PS 119A Special Topics:  The Ethics of Citizenship

Professor Philip Michelbach

Fall 2005
Tuesday, 4:00-6:50
SSB 353
email: pmichelb@weber.ucsd.edu
Office Hours: 1:30-3:30 Monday in SSB 447

This course we closely read and discuss texts dealing with the intersections of morality, ethics, and politics.  The texts are chosen from across a long expanse of time—roughly from the late medieval period to the present—but all specifically address the issue of what we could call the ethics of citizenship.  We will see that the answers these authors suggest to the nexus of citizenship problems are linked to specific value systems.  They employ unique argumentative strategies that are particular to the faith tradition, and later to the philosophical tradition, to which they adhere.  Our job will be to investigate these theories of citizenship and relate them to contemporary democratic practice.

Readings

I suggest that students purchase Pufendorf's Of the Nature and Qualification of Religion in Reference to Civil Society and The Whole Duty of Man, According to the Law of Nature (both published by Liberty Fund, www.libertyfund.org), and Hobbes' Leviathan (published by Hackett, www.hackettpublishing.com).  These books can be obtained from the publishers, and at online and physical bookstores.  I will post other readings on the course website.

Evaluation

Evaluation will be on the basis of four components:
Participation: This seminar requires active engagement by every member of the class at every class meeting.  (10%)
Referat:  One 10 minute oral report introducing one of the assigned readings to the class.  (20%)
Mid-term paper:  5-6 page paper on topics to be distributed in the 5th week of class.  (20%)
Final Paper:  10 page term paper on a topic to be discussed with the instructor.  (50%)

Reading Schedule

Week 1:  Introduction (Aristotle, Nietzsche)

Week 2:  Thomas Aquinas
    pp. 10-13, 14-29, 41, 44-60, 60-81

Week 3:  Martin Luther
 
"On Translating"

"The Freedom of a Christian"

"Temporal Authority"

Week 4:  John Calvin and Samuel von Pufendorf

Calvin:    "On Civil Government"

Pufendorf:   Of the Nature and Qualification of Religion, in Reference to Civil Society
       pages: 3-6, 11-37, 54-65, 67-83, 93-95, 100-107, 109-121

Week 5:  Pufendorf, continued

Pufendorf:  The Whole Duty of Man According to the Law of Nature
    Book I, Chapters I-III, IV.8, V.1-10, VI.1, VII.1-9, VIII.1-2, X.2-3, XVII.1-4
    Book II, Chapters I, III.11, V-VII, VIII

Week 6:  Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
    pp. 1-118 (Dedication, introduction, and chapters 1-18) and pp. 453-488 (chapters 46, 46 OL, 47)

Midterm Prompts

Week 7:  Immanuel Kant
 
"An Answer to the Question: 'What is Enlightenment?'"

The Categorical Imperative (Chapter 1 of Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals)

"Idea for a History with Cosmopolitan Purpose"

Week 8:  G.W.F. Hegel

The Philosophy of Right:  "Preface" 

Selections from "Ethical Life"

Week 9:  Friedrich Nietzsche
    1.  Beyond Good and Evil, Selection 1, Selection 2, Selection 3
    2.  Twilight of the Idols Selection
    3.  The Gay Science Selection
    4.  Thus Spoke Zarathustra Selection III.46
   
Week 10:  John Rawls and Michael Sandel

Rawls
Selections from Justice as Fairness: A Restatement

Michael Sandel
    "The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self"