge University Press, 1969.
A. John Simmons, The Lockean Theory of Rights . Princeton University Press, 1994.
David Wootton, "Introduction." In Political Writings of John Locke. Penguin Books, 1993,
pp. 7-122.
Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Basic Books, 1974.
Session 6: Liberty and Toleration
John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration.
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Chs. 2-4
Dimitri Landa, "Toleration and Self-Skepticism. " In I. Creppel, R. Hardin, and S.
Macedo, eds., Toleration on Trial .
Recommended:
John Gray, Mill on Liberty: A Defense . Routledge, 1995.
Jonathan Riley, Mill's Radical Liberalism . Routledge, 2001.
Ronald Dworkin, "Rights as Trumps." In Jeremy Waldron, ed., Theories of Rights.
Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 153-67.
Thomas Scanlon, "Preference and Urgency." The Journal of Philosophy , Vol. 72, No. 19,
Seventy-Second Annual Meeting American Philosophical Association, Eastern
Division. (Nov. 6, 1975), pp. 655-669.
Susan Mendus, ed., Justifying Toleration: Conceptual and Historical Perspectives. Cambridge
University Press, 1988.
Michael Walzer, On Toleration . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.
Session 7: Rights
Jeremy Waldron, "Rights." In R. E. Goodin and P. Pettit, eds., A Companion to
Contemporary Political Philosophy . Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1993, 575-85.
Thomas Scanlon, "Preference and Urgency." Journal of Philosophy 72, 1975, 655-69.
Keith Dowding and Martin van Hees, "The Construction of Rights." American Political
Science Review 97, 2003, 281-293.
Recommended:
Ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously . London: Duckworth, 1978.
Jeremy Waldron, ed., Theories of Rights . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Mary Ann Glendon, Rights Talk . New York: Free Press, 1991.
Session 8: Equality and Justice I
Jean Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality .
Karl Marx, "The Alienated Labor" and "Critique of the Gotha Program."
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Recommended:
Jon Elster, An Introduction to Karl Marx . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Judith Sklar, "Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Equality." Daedalus (Summer 1978).
Session 9: Equality and Justice II
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice: A Re-statement, Parts 1 and 2.
Recommended:
John Rawls: The Cambridge Companion . Ed. Samuel Freeman. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2003.
Brian Barry, Theories of Justice . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
Session 10: Equality and Justice III
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice: A Re-statement , Parts 3 and 4.
Derek Parfit, "Equality and Priority." Ratio X, no. 3 (December), 1997, 202-21.
John Roemer, "Equality of Opportunity." In Kenneth Arrow, Samuel Bowles and
Steven Durlauf, eds., Meritocracy and Economic Inequality . Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2000, 17-32.
Recommended:
Ronald Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality. Harvard University
Press, 2000.
Gerald Cohen, "Incentives, Inequality and Community." In Stephen Darwall, ed. Equal
Freedom: Selected Tanner Lectures on Human Values . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press 1995, pp. 331-97.
Session 11: Democracy I
James Madison, Federalist #10, 48-51. In David Wootton, ed., The Essential Federalist and
Anti-Federalist Papers . Indianapolis: Hackett, 2003.
Benjamin Constant, "The Liberties of the Ancients and of the Moderns." In Biancamaria
Fontana, ed., Benjamin Constant: Political Writings . Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1988, 308-28.
Bernard Manin, The Principles of Representative Government , Chs. 2,3,4.
Recommended:
Mogens Hansen, The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes: Structure, Principles and
Ideology. University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.
John Dunn, ed., Democracy: the Unfinished Journey: 508 BC to AD 1993. Oxford University
Press, 1993.
Adam Przeworski, Susan Stokes, and Bernard Manin, eds., Democracy, Accountability, and
Representation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Session 12: Democracy II
Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, Book 1, Chs. 6-9; Book 2; Book 3, Chs. 15-18;
Book 4, Chs. 1,2.
Bernard Grofman and Scott L. Feld, "Rousseau's General Will: A Condorcetian
Perspective." The American Political Science Review , Vol. 82, No. 2. (Jun., 1988), 567-576.
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Recommended:
Joshua Cohen, "Reflections on Rousseau: Autonomy and Democracy." Philosophy and
Public Affairs 15 (Summer 1986), 275-88.
David M. Estlund, Jeremy Waldron, Bernard Grofman, and Scott L. Feld,
"Democratic Theory and the Public Interest: Condorcet and Rousseau
Revisited." The American Political Science Review , Vol. 83, No. 4. (Dec., 1989),
1317-1340.
James Miller, Rousseau: Dreamer of Democracy. Hackett Publishing Company, 1996.
Patrick Riley, Will and Political Legitimacy: A Critical Exposition of Social Contract
Theory in Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant and Hegel. Replica Books, 2000.
Judith Shklar, Men and Citizens: A Study in Rousseau's Social Theory . Second Ed. Cambridge
University Press, 1985.
Session 13: Democracy III
Bernard Manin, "On Legitimacy and Political Deliberation." Political Theory Vol. 15, No.
3 (Aug., 1987), 338-368.
Jurgen Habermas, "Three Normative Models of Democracy." In J. Habermas, The
Inclusion of the Other. Cambridge: MIT Press 1999.
Dimitri Landa, "Political Legitimacy and the Moral Economy of Deliberative
Participation." NYU Mimeo.
Recommended:
Joshua Cohen, "Deliberation and Democratic Legitimacy." In James Bohman and
William Rehg, eds., Deliberative Democracy . MIT Press, 1997.
Jack Knight and James Johnson, "Aggregation and Deliberation: On the
Possibility of Democratic Legitimacy." Political Theory , Vol. 22, No. 2. (May,
1994), 277-296.
Cass R. Sunstein, "Incompletely Theorized Agreements." In Sunstein, Legal Reasoning and
Political Conflict . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, 35-61.
Session 14: Democracy IV
Kenneth Arrow, "Values and Collective Decision Making." In P. Laslett and W. G.
Runciman, eds., Philosophy, Politics and Society , Third Series. Oxford: Basil Blackwell,
1967, 215-32.
Joseph Schumpeter, "The Classical Doctrine of Democracy" and "Another Theory of
Democracy" (Chs. 21 and 22 of Schumpeter's Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy ).
Recommended:
Adam Przeworski, "Minimalist Conception of Democracy: A Defense." In Ian Shapiro
and Casiano Hacker-Cordon, eds., Democracy's Value. Cambridge University Press,
1999, 23-55.
Adam Przeworski, Democracy and the Market . Cambridge University Press, 1991.
William H. Riker, Liberalism Against Populism. Waveland Press, 1988.
Jules Coleman and John Ferejohn, Democracy and Social Choice." Ethics , Vol. 97, No. 1,
1986, 6-25.
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