Philosophy 220
Introduction to Political Philosophy
Section 01:
MWF 2-2:50
Williams 225
Fall 2009
OVERVIEW: This course aims to introduce students to several of the central topics in political
philosophy. We will examine what important thinkers (past and present) have had to say about
questions such as the following: Are we morally obligated to obey the law, and if so, why? Why
should a state be organized in a democratic fashion? When may a state justifiably restrict its
citizens’ liberty? How much material inequality will a just state permit? What is individualism,
and is it desirable or not?
PROFESSOR: Craig Duncan
Email: cduncan@ithaca.edu
Philosophy 220 coursepage: on Blackboard at http://courses.ithaca.edu
Office location: Park 233 (Communications Bldg)
Office hours: 12-1pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays
Office phone: 274-3580
REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS:
 Jonathan Wolff, An Introduction to Political Philosophy, Revised Edition (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2006).
 Michael Rosen and Jonathan Wolff, eds. Political Thought (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1999).
 Matthew Miller, The Two-Percent Solution: Fixing America's Problems in Ways
Liberals and Conservatives Can Love (New York: Public Affairs 2003).
 A very short coursepack, to be made available in late September from the instructor.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Two take home reading quizzes. On two occasions early in the term, students will be
asked to write brief answers to reading comprehension questions concerning a
particular article. Each quiz will count 7.5% toward your overall grade. The first quiz
will be due on Monday, August 31st and the second will be due on Friday, Sept. 11th.
 Two five-page papers. Paper topics will be distributed in advance. You must write on
one of the topics unless you submit an alternative topic in writing to me at least three
days before the deadline and it is approved. Extensions on paper deadlines will be
granted only in extraordinary circumstances; extension requests must be made in
writing to me well in advance of the deadline. Papers not turned in on time will
instantly receive a deduction worth one-third of a letter grade. This deduction will
increase daily (including weekend days), adding up to a full letter grade deduction for
a paper 7 days late, with steeper deductions thereafter at my discretion. Each paper
will count 15% toward your overall grade. The first paper will be due on Wednesday,
October 21st; the second will be due on Wednesday, December 2nd.

Two exams. There will be a mid-term and a final exam. The midterm exam will be
held during our usual class hours Wednesday, September 30th. It will count 15%
toward your overall grade. The final exam will take place from 8-10am on
Wednesday, December 16th in the usual classroom. It will cover material from the
whole course, though the emphasis will be on material from the second-half of the
course. The final exam will count 30% toward your overall grade.

Class Participation. Philosophy cannot be passively learned. It requires active
engagement, both with the texts and with individuals in the form of discussion. For
this reason class participation counts for 10% of your overall grade. In order to get a
good participation grade, you must have excellent attendance, do the assigned reading,
and take an active role in class discussions.
Important Note: All exams and papers must be completed to receive a passing grade for the
course.
IMPORTANT DATES:
Reading Quiz 1 due
Reading Quiz 2 due
Mid-term Exam
Paper 1 due
Paper 2 due
Final exam
8/31
9/11
9/30
10/21
12/2
10/16 (8-10am)
(TENTATIVE) READING SCHEDULE
Readings followed by [W] are from Wolff, An Introduction to Political Philosophy. Readings
followed by [PT] are from the Political Thought anthology. The number following "PT" refers
to the selection number in the anthology. Readings followed by [BB] are available via a link on
the online Blackboard coursepage. Readings followed by [CP] are in the coursepack. This
reading schedule may change, but please assume the following material is assigned unless you
hear otherwise from your instructor.
1. The State of Nature
Fri
8/26
Mon
8/31
Wed
9/2
Fri
9/4
Mon
[BB]
9/7
Introduction and Hobbes [W, pp. 1-17]
Thomas Hobbes, "The Misery of the Natural Condition of Mankind" [PT #2]
Locke [W, pp. 17-23]
John Locke, "The State of Nature and the State of War" [PT #3]
Reading Quiz #1 due
Rousseau [W, pp. 24-29]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "The Noble Savage" [PT #5]
Jared Diamond, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” [BB]
Anarchism and Conclusion [W, 29-33]
David Friedman,“Private Creation and Enforcement of Law: A Historical Case”
LABOR DAY -- NO CLASS
2. Justifying the State
Wed
9/9
Fri
9/11
Mon
9/14
Wed
Fri
9/16
9/18
Introduction and The social contract [W, pp. 34-48]
Thomas Hobbes, "Creating Leviathan" [PT #20]
John Locke, "Express and Tacit Consent" [PT #21]
David Hume, "The Irrelevance of Consent" [PT #24
Reading Quiz #2 due
Utilitarianism [W, pp. 48-55]
Jeremy Bentham, "Utility as the True Foundation" [PT #25]
The principle of fairness and Conclusion [W, pp. 55-61]
Craig Duncan, “Fairly Dividing the Rescue Work” [BB]
3. Who Should Rule?
Mon
9/21
Wed
9/23
Fri
9/25
Mon
9/28
Introduction and Plato against democracy [W, pp. 64-77]
Plato, "Ruling as a Skill" [PT #34]
Rousseau and the general will [W, pp. 77-93]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "The General Will" [PT #36]
Representative democracy and Conclusion [W, pp. 93-103]
John Stuart Mill, "The Democratic Citizen" [PT #38]
Robert Richie and Steven Hill, "The Case for Proportional Representation" [BB]
[No new reading]
Wed
9/30
MID-TERM EXAM
4. The Place of Liberty within a Democracy
Fri
Mon
10/2
10/5
Wed
10/7
Fri
10/9
Isaiah Berlin, "Two Concepts of Liberty" [PT #50]
Mill on liberty [W, pp.104-114]
John Stuart Mill, "One Simple Principle" [PT #53]
Jeremy Waldron, The Satanic Verses [PT #59]
Justifying the Liberty Principle [W, pp. 114-125]
Alan Wertheimer, "Liberty, Coercion and the Limits of the State" [CP]
Problems with liberalism and Conclusion [W, pp. 125-132]
Karl Marx, "The Rights of Egoistic Man" [PT #67]
5. The Distribution of Property
Mon
Wed
10/12 The Problem of Distributive Justice [W, pp. 133-37]
David Schweickart, “Inequality” [CP]
First part of Property and Markets [W, pp. 138-143]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "The Earth Belongs to Nobody" [PT #74]
John Locke, "Labour as the Basis of Property" [PT #73]
Robert Nozick, "Difficulties with Mixing Labour" [PT #81]
10/14 Second part of Property and Markets [W, pp. 143-152]
Fri
Mon
Wed
Fri
Mon
Wed
Fri
Mon
Wed
Fri
Mon
F. A. Hayek, "Prices as a Code" [PT #84]
10/16 FALL BREAK – NO CLASS
10/19 Karl Marx, "From Each According to His Abilities…" [PT #92]
Karl Marx, "Appearance and Reality" [PT #83]
10/21 Karl Marx, "The Communist Manifesto" [PT #119]
David Schweickart, "Market Socialism: A Defense" [CP]
Paper #1 due
10/23 G. A. Cohen, "Socialism and Equality of Opportunity" [PT #123]
10/26 Brian Barry, "Does Responsibility Undermine Equality?" [CP]
10/28 Rawls's theory of justice [W, pp.152-168]
John Rawls, "Two Principles of Justice" [PT #95]
10/30 [No new reading]
11/2 Rawls and his critics and Conclusion [W, pp. 168-176]
Robert Nozick, "The Entitlement Theory" [PT #96]
11/4 Craig Duncan, “Libertarianism” [BB]
G. A. Cohen, "Poverty as Lack of Freedom" [PT #86]
11/6 Craig Duncan, “The Politics of Dignity” [BB]
11/9 [No new reading]
6. Individualism, Conservatism, Feminism
Wed
Fri
Mon
Wed
Fri
11/11 Individualism and anti-individualism [W, pp. 177-182]
Edmund Burke, “Eternal Society” [PT # 112]
11/13 Michael Oakeshott, “On Being Conservative” [PT #114]
Russell Kirk, “Ten Conservative Principles” [BB]
Robert Locke, “Marxism of the Right” [BB]
11/16 Rights for women [W, pp. 182-189]
Mary Wollstonecraft, “The Rights of Women” [PT #14]
John Stuart Mill, "The Subjection of Women" [PT #15]
Carol Gilligan, “In a Different Voice” [PT #16]
11/18 Transcending liberal individualism? and Final word [W, pp. 189-199]
11/20 [No new reading]
Mon 11/23 – Fri 11/27
THANKSGIVING BREAK
7. Theory into Practice
Mon
Wed
Fri
Mon
Wed
Fri
11/30 Miller, The Two Percent Solution, Prologue-Chapter 3
12/2 Miller, Chapters 4-5
Paper #2 due
12/4 Miller, Chapters 6-7
12/7 Miller, Chapters 8-9
Public Campaign, "The Road to Clean Elections" [BB]
12/9 Miller, Chapters 10-11
12/11 [No new reading]
Wed
12/16 8-10am FINAL EXAM (in our usual classroom)
TEACHING POLICIES:
Attendance
During classtime I will often introduce material that is not covered in the reading assignments.
You will be held responsible for knowing this material. If you do not come to class, you will not
know this material, and your performance on essays and exams will suffer. So come to class.
Academic Conduct
Students are expected to conform to the Standards of Academic Conduct printed on pages 116118 of the 2001-2002 Student Handbook. Please familiarize yourself with these standards.
Violations will be reported to the Ithaca College Conduct Review Board. Additionally, you will
receive a grade of zero on any assignment that is not completed according to these standards.
Plagiarism is one very serious violation of these standards. I will not tolerate it. There are good
reasons for my zero-tolerance policy—reasons well summarized by the philosopher Hugh
LaFollette, from whom I quote below:
“Why Shouldn't I Plagiarize?
(1) It undercuts the aims of education. If you plagiarize you will not learn the skills you
should learn – you are merely copying someone else's words and ideas – and that you already
knew how to do.
(2) It is theft. And all theft is wrong, whether it is theft of an idea or an object.
(3) You harm other students. By plagiarizing you make professors more suspicious of
students. This encourages them to make assignments that are plagiarism-proof rather than
ones that are educationally sound.
(4) You will get caught. Think about it for a minute: if you plagiarize from a good source –
one that is likely to help your grade – the prof may well know (or can easily find) the source.
And if your writing style drastically changes from sentence to sentence or from paper to
exam, that will be obvious to even a causal observer. To plagiarize well – to plagiarize in a
way that is likely to land you a decent grade and minimize the chance you will get caught –
you would have to know the material so well, that it would be easier – and more educationally
beneficial – to write the essay yourself."1
Classroom Behavior.
I care about your education, and I put a lot of time into preparing lectures and classroom
activities. Hence it is disrespectful not to give me your attention in class. If you cannot do this,
please stay home. Note: if you are texting on your cell phone, you are not giving me your
attention.
Special Needs
1
From the website of Hugh LaFollette (http://www.etsu.edu/philos/classes/hhl/plagiari.htm).
If you have a special need owing to an identified disability, please let me know. I am
happy to work with you together with the office of Academic Support Services for Students with
Disabilities. You should contact them at x4-1005.