This course will serve as an introduction to political theory by asking some fundamental questions about the relationship between the individual and society. In particular, we will look at expectations and demands put on individuals and under what conditions people might reject those expectations and demands, that is, when they disobey. Of special consideration is how theories of civil disobedience are intertwined with religion and racial experience. We will begin the course with a viewing of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, appropriate because "what is the right thing?" is a fundamental question of the course. Our focus will be on the traditional literature of civil obligation, from Plato to Malcolm X, from Jesus to Nelson Mandela.
Course readings ay include the following texts. Titles with asterisks (*)
will need to be purchased; DoverPublications.com has (trust me) the very cheapest
editions of the Sophocles' Oedipus cycle, Plato (The Trial and Death of
Socrates), Shakespeare, Locke, Thoreau, Marx (The Communist Manifesto
and Other Writings), and Conrad.
The Bible, Genesis
22
Sophocles, Antigone
*
Plato, The Apology
and Crito
*
New Testment,
Gospels of Luke and John
Shakespeare, Julius
Caesar *
Hobbes, Leviathan,
chapters 13, 14 and 20
Locke, The
Second Treatise of Government *
Melville, Billy
Budd *
Thoreau, Civil
Disobedience *
Marx and Engels, The
Communist Manifesto *
Conrad, The
Secret Sharer *
Anouilh, Antigone
Ghandi, Constructive
Programme
Welsh
v. United States
Gillette v. Unites States
King, Letter from Birmingham Jail
Malcolm X, selected writings
Mandela, General
Strike
Morrison, Beloved *