Spring, 2005
Instructor: Mr. Clark
Office: Michener L92
Telephone: (970) 308-6550
Office Hours: 3:30-4:30 MWF or by appointment
E-mail: mailto:clark@cs.colostate.edu
Description/Objectives
This course is to provide the student a foundational understanding of the classic philosophical thinkers on social and political philosophy. After some pre-Socratic and Socratic reflections we will study primary source reading selections from some of the following theorists in depth: Plato, Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, Mill and Nietzsche. Besides studying their ideas we will examine the social, historical and intellectual milieu in which they formulated those ideas in order to tighten the objective focus of our study.
Text
Porter, J. M. ed. Classics in Political Philosophy, Third edition. These readings are assigned by author/chapter and include all the works by that author included in the text.
Students are also required to read Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper which can be found at: http://www.princeton.edu/~jimpryor/general/writing.html.
Grades
Grades will be determined by two papers, five to seven pages in length, a midterm and a final examination, each worth 25% of the final grade.
Week 1
The Pre-Socratics/The Sophists
Chapter 1Week 2
Socrates
Chapter 1 (cont.)Week 3
Plato
Chapter 1 (cont.)Week 4
Plato
Chapter 1 (cont.)Week 5
Aristotle
Chapter 2Week 6
Aristotle
Chapter 2 (cont.)Week 7
Machiavelli
Chapter 5Week 8
Hobbes
Chapter 6Week 9
Locke
Chapter 7Week 10
Rousseau
Chapter 8Week 11
Hegel
Chapter 9Week 12
Mill
Chapter 10Week 13
Marx
Chapter 10Week 14
Nietzsche
Chapter 12Week 15
Nietzsche
Chapter 12 (cont.)
Grading Scale
100-90 = A 89-80 = B 79-70 = C 69-60 = D
Students with Disabilities
Students who believe that they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the Disability Access Center (970) 351-2289 as soon as possible to ensure that accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion.
