Lecture One: Preliminary

The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good


Lecture #1: Preliminary Remarks (1-17-17)

I have been asked to teach this introductory course in social and political philosophy. Please allow me to say that the race has been won; the game is set as in the the Two Towers of J.R.R. Tolkien, the eye is now fully awake and history has run its course.


We now stand at the opening--januarius---of a “new” year---but what is new I ask you? As Ecclesiastes so well stated: “There is no new thing under the sun!”


Our task is the same ---my goal is your goal and your goal is my goal---we are to begin learning and to begin understanding better the actual, concrete world(s) each of us dwells in.


So where to begin? We find ourselves here and now---Willard Hall room 370---this classroom, this university, this association, and this epoch! It is 2017 in the land of plenty! We shall gaze like perch’d birds high aloft over the centuries. And there I see Franklin as a young man standing on the wharf or on Market Street in Philadelphia. I also see Dostoevsky toiling into the late hours, madly intoxicated with philosophy in St. Petersburg at the time of the czars. Now, I see Socrates sitting on his deathbed a day or two before his mortal coil unwound, speaking with his student Crito concerning honor and purity. It is 399 years before the messiah was born in the tribe of Judah.


2500 years have past and here we stand! By the grace of God, in the words of Elton John, “I’m still standing...yeah, yeah, yeah.” I’m standing before this class on the third floor of Willard Hall---made famous by the “Willard Preacher---Gary!”


Now that we are present---notice how all of the present(s) line up and are present in this present. In this very day, at this very hour classes are beginning ---each teacher and each student is facing the present of this first day of class. Not only here in the Happy Valley, but also in Moscow and in San Fransisco! While we toil away at our academic work also note that the Gaza Strip yet bursts into flames and in Aleppo, children shriek and starve. Meanwhile Donald Trump prepares his government---will it be fair? I tell you this: for better or for worse. in any case, it will be!


This is the end of my prefatory remark. Now let us turn to the task at hand---our pedagogical effort to begin learning social and political philosophy in the year of our Lord 2017!


The university has once again invested me with the task of instructing and practicing philosophy with bright and eager young minds. I am once more humbled at the audacious prospect of envisioning mankind’s political activity in a survey of 2500 years.

The scope of this course---set your eyes with me---our task is the same----my goal is your goal---for we are about to begin to learn and to understand our actual, concrete standing in this real world as well as to envision a historical survey of the other concrete and actual worlds of social and political philosophy that have fallen in the dust. They have come to being, to stand there and to pass away again. We will employ the great thinkers like crutches, if possible to lift our sight from this day to the height of the gaze of the shoulders of giants: There stands Plato, and Dostoevsky! Aristotle, Ghandi, Rousseau and Marx. Perhaps from this height we might better grasp the breadth and height of our own stature---the measure of our own humanity.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Course Syllabus-Phil 02


The Pennsylvania State University 
Phil 02 Section 1: 
Tues.-Thurs. 9:05 am-10:20 am
Willard Building 370

Instructor: Peter Wolf, Ph.D.
Email: pmw117@psu.edu

Required Text
Social and Political Philosophy: Classic and Contemporary Readings ed. Andrea Veltman (Oxford 2008)--[The text can be purchased at the Big Blue Bookstore on College Avenue.]

Course Overview
We begin with a quote from the Politics of Aristotle: “Observation shows us that every city [polis] is a species of association, and, secondly, that all associations come into being for the sake of some good---for all men do all their acts with a view to achieving something which is, in their view, a good (Veltman, 2008).”  We must consider the way human beings live within ‘associations’---further we too must consider how these associations act toward the ‘good’ as it is best understood within specific experiences that are historically, and culturally situated. 

Our course will interpret important readings selected from Veltman’s anthology. The instructor will also present additional readings and supplemental materials that are relevant to this subject. Students are expected to enlarge their understanding of this subject matter and to demonstrate their understanding in courseroom discussions, lecture notes, reading assignments, film reflection,* quizzes, tests, group assignments and student presentations to the class.  

The main theme of our course is reflected in Aristotle’s quote above----politics still aims at some good. It is the students’ task to discover what ‘good’ political associations aim at, and to see if the contemporary social and political arrangements that they experience---within their own historical and cultural views---are  successful in any way in achieving these goals. 

Course Description (from the University Schedule) PHIL 002 Philosophy, Politics, and Social Theory (3) (GH)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. This course provides an introduction to central political and social theories as well as assumptions which underlie contemporary political and social structures and which shape the contemporary cultural environment. The course will discuss the ideas of central social and political philosophers, the broader historical and cultural context in which they work and worked, and the nature of the relations and influences between the two. Students will develop an appreciation of the nature of political and social values in the context of conflicting political visions as well as the critical skills with which to examine them.  PHIL 002 satisfies the GH requirement and is geared towards non-Philosophy majors. It may be used to fulfill minor requirements in philosophy. This course is offered once a year with an enrollment of 150 to 200 students.

Course Calendar  (16 Weeks) 
Week One: Beginnings and Introductions: 1+1=1 or 2+2=5
January 10 (tues):  Introductory Lecture (Preliminary Lecture Note  due Thursday, Jan. 12.)
Introductory Considerations:  (Text, Syllabus, Historical Timeline,  Lexicon, form class groups, behavioral expectations).

Jan. 12 (thurs.): Groupwork: Lecture Note Due/ Team Presentations

Week Two: Plato and Socrates-4th Century B.C. (Athens)
jan. 17(tues): Lecture #1: Going for the One: Socrates and Plato 
jan.19(thurs.): Lecture note #1 due. Readings: Veltman pp.2-43 Team presentations #1

Week Three: Plato and Aristotle-4th Cent. B.C. (Athens)
jan. 24 (tues.) Lecture #2: The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good
jan. 26 (thurs.) Lecture note #2 Due Reading Assignment: Veltman pp.42-75 Team presentation #2

Week Four: Medieval Political Philosophy: St. Augustine; St. Thomas Aquinas-4th Century A.D.-15th cent. A.D. : The Summum Bonum
jan. 31 (tues.) Lecture #3: From Aristotle to Aquinas. A Tale of Two Cities
feb. 2 (thurs.) L.N. 3 

Week Five: Machiavelli's Prince- The Renaissance: 15th and 16th cent. A.D. 
feb.7 (tues.) Lecture #4: Realpolitik: For the Good of the Order
feb. 9 (thurs.) L.N. 4 Team Presentation #3

Week Six:Mid-term Exam 
feb. 14 Review for Mid-term
feb.16 Mid-term Test


Week Seven: Guest Lecturer
feb.21 Lecture #5: Michael Vicario on Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
feb. 23 L.N. 5

Week Eight: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau: 17th and 18th Centuries
feb. 28 Lecture #6: Travails of Modernity: As Good as it Gets 
mar. 2 L.N. 6

Week Nine: No classes: Spring Break

Week Ten: American Political Thought - 18th century
mar. 14 Lecture #7: Franklin and the Enlightenment View of Perfectible Man: All Good Things in all Good Time
mar. 16 L.N. 7

Week Eleven: The Declaration of Independence: Franklin and Jefferson
mar. 21 Lecture #8: Founding Fathers’ View of Inalienable Rights 
mar.23 L.N. 8

Week Twelve: The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson
mar. 28 Lecture #9: In a New World: Jefferson’s View of Man: "You Will only be as Good a Man as you are yourself."
mar. 30 L.N. 9

Week Thirteen: Marxism- 19th Century
apr. 4 Lecture #10: Marx/Engels: When all is One and One is All
apr. 6 L.N. 10

Week Fourteen: Final Exam
apr. 11 Review
apr. 13 full period exam

Week Fifteen: The End of the Innocence: The Meaning of the 20th Century
apr.18 Lecture #11: Men of Peace and Masters of War: Take the Bitter with the Better
apr.20 lecture note 11 due

Week Sixteen: The Present Global Malaise: 21st Century
apr.25: Lecture #12: Lost in a Lost World: Utopia and Dystopia in the So-called Smart Age
apr.27 final Class Celebration

 *Film Reflection-2 pp double space Reaction to Terry Gilliam's Film: Brazil 


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2 comments:

  1. UnknownJanuary 13, 2017 at 5:45 AM

    Interesting
    Syllabus of social political philosophy is difficult to condense in a label
    A disruptive or counter intuitive short mentioning arises curiousity!
    Pp

    ReplyDelete
  2. ScriptorJanuary 14, 2017 at 9:17 AM

    Thanks for the comment---there are twelve lectures into which I may unfold the thinking through of this course!

    ReplyDelete

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