POLS 314: Political Philosophy and Education
Fall 2007

Prof. D. Schaeffer
Fenwick 307
793-3403
Office Hours: Mon. 10-11; Tues. 2-3; Thurs. 10-11:30
(and by appointment)

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“I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but the people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take power from them, but to inform them by education." - Thomas Jefferson

“It is ominous, a presumption of crime, that this word Education has so cold, so hopeless a sound. A treatise on education, a lecture, a system, affects us with a slight paralysis and a certain yawning of the jaws. We are not encouraged when the law touches it with its fingers. Education should be as broad as man….The imagination must be addressed. Why always coast on the surface and never open the interior of Nature, not by science, which is surface still, but by poetry? Is not the Vast an element of the mind? Yet what teaching, what book of this day, appeals to the Vast? - Ralph Waldo Emerson

* * *

In the aftermath of 9/11, social commentators and public intellectuals from across the political spectrum declared that “now is the time to teach democracy.” But what does it mean to teach democracy? What kind of education is best suited to democratic citizenship? Are well-designed institutions and procedural rules enough to sustain democracy, or does it require a distinctive civic education as well? What is “civic education” in an era of “globalization?” Finally, is there a tension between the goal of a radically independent intellect and the goal of good citizenship? One might assume that in a liberal republic these two goals easily converge, that “liberal republic” and “liberal education” go hand in hand. Can we assume this convergence? Does a tension persist between the ideal of an excellent citizen, and an excellent human being?

Many (though not all) classical liberal theorists as well as contemporary democratic theorists emphasize the importance of a well-educated populace in order to secure the conditions for liberty and self-governance. But by what criteria are we to judge such an education? What, precisely, is the connection between education and political liberty or freedom? Conversely, what is the relationship between education and authority? Human beings are children before they become the rational individuals that appear in social contract theories; therefore any theory that assumes rational individual agents must address the question of how such individuals are formed. Children are subjected to the authority of adults; can that authority be exercised in such in a manner as to avoid inculcating habits of either subservience or dominance? If indeed well-educated citizens are necessary to achieve democracy rather than “mob rule,” what is the role of the state in shaping the characters and preferences of its citizens? Reflecting on the purpose of education requires us not only to explore the relationship between public and private, but also, even more fundamentally, to explore the meaning of human freedom.

Papers/Grading

Short analysis: 10%
Paper #1: 30%
Paper #2: 40%
Class Presentation and Class participation: 20%

The first paper will consist of a close reading and interpretation (7-8 pages) of the work of one of the major authors in the course—Descartes, Locke or Rousseau. The paper will be due in class on the day that we discuss that reading in class. The final paper (10-12 pages, due on Monday, Dec. 10th) will address broader themes raised throughout the semester. You will receive more information about the requirements for this paper in October. Finally, the “short analysis” will consist of a close reading of some assigned passages in Book I of Emile, and is due on October 16th.

The rest of your final grade will reflect your engagement in the classroom: the quantity and quality of your class participation, as well as the quality of a class presentation that you will prepare for one class meeting. Each student will be assigned one reading during the semester. You will prepare a ten-minute presentation for the class, along with a one-page handout for the other students. This handout is not a summary or an outline. It should identify three questions about the reading, or passages from the reading, for discussion. These questions and/or passages should illuminate something essential about the argument, draw attention to a difficulty or perplexity in the argument, or point to some unstated implications of the argument. In your presentation you will explain why you think these questions/passages are interesting and important, and indicate the direction(s) you think the discussion should take, and why.

All students are expected to uphold the College standards of academic honesty as stated in the College Catalog. The full statement of the College’s policy may be found on pages 13-14 of the College Catalog, and at http://www.holycross.edu/catalog/academic-honesty-policy.pdf. If you have any questions about any aspect of academic honesty, please ask me.

ASSIGNMENTS

September 4
Michael Sandel, “Liberalism, Consumerism and Citizenship”
(in Cultivating Citizens, ed. Dwight Allman and Michael Beatty)
Thomas Frank, “Why Johnny Can’t Dissent”
William A. Galston, excerpt from Liberal Purposes
Peter Schrag, “Schoolhouse Crock: Fifty Years of Blaming America’s
Educational System for Our Stupidity,” Harpers, September 2007.

Recommended:
“The 2006 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well are
American Students Learning?” (The Brookings Institution, 2006).
Available on Blackboard.
Steven F. Wilson, “Realizing the Promise of Brand-Name Schools,” Brookings Papers on Education Policy, 2005. (avail. on Blackboard)

September 11
Amy Gutmann, Democratic Education, Introduction and Ch. 1- 4
(pp. 3-126)
Michael W. Apple, Educating the ‘Right’ Way: Markets, Standards, God
and Inequality, Ch. 6: “Away With All Teachers: The Cultural
Politics of Homeschooling” (on reserve)

Recommended: Michael H. Romanowski, “Revisiting the Common
Myths about Homeschooling,” The Clearing House (Jan/Feb 2006). Available on Blackboard.

September 18
Michael Oakeshott, “Political Education” (on reserve)
Friedrich Nietzsche, “On Truth And Lie in an Extra-moral Sense”
http://www.geocities.com/thenietzschechannel/tls.htm#1

September 25
Descartes, Discourse on Method
Recommended: Richard Kennington, “Descartes” from On Modern
Origins: Essays in Early Modern Philosophy, ed. Pamela Kraus and Frank Hunt (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004), Ch. 11 (on reserve)

October 2
Locke, On the Conduct of the Understanding
Nathan Tarcov, “Lockean Liberalism and the Cultivation of Citizens”

October 9 - NO CLASS – FALL BREAK

October 16
Rousseau, Emile, Book I
Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education (Sections 1-6; 31-37;
41; 61-66; 68-71; 81)

October 23
Emile, Book II

October 30
Emile Book III; Book IV to page 223
Recommended: Daniel Defoe, excerpt from Robinson Crusoe (reserve)

November 6
Emile, finish Book IV

November 13
Emile, Book V
Denise Schaeffer, “Reconsidering the Role of Sophie in Rousseau’s Emile”
Polity 30/4 (June 1998): 607-626. Available on Blackboard and through JSTOR

November 20
Rousseau, Emile and Sophie, or Solitary Beings, trans. Alice W. Harvey (on reserve)
Mary Wollstonecraft, excerpt from Vindication of the Rights of Woman
(on reserve)

THANKSGIVING BREAK

November 27
Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, Introduction; pp. 47-137;
141-156; 194-240; and 336-382.
Henry Giroux, Take Back Higher Ed, selections (on reserve)

December 4
John Dewey, Education and Experience
John Dewey, “Ethical Principles Underlying Education” (reserve)
Nell Noddings, “Thoughts on Dewey’s ‘Ethical Principles Underlying
Education,’” in Educating Moral People (2002) (reserve)

December 10 (Monday) Final Paper Due by 3:00 p.m.