To paraphrase Karl Marx, the history of all hitherto existing political society is the history of revolution. Political revolutions have long been with us both historically as well as objects of interest in philosophy; across the globe, from the ancient world to the modern, we see instances of the kinds of violent contestations over power and legitimacy that we tend to call revolution. In this course we will study both the nature of political revolution as well as how political philosophers have dealt with its possibilities, including thinking about what the term itself connotes: does revolution have to be violent? Does it have to be just? Does it have to secure peace? What are the criteria on which we judge the success of revolution, as well as on which we decide whether certain events qualify as revolution in the first place? When are revolutions necessary? Finally, if revolution is not the answer to political problems, how else might political transformation occur?
In order to analyze these themes and questions the course is divided into four sections. In the first two sections we will encounter theoretical and conceptual arguments for the criteria states must meet in order to be legitimate – and therefore practice coercion legitimately – as well as ways of thinking about the potential meanings for revolution. The second pair of sections will delve into existing modes of revolution, civil disobedience on the one hand and terrorism on the other. Throughout we will be investigating the relationship between politics and revolution, in addition to continually asking how we might evaluate all sorts of resistance movements that are happening in our own time.
Class Schedule
T 8/22: Introduction & Expectations
- The establishment of foundation and order: Aeschylus’ The Eumenides
- The First Plebian Secession in Ancient Rome (494 BCE)
- Franz Kafka, “Before the Law”
R 8/24: Maximilien Robespierre, “On the Trial of the King” in Virtue and Terror (P 57-65)
Legitimacy + Illegitimacy
T 8/29: John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Chapters II-III, IX-XI (P 4-13, 63-72)
R 8/31: John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, Chapters XII-XIV (P 73-85)
T 9/5: John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, Chapters XVII-XIX (P 98-120)
R 9/7: Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation” in The Vocation Lectures (P 32-63)
T 9/12: Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation” in The Vocation Lectures (P 63-94)
R 9/14: A. John Simmons, “Philosophical Anarchism” in Justification and Legitimacy (P 102-121)
T 9/19: A. John Simmons, “Justification and Legitimacy” in Justification and Legitimacy (P 122-157)
Defining Revolution
R 9/21: Sheldon Wolin, “What Revolutionary Action Means Today” in Fugitive Democracy (P 368-378)
T 9 /26: Jacques Rancière, “Ten These on Politics” in Theory & Event 5.3
R 9/28: Sheldon Wolin, “Fugitive Democracy” in Fugitive Democracy (P 100-113)
T 10/3: Rosa Luxembourg, “Conquest of Political Power” in The Essential Rosa Luxembourg (P 88-96)
R 10/5: Hannah Arendt, “The Meaning of Revolution” in On Revolution (P 11-48)
T 10/10: NO CLASS – FALL BREAK
Civil Disobedience
R 10/12: Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” in Civil Disobedience in Focus (P 28-48)
T 10/17: John Rawls, “Duty and Obligation” [VI.55-59] in A Theory of Justice (P 319-343)
R 10/19: A. John Simmons, “Civil Disobedience and the Duty to Obey the Law” in The Blackwell Companion to Applied Ethics (P 50-61)
T 10/24: Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter From Birmingham Jail”
R 10/26: Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet” (Cleveland version)
Violence + Terror
T 10/31: Hannah Arendt, On Violence (P 3-42)
R 11/2: Hannah Arendt, On Violence (P 43-87)
T 11/7: Erica Chenoweth & Maria J. Stephan, “After the Campaign: The Consequences of Nonviolent and Violent Resistance” in Why Civil Resistance Works (P 201-219)
{Gene Sharp handout}
R 11/9: Amílcar Cabral, “Armed Resistance” in Resistance and Decolonization (P 139-155)
T 11/14: Frantz Fanon, “On Violence” in The Wretched of the Earth (P 1-31 / 31-52)
R 11/16: Christopher J. Finlay, “Rights Worth Killing For” in Terrorism and the Right to Resist (P 55-86)
T 11/21 – R 11/23: NO CLASS – THANKSGIVING BREAK
T 11/28: Vicente Medina, “Whatever It Takes” in Terrorism Unjustified (P 189-201)
Film: THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS
@ Campus Theatre, 7pm
ATTENDANCE REQUIRED
R 11/30: Lionel K. McPherson, “Is Terrorism Distinctively Wrong?” in Ethics 117.3 (P 524-546)
T 12/5: Wrap-up