Family construction, childrearing, marriage and sexuality are critical issues
for political theorists, since most consider the family the fundamental social
unit and foundation of political society. Through an examination of traditional
political theory, this course will explore the treatment of these issues, and
how they influence other, more established political problems such as property,
civic attitudes, and community. Do certain gender roles serve certain communities?
Do families need to be structured a particular way depending on the regime?
Political theorists began raising these questions thousands of years ago, and
we will explore their answers.
Course readings may include the following:
Old Testament, Genesis
Aristophanes, Lysistrada
Sophocles, Antigone
Plato, The Republic,
Book V
Aristotle, Politics,
Book I
New Testment,
Gospels of Luke
and John
Augustine, Treatise
on Marriage
Filmer, Patriarcha
Stuart, A
Trew Law of Free Monarchs
Hobbes, Leviathan,
chapters 13, 14 and 20
Locke, The
Second Treatise of Government
Rousseau, Julie, or the New Heloise
Wollstonecraft, A
Vindication of the Rights of Women
Mill, The
Subjection of Women
Tocqueville, Democracy
in America, Volume II, section 3, chapters titled Influence of Democracy
on the Family, Education of Young Women in the United
States, The Young Woman in the Character
of the Wife, and How Americans Understand Equality
of the Sexes.
Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin
Engels, Origin
of Family, Private Property and the State