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PLSC 118b, The Moral Foundations of Politics
Yale University, Spring 2011
Ian Shapiro
Monday, Wednesday 10:30 am - 11:20 am, 1 HTBA


Office hours: Wednesdays, 2:00 - 4:00 pm
110 Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse
Tel: 432-9368; [Link]@[Link]



When do governments deserve our allegiance, and when should they be denied it? This
course explores the main answers that have been given to this question in the modern west. We
start with a survey of the major political theories of the Enlightenment: Utilitarianism, Marxism, and
the social contract tradition. In each case we start with a look of classical formulations, locating them
in historical context, but then shift to the contemporary debates as they relate to politics today.

Next we turn to the rejection of Enlightenment political thinking, again exploring both
classical and contemporary formulations. The last part of the course deals with the nature of, and
justifications for, democratic politics, and their relations to Enlightenment and Anti-Enlightenment
political thinking.

In addition to exploring theoretical differences among the various authors
discussed, considerable attention is devoted to the practical implications of their competing
arguments. To this end, we discuss a variety of concrete problems, including debates about
economic inequality, affirmative action and the distribution of health care, the limits of state power
in the regulation of speech and religion, and difficulties raised by the emerging threat of global
environmental decay. There are no prerequisites.

Requirements:
Regular Students: Take-home midterm (30%); in-class final (50%); participation in
section (20%).
Writing-intensive students: Papers (50%); in-class final (30%); participation in section
(20%).
Paper due dates:

Paper 1
Rough draft: Feb 21 Final: Mar 23

Paper 2 Rough draft: April 11 Final: Apr 25

Key:

L = On sale at Labyrinth Books, York Street
R = In reader on sale at Tyco, Elm Street
B = On reserve at Bass Library
O =Online book accessible via Yale Library



COURSE SYLLABUS AND SCHEDULE OF CLASSES


Monday, January 10
Informational and housekeeping session

I. Enlightenment Political Theory
Wednesday, January 12
Introductory lecture

Required:
Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, chs 1-8, 13-15 (L,B).

Suggested:
Arendt, Eichmann..., the rest.

*Friday, January 14 (Friday classes do not meet, Monday classes meet instead)
Natural law roots of the Enlightenment
Required:
John Locke, First Treatise of Government, chs I-III, IX-XI (L, B).
Descartes, Discourse on the Method, Parts 2 and 4; Principles of Philosophy, Part
I, Items 1-8 in The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, Vol.1. (R,B)

Suggested:
Locke, First Treatise of Government, VI-VII.
Ian Shapiro, Moral Foundations of Politics, ch. 1 (L, B).

*Monday, January 17
Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. Classes do not meet.

II. Utilitarianism: Classical and Neoclassical

Wednesday, January 19


Note: All sections start this week.
Origins of classical utilitarianism







Required:
Jeremy Bentham, Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, chs 1, 2, 3, 7 (R, B).

Suggested:
Bentham, Introduction, chs 5, 6.

Monday, January 24
Classical Utilitarianism and distributive justice
Required:
Jeremy Bentham, The Psychology of Economic Man in Jeremy Benthams Economic
Writings, Vol. 3. (R,B).

Suggested:
Elie Halvy, The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism, part I, chs 1,3, part II, chs 1-3 (B).
Ian Shapiro, Moral Foundations of Politics, ch 2 (L,B).

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Wednesday, January 26
From Classical to Neoclassical Utilitarianism
Required:
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, chs 1-2 (L, B).

Suggested:
Ian Shapiro, Moral Foundations of Politics, ch. 3 (L, B).

Monday, January 31
The Neoclassical synthesis of rights and utility
Required:
Mill, On Liberty, chs 3-4.

Suggested:
Mill, Utilitarianism, chs 1-3 (B).

Wednesday, February 2


Limits of the neoclassical synthesis
Required:
Mill, On Liberty, ch. 5.

Suggested:
Mill, Utilitarianism, chs 4-5.

III. Marxism, its failures and its legacy

Monday, February 7



The Marxian challenge

[Note: Page numbers for all readings from Marx and Engels are from the Tucker anthology
(L, B)].

Required:
Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, pp. 469-500.

Suggested:
Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, pp. 143-5.
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The German Ideology, Part I, pp. 146-202.

Wednesday, February 9



Marxs theory of capitalism
Required:
Marx, Capital, Vol. I, pp. 294-302, 329-344.

Suggested:
Marx, Capital, Vol. I, 303-328.
Useful summaries of the analytical logic of Capital are Ernest Mandels introduction
to the Viking/Pelican edition of Capital, vol. I and Pierre Jalee, How Capitalism Works.


Monday, February 14


Marxian exploitation and distributive justice
Required:
Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program, pp. 525-41.

Suggested:
Marx, Capital, Vol. I, pp 361-84, 417-19.

Wednesday, February 16
The Marxian failure and legacy

Required:
Marx, Capital, Vol. I, pp 443-65.
John Roemer, Should Marxists be interested in exploitation? in Analytical Marxism
(R).

Suggested:
Shapiro, Moral Foundations of Politics, ch. 4 (L, B).

IV. The Social Contract Tradition

Monday, February 21

Secularizing Natural Law
Required:
John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, chs I-IX. (L, B)
Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Second Section, (concentrate on
37-49) (R, O)

Suggested:
Allen W. Wood What is Kantian Ethics? in Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of
Morals (Yale University Press, 2002). (R, O)

Wednesday, February 23
The Rawlsian social contract
Required:
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, ch. 1, 4, ch. 2, 11-12, 14-15 (L, B).

Suggested:
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, ch. 1 1-3, ch.2 13, 16-17.

Monday, February 28
Distributive justice and the welfare state
Required:
Rawls, Theory..., ch. 3, 20-22, 24-26, 29-30; ch. 4 40.

Suggested:
Rawls, Theory..., ch. 3, 23, 27; ch. 5 41-43, ch. 9 79.
Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia, pp. 183-231. (L, B)
Shapiro, Moral Foundations of Politics, ch. 5 (L, B).

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Wednesday, March 1


The Political-not-Metaphysical Legacy
Required:
Rawls, Justice as fairness: political not metaphysical in Philosophy & Public Affairs
14 (1985): 223-51 (R).
Shapiro, Justice and Workmanship in a Democracy in Democracys Place (R,B)

Spring Recess: Saturday March 5 Sunday March 20

Monday, March 21
The Nozickian Minimal State
Required:
Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia (L, B) chs 1-3.

Wednesday, March 23


Rights-as-side constraints and the minimal state
Required:
Nozick, Anarchy... ch. 4.

Suggested:
Nozick, Anarchy... chs 5, 8-10.

Monday, March 28
Compensation versus redistribution
Required:
Nozick, Anarchy..., chs 6, 7, pp. 149-64, 167-82.

V. Anti-Enlightenment Politics

Wednesday, March 30


The Burkean outlook

[Note: Page numbers for Burke readings are from the Yale University Press edition. (L, B)].

Required:
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (L, O), pp. 3-45, 77-83.
Patrick Devlin, Morals and the Criminal Law. (R)

Suggested:
David Bromwich, Introduction to Burke, On Empire, Liberty, and Reform (R, B)
Burke, Reflections (L, 0), the rest.

Monday, April 4




Contemporary communitarianism
Required:
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue, chs 1-3, 5 (L, B)

Suggested:

MacIntyre, After Virtue, chs 4, 6-8

Wednesday, April 6
Contemporary communitarianism
Required:
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue, chs 9, 14

Suggested:
MacIntyre, After Virtue, chs 10-12, 13, 15-19
Shapiro, Moral Foundations of Politics, ch 6 (L, B).

VI. Democracy

Monday, April 11




Democracy and Majority Rule (I)
Required:
Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, The Federalist Papers. Ed. Ian
Shapiro (Yale University Press, 2009). Papers No. 1, 14, 39, 48, 51, 62, 70, 78. (L, O)
(Note: if you have another version of The Federalist Papers you can use it.)

Suggested:
Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, The Federalist Papers. Ed., Ian
Shapiro. Papers No. 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 23, 47, 49, 55, 58, 63, 84, 85.
Dunn, Unmanifest Destiny. In Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison,
The Federalist Papers. Ed., Ian Shapiro.
D. Horowitz, The Federalist Abroad in the World. In Alexander Hamilton, John Jay,
and James Madison, The Federalist Papers. Ed., Ian Shapiro.

Wednesday, April 13



Democracy and Majority Rule (II)
Required:
Locke, Second Treatise of Government, chs X, XVII-XIX (L, B)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, excerpt. (R)
Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, excerpt. (R)

Suggested:
Shapiro, John Lockes Democratic Theory, in Two Treatises of Government (L, B)
Shapiro, Moral Foundations of Politics, ch 7 (L, B)
William H. Riker, Liberalism against Populism, excerpt. (R)

Monday, April 18



Democracy and Distribution
Required:
Shapiro, The State of Democratic Theory, ch.5 (R, B)

Wednesday, April 20




Final lecture
Required:
Shapiro, Democracys Place, ch. 8 (R, B)

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*Monday, April 25
No class; Friday classes meet
Review session will be scheduled during reading week (April 26-29).