Fall 2025 | Yale University
Political philosophy is part of moral philosophy, which is philosophical reflection on morality or moralities. Moralities are a part of ordinary life, namely practices of producing certain assessments and prescriptions. Moral philosophy reflects upon the substance and status of such assessments and prescriptions, that is, on the reasons, arguments, and generalizations that are offered for and against them (substance) and on their knowability, objectivity, and on the reality of what moral terms such as rightness, justice, goodness might be taken to denote (status). This course will deal mainly with issues of substance: content and justification.
General
Course Book List
Required Readings
[\c] Plato. Republic. Translated with introduction by G. M. A. Grube, revised by C. D. C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
[\c] John Locke. Two Treatises of Government. Edited by Peter Laslett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[\c] Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The Basic Political Writings, Translated and edited by Donald A. Cress. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
[\c] Immanuel Kant. The Metaphysics of Morals. Translated and edited by Mary Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[\o] Mary Wollstonecraft. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[\c] G. W. F. Hegel. Elements of the Philosophy of Right. Edited by Allen W. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[\c] Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The Marx–Engels Reader, Edited by Robert C. Tucker. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
[\c] John Stuart Mill. On Liberty and Other Essays. Edited by John Gray. Oxford: Oxford World Classics.
[\c] John Rawls. A Theory of Justice. Revised edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Recommended Readings
[\c] John Rawls. Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press. Especially Chapters 1, 4, and 6.
[\o] Will Kymlicka. Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Especially Chapters 3–7.
[\c] Susan Moller Okin. Women in Western Political Thought, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[\c] Susan Moller Okin. Justice, Gender, and the Family. New York: Basic Books.
Schedule
8/28: General Introduction
No assigned readings.
9/2: Plato - Justice and the Ideal Republic
[\c] Plato, Republic, trans. G. M. A. Grube, rev. C. D. C. Reeve (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1992), 327–368e on justice (pp. 2–39); 369–473c on the ideal republic (pp. 39–133).
9/4: Plato and Aristotle
[\c] Aristotle, Politics. trans. C. D. C. Reeve (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998), Books I–III; Book IV, chapters 1 and 8–11; Book VII, chapters 1–3 (especially Book I: 1–3, 5–8, 12–13 and all of Book III).
[\c] Recommended: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Terence Irwin (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1999), Books I and V.
9/9: Aristotle and the Social Contract Tradition
9/11: Hobbes - Social Contract Theory
[\c] Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan, ed. Richard Tuck (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), Parts I and II, chapters 10–17, 27, 29–30 (especially chapters 13–15).
9/16: Hobbes Continued
[\c] Hobbes, Leviathan, continued.
9/18: Hobbes Concluded
[\c] Hobbes, Leviathan, concluded.
9/23: Locke and Hume
[\c] Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government, ed. Peter Laslett (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), Second Treatise, chapters 1–13, 16, and 19 (especially chapters 1–5).
[\o] Hume, David. “Of the Original Contract,” in Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary
[\o] Recommended: Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration
9/25: Locke and Hume Concluded
Locke and Hume, continued and concluded.
9/30: Rousseau - Discourse on Inequality
[\o] Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men, with notes (especially notes 9 and 17).
10/2: Rousseau - The Social Contract
[\c] Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. On the Social Contract.
10/7: The Federalist Papers and the U.S. Political System
[\o] Hamilton, Alexander; Madison, James; Jay, John. The Federalist Papers, ed. Clinton Rossiter (New York: Signet Classics, 2003), Nos. 9 (Hamilton), 10, 48, 49, 51, 62 (Madison), 78 (Hamilton) and the current political system of the United States..
10/9: Kant - Doctrine of Right
[\c] Kant, Immanuel. The Metaphysics of Morals, trans. Mary Gregor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), Part I: Doctrine of Right (skip sections 22-40).
10/14: Kant Concluded
[\c] Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals, concluded.
10/21: Wollstonecraft
[\o] Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. ed. Miriam Brody (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), chapters 1–5 and 9.
10/23: Hegel
[\c] Hegel, G. W. F. Elements of the Philosophy of Right. ed. Allen W. Wood, trans. H. B. Nisbet (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), Preface and §§ 29–33, 141–157, 182–208, 215–274, and 330–360 (with additions).
10/28: Hegel Concluded
[\c] Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right. concluded.
10/30: Marx - Alienation, Money, and Rights
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Marx–Engels Reader, ed. Robert C. Tucker (New York: W. W. Norton, 1978), pp. 40–46 (“According to Bauer…”), 70–86 (Estranged Labor), 93–105 (The Meaning of Human Requirements), 521–548 (Against Personality Cults), and 725–727 (Engels On Morality) on Alienation/Money & Rights.
11/4: Marx - Economics
[\c] Marx and Engels, The Marx–Engels Reader, pp. 319–388 (Capital I, The Fetishism of Commodities), and 403–438 (from Ch.15).
Recommended: pp. 203–217 (“Wage Labor and Capital”) on Economics.
11/6: Marx - Materialism, History, and Morality
[\c] Marx and Engels, The Marx–Engels Reader, pp. 3–6, 53–65, 133–135, 143–165, 172–200, 291, 431–434, and 734–768.
Recommended: pp. 469–491 and 496–500 on Materialism, History, Morality.
11/11: Utilitarianism
[\o] Mill, John Stuart. Utilitarianism, ed. George Sher (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2001).
11/13: Mill Concluded
[\o] Mill, Utilitarianism, concluded.
11/18: Mill - On Liberty
[\c] Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty and Other Essays, ed. John Gray (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), chapters 1–3.
11/20: Rawls - A Theory of Justice
[\c] Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice, revised edition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), §§ 1–4, 9, 11–14, 24–26, 32–39, 77, 79, 82, and 87.
12/2: Rawls Continued
[\c] Rawls, A Theory of Justice, continued.
[\c] Recommended: Rawls, Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), chapters 1, 4, and especially 6.