Political Thought – Classical and Medieval Professor Melissa Schwartzberg Spring 2011 Tuesday, 2: 10-4 Office hours: Thursdays 2-4, and by appointment

Though this course is intended as a survey of ancient political thought, each semester I choose a theme to anchor our discussions and enable some continuity across the various texts. This time, the theme will be the sources of political obligation and authority in ancient political thought. Among the questions we will ask as we read these works: to whom do we owe obedience, and under what conditions? How should we distinguish between just and unjust forms of rule? Which laws ought to take precedence in case of conflict? Are there conditions under which we may rightfully resist our rulers or break the law?

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  Undergraduates in Columbia College: Contemporary Civilization, with a first semester grade of B+ or better. An additional course in political theory is strongly preferred.
  
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  GS students and master’s students outside of the Departments of Political Science and Classics: At least one prior course in political theory.
  

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  Midterm take-home exam (8-10 pages): 40%.
  
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  Final take-home exam (8-10 pages): 40%.
  
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  Class participation: 20%.
  
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  Ph.D. students who would prefer to write a research paper in lieu of the take-home exams may do so (approximately 25 pages, worth 80%).
  

Plato. Trial and Death of Socrates. Trans. G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1975.

Plato. Republic. Trans. G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1992.

Plato. Statesman. Trans. J.B. Skemp. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1992.

Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. David Ross. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Aristotle. Politics. Trans. Ernest Barker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Cicero. On the Commonwealth and On the Laws. Trans. James Zetzel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Augustine. City of God Against the Pagans. Trans. Henry Bettenson. New York: Penguin, 2003.

Aquinas. Political Writings. Trans. R.W. Dyson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Secondary literature
This is not intended to be a comprehensive list by any means – just some starting points. Undergraduates should feel free to ignore this list entirely; graduate students may wish to read selectively after they have read the primary texts.
Allen, Danielle S. The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Annas, Julia. An Introduction to Plato’s Republic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.

Connolly, Joy. The State of Speech: Rhetoric and Political Thought in Ancient Rome. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.

Deane, Herbert A. The Political and Social Ideas of St. Augustine. New York: Columbia University Press, 1966.

Finnis, John. Aquinas: Moral, Political, and Legal Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Frank, Jill. A Democracy of Distinction: Aristotle and the Work of Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Garsten, Bryan. Saving Persuasion: A Defense of Rhetoric and Judgment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006. Ch. 5.

Klosko, George. The Development of Plato’s Political Theory. New York: Methuen, 1986.

Kraut, Richard. Aristotle: Political Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Lane, Melissa S. Method and Politics in Plato’s Statesman. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Monoson, S. Sara. Plato’s Democratic Entanglements. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Ober, Josiah. Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.

Schofield, Malcolm. Plato: Political Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Schofield, Malcolm. The Stoic Idea of the City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Villa, Dana. Socratic Citizenship. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.

Vogt, Katja Maria. Law, Reason, and the Cosmic City: Political Philosophy in the Early Stoa. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Wood, Neal. Cicero’s Social and Political Thought. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Yack, Bernard. Problems of a Political Animal: Community, Justice, and Conflict in Aristotelian Political Thought. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.