Readings

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Required Texts

Amazon logo Plato. Four Texts on Socrates. Translated by T. G. West, and G. S. West. London, UK: Cornell University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780801485749.

Aristotle. Politics. Edited by Stephen Iverson. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1988. (Download a version from the Internet Classics Archive.)

Amazon logo Machiavelli.
 The Portable Machiavelli. Edited by Peter Bondanella, and Mark Musa. New York, NY: Penguin, 1979. ISBN: 9780140150926.

Amazon logo Hobbes. Leviathan. Edited by Richard Tuck. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780521560993. (Download a version from Project Gutenberg.)

Amazon logo Locke. Second Treatise of Government. Edited by C. B. Macpherson. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett Pub. Co., 1980. ISBN: 9780915144938. (Download a version from Project Gutenberg.)

Amazon logo Rousseau. Basic Political Writings. Edited by Donald A. Cress. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett Pub. Co., 1987. ISBN: 9780872200470.

Amazon logo Marx. The Marx-Engels Reader. Edited by Robert Tucker. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1978. ISBN: 9780393056846.

Amazon logo Tocqueville. Democracy in America. Edited by J. P. Mayer. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1988. ISBN: 9780060915223. (Download versions from Project Gutenberg: Volume 1 and Volume 2.)


Reading Assignments

LEC # TOPICS READINGS
1 Introduction
2 Plato, Apology
3 Plato, Crito
4 Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics. Edited by Iverson. Book 10. Chapter 9.

———. Politics. Book 1 (entire).

———. Politics. Book 2. Chapters 1-5.
5 Aristotle, Politics Aristotle. Politics. Book 3 (entire).

———. Politics. Book 4. Chapters 1-13.
6 Aristotle, Politics (cont.) Aristotle. Politics. Book 5. Chapters 1-5 and 8.

———. Politics. Book 6. Chapters 1-5.

———. Politics. Book 7 (entire).
7 Machiavelli, The Prince Machiavelli. The Prince. Dedication, and chapters 1-14.
8 Machiavelli, The Discourses on Livy Machiavelli. The Prince. Chapters 15-26.

———. Discourses on Livy. Book 1. Introduction and chapters 1-5.
9 Machiavelli, The Discourses on Livy (cont.) Machiavelli. Discourses on Livy. Book 1. Chapters 6-12, 16-18, 55 and 58.

———. Discourses on Livy. Book 2. Introduction, and chapters 1-2.

———. Discourses on Livy. Book 3. Chapters 1 and 40-41.
10 Hobbes, Leviathan Hobbes. Leviathan. Introduction, and chapters 6, 10-11 and 13.
11 Hobbes, Leviathan (cont.) Hobbes. Leviathan. Chapters 14-19.
12 Hobbes, Leviathan (cont.) Hobbes. Leviathan. Chapters 21, 24 and 28-30.
13 Locke, Second Treatise Locke. Second Treatise of Government. Chapters 1-5.
14 Locke, Second Treatise (cont.) Locke. Second Treatise of Government. Chapters 7-9.
15 Locke, Second Treatise (cont.) Locke. Second Treatise of Government. Chapters 10-14, and 19 (pp. 211-230 and 240-243).
16 Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality Rousseau. Discourse on Inequality. Part 1.
17 Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality (cont.) Rousseau. Discourse on Inequality. Part 2.
18 Rousseau, Social Contract Rousseau. Social Contract. Book 1 (all).

———. Social Contract. Book 2. Chapters 1-4, 6-9.
19 Rousseau, Social Contract (cont.) Rousseau. Social Contract. Book 3. Chapters 1-7, 9-10.

———. Social Contract. Book 4. Chapters 1-2, 7-9.
20 Marx, "On the Jewish Question," and "1844 Manuscripts" Marx. "On the Jewish Question." In Marx-Engels Reader. pp. 26-52.

———. "1844 Manuscripts." In Marx-Engels Reader. pp. 70-105.

 ———. "Communist Manifesto." In Marx-Engels Reader. pp. 472-91.

21 Marx, Communist Manifesto and Selections from Capital Marx. "Selections from Capital." In Marx-Engels Reader. pp. 302-8, 319-29, 392-403 and 407-15.
22 Tocqueville, Democracy in America Tocqueville. Democracy in America. Vol. 1. Introduction, Part 1, chapters 2-4, chapter 5 (pp. 61-70 and 87-98), Part 2, chapter 4, chapter 5 (pp. 196-201 and 220-230), chapters 6-9, chapter 10 (pp. 316-20 and 340-63), Conclusion.
23-24 Tocqueville, Democracy in America (cont.) Tocqueville. Democracy in America. Vol. 2. Part 1, chapters 1-2, Part 2 chapters 1-8, Part 3, chapters 1, 5, and 7-9, Part 4, chapters 1-3, and 6-8.
25 Concluding Lecture