UPDATED 2.8.07 SEE BELOW
When Michael Oakeshott put together his noted anthology of 20th century political philosophy in 1939 (The Social and Political Doctrines of Contemporary Europe), he surveyed communism, fascism, and democracy. World War II soon removed the major fascist regimes from Europe and within two generations most communist regimes had disappeared as well, leaving a liberal democracy that, at the end of the 20th century, increasingly came to look like an ideology. The course will look at three thinkers who lie outside these three ideologies and “orthodoxies.”
For these thinkers and others, the 20th century experience of aggressive political ideologies provoked a rethinking of politics that would not invoke notions such as processes or collectives, notions that invert the relation between individual and concept by assigning to the conceptual terms a more fundamental political causality than to individual agency. Our three thinkers develop an understanding of politics that does not render politics a function of, or equate politics with the household (economics) or with the state, nor with the nation (tribe) or history. Nor do they think politics is a science that offers solutions for technical problems in theoretical terms. Various phrases have been used for this sort of political philosophy: non-metaphysical, anti-political, or even “dissident politics” (Vaclav Havel).
The primary focus of the class will be Hannah Arendt. The course will look at her analyses of political action, her critique of political philosophy, and her understanding of revolution and democracy. We will look briefly at two other “unorthodox” political thinkers. Leo Strauss was most noted for his critical comparison of ancient and modern political philosophy (to the disadvantage of both). His teaching gave rise to a school of neo-conservative thought in the US, but his writings have been interpreted quite differently in Europe where he is read as an acute critic of modernity. Michael Oakeshott was a British political essayist whose writings are a continuation of British Idealism and present a sharp critique of rationalist, essentialist, and “theoretical” interpretations of political action.
All three are remarkable writers, their prose is clear and readable -- a significant political commitment that contrasts with more esoteric post-modern writings.
Week 1: Introduction to the course: politics, regimes and power.
Week 2: Arendtian political categories: labor, work, action, plurality and natality, social and political.
Week 3: Arendt on revolution and "the social". Arendt on tradition and authority.
Week 4: Oakeshott on tradition, rationality (modernity) and politcal discourse.
Week 5: Strauss' critique of modernity.Strauss on classical political philosophy and prudence.
Week 6: Arendt on political judgment and virtue.
Exam
Readings will be provided; discussion will be encouraged.
There will be two short papers, and a final.
The first paper is due on Friday July 20th. The second paper is due on Monday July 30th.
Paper topics will be handed out in class beforehand and are here.
Our exam is on Saturday August 4 at 9AM.
Readings (in a xerox packet from Durak Copy):
UPDATES:
26.6 A table of contents for the reading packet is available here .
29.6 Please read the first selection in the packet "Labor Work Action" for Monday (2.7). Tuesday (3.7) I will start on "The Public and the Private Realm" but encourage students to start on "The Social Question." You can find these title and the page numbers in the packet by looking them up in the table of contents.
3.7 I have added a link for Strauss below.
5.7 I have rewritten the weekly list above to reflect some changes in the order of readings and to more clearly indicate which selections we will be reading. We will still cover all the topics listed in the original version. I have also included the paper due dates and added a link for the paper topics.
15.7 I have added a link for Oakeshott below.
22.7 I have posted the exam date above (this may change, so check with me!). Paper topics for the second paper are also now available herefor the paper topics.
2.8 A copy of the exam questions and directions is here .
Arendt selections from:
"On Violence""The Three Waves of Modernity"
"Epilogue"
Robert Pippin, "Being, Time, and Politics: The Strauss-Kojeve Debate"
Oakeshott selection from:
"Political Discourse"
"Rational Conduct"
Adam Gopnik, "Man Without a Plan"
Links:
All the writings of these thinkers are still under copyright, so the net has little in the way of online texts. Google books has limited excerpts from books by Arendt, Oakeshott, and Strauss.
Arendt left her papers to the US Library of Congress. Here is the page to find out what is available online.
Leo Strauss' posthumous association with American neo-conservatives has generated much commentary on the internet, mostly hostile. It can be fun to sample some of the sites. However, the neo-con link is seriously distorted. For a refutation of the charges as well as a detailed and instructive account of how modern media "endangers" a reclusive philosopher like Strauss, see the long excerpt from "The Truth About Leo Strauss" (UC Press, 2006).
Oddly enough, Oakeshott is the only one favored with a good webpage provided by the Michael Oakeshott Association. It provides links to excerpts, articles, pictures and some information about the man.
Since the foregoing link is temporarily "down", you can find his best known essay "Rationalism in Politics" here. (Ignore the tendentious "framing" of the webpage!)