Outlines of Courses taught by Ian Pirie (now retired) at UEL Return to: Imagining Other Index Page
History of Political Thought (replaced by Political Philosophy I and
II)
Aims: - to give an overview of western political thought... identifying
the characteristic outlooks on politics of different historical periods
- to
examine the thought of selected key figures
- to
analyse and compare models of the state, and assumptions about human nature –
in particular the conflict between individuality and community, and
between
sentiment and rationality.
Outline:
Introduction – definitions, overview, political philosophy as part of
philosophy, and its relationship with political science. Idea
of historical periods, use of models of the state, assumptions about human
nature.
Block 1: ‘Organic model – collectivism – community’
(a) The ancient world – classical Greeks, philosophic vision, organic
model, city-states, Socrates and the Sophists. Nature and
convention.
Plato: ideal state, ideal man. Human nature and social
order.
Aristotle: state as association for a purpose. Self-sufficiency.
Distribution of wealth and power. Rule of law. Decline of city-states. Epicureans and
Cynics.
(b) Middle ages: ‘religious vision’ –
Stoics and universal community. Fall of
‘Natural law’ model – feudalism, Thomas Aquinas’ four kinds of law, Aristotelianism.
Faith and reason.
(c) Modern period: ‘social vision’ Rousseau (part 1) and French
Enlightenment thinkers.
‘Historicist model – Hegel: idealism,
historicism, nationalism. Dialectic. Civil society and the state.
Socialism and Marxism. Utopians
(part a – rationalists). Levellers and Diggers. Paine and Godwin. Saint-Simon and Owen.
Anarchism.
‘Class model’ – Marx (and Hegel). Realisation of philosophy. Demystification
of religion. Proletariat. Class,
economic and political power. Communism.
Currents in socialist thought and practice since Marx.
Block 2. Mechanistic model – the individual, rights,
freedom.
(a) early modern period: civic vision. Renaissance, secularism, humanism. Nation state.
New economic and social order.
Machiavelli: power, morality, order. Means and ends. Sovereignty.
Reformation: individualism, passive obedience and resistance. Calvin:
predestination and self-discipline. Luther: priesthood of all believers, quietiem. Peasant revolts. Anglicans and Divine Right. Counter-Reformation.
Mechanistic model: social contract. Growth of science,
rationalism.
Hobbes: individualism and rationalism.
Locke empiricism. Natural rights. Property. Limited government.
Liberalism and capitalism. Adam
Smith: economic man, market, hidden hand.
Utilitarian model: Bentham, calculus of happiness, theory of law. J.S.
Mill: quality of pleasures, freedom, tyranny of the majority.
Block 3 The limitations of reason. Power of sentiment.
Protests against rationalism, industrialism etc: Blake, utopian
socialists (part b), romantic movement, early
feminists.
Rousseau (part 2) sentiment, natural
man/woman.
Nietzsche, Scopenhauer, Sorel.
Fascism. The ‘will’, myth, violence.
Existentialism, Kierkegaard, Sartre, humanism.
Conclusion.
1. Political Philosophy I: (First Year
Undergraduate):
(i) Introduction: the nature of philosophy and of political
philosophy. Political philosophy and political science.
Perspectives and models of the state and politics (organic,
mechanistic, historical).
(ii) Plato
and Aristotle:
Man is a political
being, and politics is natural
Plato:
justice, aristocracy, ideal state
Aristotle:
teleology, happiness, citizenship.
(iii)
Augustine and Aquinas:
Augustine :
Obedience to God, or to secular rulers? Sinfulness of man and need for
controls/punishment.
Aquinas:
Natural law accessible to reason.
(iv) Thomas
More:
Utopian writing, and its purpose (criticism of times? Ideal state? An academic exercise?).
Against utopianism. Conditions in Utopia: desirable or not?
Planned
societies: desirable?
(v)
Reformation (Luther and Calvin):
Freedom of conscience, individualism and liberalism. Unexpected consequences of
reformation (in both religion and politics): the right to resist.
(vi) Machiavelli:
The order of the state as the highest good. Rulers’ rights to
go beyond morality. Ends and means.
“Virtu” and “fortuna” – the psychology of politics, political culture.
(vii)
Hobbes and Locke:
Classical
liberalism: individual rights and freedoms. Social contract.
Hobbes: the
war of all against all – security, and power of the state.
Locke:
property rights. Tolerance. Rights
to replace rulers.
(viii)
Rousseau:
Sovereignty
of the people based on the general will. Democracy.
Rousseau's
critique of existing society ("man is born free, but is everywhere in chains").
"Forced to be free" – Rousseau as liberal or totalitarian?
Romanticism - feelings/sentiment against reason?
(ix) Tom
Paine:
Common sense. Rights of man. Society distinct from
government
Minimal government. The state and welfare
(ix) Edmund
Burke:
Revolution and tradition. Political representation.
2. Political Philosophy II (Second year
Undergraduate):
(i) Hegel:
The dialectic as method of knowing about the
world. Philosophical
idealism - the Absolute Idea.
The dialectic used to explain: (a) historical progress (b) the social and political order –
the state, civil society, family.
Self and Other.
(ii) Marx:
A materialist dialectic.
Use of dialectic to explain: (a) history (b) class structure (c) capitalism.
Economics as basis of society and the state. Future of capitalism. Communism, socialism,
revolution
Marxism since Marx
(iii) Gramsci:
Rejection of “base/superstructure” model of
capitalism. Culture and hegemony
Intellectuals.
The Party and the masses.
(iv) Bernstein
and Crosland:
Revisionism – where Marx was wrong or incomplete. Social
Democracy and its Descendents. Capitalism in the mid - 20th
century
(v) Kropotkin:
Anarchism – social co-operation without the state. Origins
of the law and the state.
Mutual Aid: evidence against social Darwinism in: (a) animals (b) human history (c) society today
(vi) Karl Popper:
Philosophy of science – falsifiability. Piecemeal social engineering. The Open Society.
(vii) Michael Oakeshott:
The nature and purpose of philosophy – the
problem with rationalism. Conservatism
– as a “disposition”. The conversation(s) of mankind.
(viii) John Rawls:
The hypothetical first position (a new social
contract theory?). Justice
as fairness.
Two principles of justice. Rawls and the modern state.
(ix) Nozick:
The “minimal” state
Property rights – entitlement
The problems of end-state approaches
The state and social welfare
(x) Simone de Beauvoir:
First wave feminism, and Feminism since de
Beauvoir
The female body – becoming a woman
Existentialism and “the other”.
[PO201 EXAM QUESTIONS JAN. 2004.
1. Give a brief account of Hegel’s use of the
dialectic in explaining
(a) historical progress
and (b) the social and political order. How convincing do
you find this explanation?
2. Give arguments for and against the view that
Marx was completely wrong in his predictions about the future of capitalism.
3. Why did Gramsci reject the
“base/superstructure” model of capitalism?
With what did he try to replace it?
4. How much, if any, of the thinking of Bernstein
and Crosland might be useful to the Labour Party in Britain today?
5. Are Kropotkin’s
ideas of mutual aid at all applicable in the modern world?
6. How did Popper make a connection between his
thinking on science and his views on politics?
7. What was Oakeshott’s
view of the nature and purpose of philosophy, especially in relation to
politics?
8. What
are Rawls’s “two principles”? How does he arrive at them?
9. Discuss what Nozick meant by the “minimal”
state, with particular reference to how he believed the state should act in
regard to (a) property and (b) social welfare.
10. What did de Beauvoir mean by her statement
that for men, women are "the other"?]
3. Introduction to
Government (First year Undergraduate):
(teaching shared [7/10] with another lecturer)
(i) Methods in political science:
Empirical/descriptive
accounts
Explanations
and ideological views
Normative
approaches (political philosophy)
(ii)
Ideologies:
Religion,
philosophy and ideology
Right and left,
authoritarian and libertarian
The “end of ideology”?
(iii)
Economy and politics:
The state
and the economy
Marxist
theory of property, class and power
Models of
capitalism, socialism etc
(iv) Supra-national politics:
Theories of
international relations: realism and idealism
The UN
War and
peace, threats to international order
Globalisation
(v)
Leadership, bureaucracy:
Prime
ministers and Presidents
Theories of
legitimacy and authority: charisma, tradition, legal/rational
Problems of
bureaucracy – public and private bureaucracy, management
(vi) Citizenship, participation:
A “democratic deficit”?
Citizenship
and rights – civil, social/economic and political aspects
Democracy:
representative, paternalistic, participative, direct
(vii) Power
in
Who rules
Theories of
power: pluralist, elitist, class
Corporate
power
4. The Radical Twentieth Century (Second Year
Undergraduate):
(teaching shared [8/10] with other lecturers):
Notes from
this course are being written under: Power
and Protest (Social Movements)
(i) Overview of 20th c. and definition of terms:
Radical ideologies, and the “end of ideology” debate.
What is
"radicalism"?
Protest, opposition
and new social movements: theoretical perspectives (social movement theory and
“new social movements”).
(ii) The
labour movement: radical and revolutionary left in theory and practice, with
particular reference to the
(iii) Anti-colonial
movements:
(iv) Race
and the Civil Rights Movement in
(v)
Ecology: politics of the environment;
the “greens”, Greenpeace, FoE.
(vi) The
“sixties”: youth movements, beats and hippies: critique of consensus politics
and consumerism; civil rights.
(vii)
Anti-war movements and anti-nuclear movements.
(viii)
Globalisation and its opponents.
5. Capitalism, Bureaucracy, Democracy (Third –
Final – Year Undergraduate):
(i). Introduction:
The connections between political theory, economics and the social
sciences.
Political and
Social Models: pluralist/individualist, managerial and class
Levels of
analysis (state/system, organisation/structure, individual/situation)
Functional vs.
political approaches
(ii)
Introduction continued: Economic models and approaches.
The
creation/origin of value
Block (a):
Democracy - the pluralist/individualist perspective.
(iii) Origins of pluralist/individualist model:
Adam Smith, his ethics and his economics – “sympathy”, the
impartial observer and the market system
(iv) Modernised liberalism:
Hayek, Friedman – origins of society and of the market
Dangers of
state direction
(v)
Conservatism, Thatcherism, New Right:
Tensions
between free market ideas and conservatism
State, society
and the individual
Achievements
and failures of Thatcherism
Block (b):
Bureaucracy - the managerial perspective.
(vi)
Managerialism, industrial society.
Economic and managerial/technocratic theories
(cost-of-production school)
Veblen, Burnham,
Galbraith. Keynes.
(vii) Elites and
bureaucrats/bureaucracy:
Weber and rationalisation.
Defending Bureaucracy?
(viii) Elites
and bureaucrats/bureaucracy:
Schumpeter: Two Theories of Democracy, rise of the engineers/technocrats
Block (c):
Capitalism - the class perspective.
(ix) Socialism and
Marxism.
The debate between
functional/structuralist and humanist/political approaches:
Structural Marxism, Althusser
(x) Marxist “cultural and
political theories”:
E.P.
Thompson: humanist Marxism, history and “experience”
Critique of bureaucracy
(New Left)
(xi) C. Castoriadis: socialism, bureaucracy and autonomy.
Institutions and instituting society.
The individual psyche and the radical social imaginary.
(xii)
Conclusion, revision of main themes:
philosophy, ideas, interests and ideology
the economy, society and politics: models
individualism, pluralism, socialism and collectivism
the market, morality, and planning
equality and freedom
conservatism and the new right
democracy and elitism
rationality, managerialism and bureaucracy
class, social structure and autonomy
economic determinism and class consciousness
social institutions/instituting society
the construction of the individual psyche, and its
relation to social organisation
6. Social Responsibilities of Business (Second
Year Undergraduate, and Second Year HND):
Lecture notes for this course can be found
at: CSR in
Context: Contents Page
Lectures fall
into two blocks:
(a) the theoretical context - key terms, viewpoints and models,
historical background (first three lectures)
(b) an examination of the impact of business on a number of
areas (themes)
Lectures:
(i) Definitions of key terms; perspectives;
models of business and society
(ii) Historical context (a): "Ethical
business" in theory and in practice, in recent decades. Constraints on
business; social audits
(iii) Historical context
(b): the emergence and development of management theories on business and society:
alternative explanations and interpretations
(iv) The worker:
Motivation, alienation
and participation
Management styles and
philosophies
(v) The consumer:
Consumerism (the consumer
movement) and the consumer society
Consumer sovereignty
Pressures of
marketing.
(vi) The natural environment:
Ecology and
the limits to growth
Pollution and
environmental damage (ozone layer, greenhouse effect etc)
Ways of
protecting the environment
(vii) The
“third world”:
Poverty gap
Development
Cultural
imperialism
Role of Trans
National Companies
(viii) Wealth
and power, poverty and powerlessness:
The
government/business relationship
Strategies for
improvement and regulation
(ix)
Empowerment and disempowerment:
Theories of
democracy and participation at work
From Taylorism to TQM
7. Business Ethics (Second Year Undergraduate):
See also: Business Ethics Paper
(the Social Politics of)
(i) Nature of ethics:
Subjectivism
vs. ethics
Ethics and:
etiquette, law, codes, religion
Characteristics
of moral standards
Ethical
conflicts
History of business ethics
Role of government.
(ii) Moral
Reasoning:
Relativism
Consequentialism (a) for myself (b) for others
Professional
values
The good
life
(iii) Moral
Reasoning, continued:
Deontology:
will; conscience
Rights
Virtue
(iv) Cases and
issues: harm to the consumer
Pharmaceuticals
and: Thalidomide
(v) Cases
and issues: “breaking the rules”: fraud
and regulation
Guinness
City of
Savings and
Loan
Enron
(vi) Cases
and issues: abuse of power
ITT
Nestle
(vii) Cases
and Issues: the work situation
Managers
and employee rights
Work:
General Electric, Texaco
(openness re documentation; affirmative action)
(viii)
Cases and issues: whistle-blowing: La Roche et al
(ix) Cases
and issues: Environmental damage: Exxon Valdez et al
(x) Whose responsibility?
Government,
or Regulators? (Enron, ITT revisited)
The firm?
(Pinto revisited)
Legislation?
Voluntary
vs. Legal controls
(xi) Future challenges
Examples of ethical practice?
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