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Moral Foundations of Politics

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HomeSocial SciencesGovernance and Society

Moral Foundations of Politics

Yale University

About this course: When do governments deserve our allegiance, and when should they be denied it? This course explores the main answers that have been given to this question in the modern West. We start with a survey of the major political theories of the Enlightenment: Utilitarianism, Marxism, and the social contract tradition. In each case, we begin with a look at classical formulations, locating them in historical context, but then shift to the contemporary debates as they relate to politics today. Next, we turn to the rejection of Enlightenment political thinking, again exploring both classical and contemporary formulations. The last part of the course deals with the nature of, and justifications for, democratic politics, and their relations to Enlightenment and Anti-Enlightenment political thinking. In addition to exploring theoretical differences among the various authors discussed, considerable attention is devoted to the practical implications of their competing arguments. To this end, we discuss a variety of concrete problems, including debates about economic inequality, affirmative action and the distribution of health care, the limits of state power in the regulation of speech and religion, and difficulties raised by the emerging threat of global environmental decay.


Created by:  Yale University
Yale University

  • Ian Shapiro

    Taught by:  Ian Shapiro, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Henry R. Luce Director

    The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale
Commitment8 weeks of study, 12-15 hours/week
Language
English, Subtitles: Romanian, Spanish
How To PassPass all graded assignments to complete the course.
User Ratings
4.8 stars
Average User Rating 4.8See what learners said
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Welcome to Moral Foundations of Politics
Welcome to the course. Meet your instructor and learn about the structure of the course and what makes it distinctive.
3 videos, 4 readings
  1. Video: Welcome to Moral Foundations of Politics!
  2. Leyendo: Course Overview
  3. Leyendo: Meet Your Instructor
  4. Leyendo: Pre-Course Survey
  5. Leyendo: Readings
  6. Video: The Shape of the Course
  7. Video: Expectations
WEEK 2
Enlightenment Political Theory
This module explores what makes a government legitimate. More specifically, was the Third Reich illegitimate and was Eichmann breaking some kind of higher law here?
5 videos, 4 readings
  1. Video: The Eichmann Case and Problem of Illegal but Legitimate Acts
  2. Video: The Paradox of Discomfort and the Organization of the Course
  3. Leyendo: Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, pg. 21-55, 135-149
  4. Leyendo: Locke, First Treatise
  5. Video: Politics in the Enlightenment
  6. Leyendo: Locke, Second Treatise
  7. Video: Early vs. Mature Enlightenments
  8. Leyendo: Hobbes Lessons for the Professors of Mathematics
  9. Video: The Workmanship Ideal
Graded: Mini Quiz - Enlightenment Political Theory
WEEK 3
Utilitarianism: Classical and Neoclassical
Classical and neoclassical utilitarianism are examined in this module starting with the historical context. Professor Shapiro then shifts to the contemporary debates as they relate to politics today.
16 videos, 4 readings
  1. Video: Elements of Utilitarianism
  2. Leyendo: Bentham, Intro to Morals and Legislation
  3. Video: The Theory of Classical Utilitarianism
  4. Video: The Utility Monster and the Principle of Diminishing Marginal Utility
  5. Video: The Panopticon and Bentham on Government
  6. Leyendo: Bentham in W. Stark, Jeremy Bentham's Economic Writings, 442
  7. Video: Distribution and Diminishing Marginal Utility
  8. Video: Bentham on Equality and Rights
  9. Video: Neoclassical Utilitarianism: The Philosophical Context Beginning
  10. Video: Neoclassical Utilitarianism: The Economic Context
  11. Video: Ideological Stakes of the Transition from Classical to Neoclassical Utilitarianism
  12. Video: Introduction and the Harm Principle
  13. Leyendo: Mill, On Liberty, Chs. 1-2
  14. Video: Bentham, Mill, and The Rights-Utility Synthesis
  15. Video: The Harm Principle in Practice
  16. Video: The Harm Principle and the Spectrum of Harm
  17. Leyendo: Mill, On Liberty Ch. 5
  18. Video: Harm Examples
  19. Video: Is the Harm Principle Conservative?
  20. Video: Office Hours 1
Graded: Utilitarianism: Classical and Neoclassical
WEEK 4
Marxism, Its Failures and Its Legacy
This module on Marx's Enlightenment theory focuses on the foundations of capitalism theory and its major weaknesses.
10 videos, 5 readings
  1. Video: Marx Introduction
  2. Leyendo: Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party
  3. Video: Marx as an Enlightenment Thinker
  4. Video: Marx's Challenge to Classical Political Economy
  5. Video: The Working Class
  6. Leyendo: Marx, Capital (Vol. I), Prefaces, Chs. I, IV, VI, XII, XVI (excerpts)
  7. Video: Exploitation - The Macro Story and the Theory of Crisis
  8. Video: Exploitation - The Micro Story
  9. Leyendo: Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program
  10. Video: Marx's Overall Failures
  11. Leyendo: Marx, Theories of Surplus Value, Ch. XVII (Sections 8-11, 14)
  12. Video: Failures in the Macro Theory
  13. Video: Rethinking the Labor Theory of Value
  14. Leyendo: Roemer, "Should Marxists be interested in exploitation?" Analytical Marxism
  15. Video: Office Hours 2
Graded: Marxism, Its Failures and Its Legacy
WEEK 5
The Social Contract Tradition I
This module looks at classical formulations of the Social Contract Tradition, locating them in historical context, but then shifts to the contemporary debates as they relate to politics today.
13 videos, 8 readings, 1 practice quiz
  1. Video: Consent and Thomas Hobbes
  2. Leyendo: Hobbes, Leviathan, Introduction, Chs. 13-17, 21
  3. Video: John Locke and the Workmanship Ideal
  4. Video: Locke on Consent
  5. Leyendo: Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Chs. 2-5
  6. Video: Immanuel Kant's Ethics
  7. Leyendo: Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals
  8. Video: John Rawls Introduction
  9. Leyendo: Rawls, A Theory of Justices, pg. 3-19, 52-56 (Sections 1-4, 11)
  10. Video: John Rawls's Enduring Innovations
  11. Leyendo: Rawls, "Social Unity and Primary Goods," sect. IV, V in John Rawls: Collected Papers
  12. Video: The Veil of Ignorance
  13. Video: Principles of Justice
  14. Leyendo: Rawls, A Theory of Justice, pg. 102-109, 118-123, 153-160, 221-227 (Sections 20, 21, 24, 29, 40)
  15. Video: The Difference Principle
  16. Video: Problems with Rawls
  17. Video: Political Not Metaphysical
  18. Leyendo: Rawls, "Justice as fairness: political not metaphysical." Philosophy & Public Affairs 14 (1985): 226-48 (Sections 2-6)
  19. Video: Political Disagreement
  20. Leyendo: Shapiro, "Resources, Capacities, and Ownership." Political Theory 19.1 (February 1991), 47-72
  21. Video: The Overlapping Consensus
  22. Cuestionario de práctica: The Social Contract Tradition I
WEEK 6
The Social Contract Tradition II
This module looks at classical formulations of the Social Contract Tradition, locating them in historical context, but then shifts to the contemporary debates as they relate to politics today.
10 videos, 3 readings
  1. Video: Introduction to Nozick
  2. Leyendo: Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia, pp. 3-17, 26-35 (Chs. 1-3)
  3. Video: Features of Nozick's Account
  4. Video: The Invisible Hand Evolution of the State
  5. Leyendo: Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia, pp. 54-63, 78-84, 88-90, 108-119 (Excerpts from Ch. 4, 5)
  6. Video: Necessity and Obligation
  7. Video: Incorporating Independents
  8. Video: Compensation
  9. Video: Liberty Upsets Patterns
  10. Leyendo: Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia, pp. 149-164, 174-182 (Excerpts from Ch. 7)
  11. Video: Markets and Power
  12. Video: It is Unjust for Chamberlain to Make So Much Money
  13. Video: Office Hours 3
Graded: The Social Contract Tradition
WEEK 7
Anti-Enlightenment Politics
This module explores the rejection of Enlightenment political thinking, again exploring both classical and contemporary formulations.
8 videos, 4 readings
  1. Video: Burke's Conservatism
  2. Leyendo: Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (excerpts
  3. Video: Devlin's Conservatism
  4. Leyendo: Patrick Devlin, "Morals and the Criminal Law"
  5. Video: Introduction to MacIntyre
  6. Leyendo: Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue, Chs. 1-3
  7. Video: Emotivist Culture
  8. Video: Practices
  9. Leyendo: Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue, Chs. 5
  10. Video: Failure of the Enlightenment Project
  11. Video: Concluding Anti-Enlightenment Thought
  12. Video: Office Hours 4
Graded: Anti-Enlightenment Politics
WEEK 8
Democracy
This module deals with the nature of, and justifications for, democratic politics, and their relations to Enlightenment and Anti-Enlightenment political thinking.
13 videos, 12 readings
  1. Video: Democracy and its Critics
  2. Video: The Federalist Papers
  3. Leyendo: Hamilton, Jay, and Madison, The Federalist Papers, Paper No. 1, 9, 10, 14, 39, 48, 51, 62, 70, 78
  4. Video: The Republican Tradition
  5. Video: Discovering the General Will
  6. Leyendo: Jean-Jaques Rousseau, The Social Contract and the First and Second Discourses, Book I Ch. 6-7, Book II Ch. 3
  7. Leyendo: William H. Riker, Ch. 5, "The Meaning of Social Choice" in Liberalism against Populism, pp. 115-23
  8. Video: Habermas' Deliberative Ideal
  9. Leyendo: Jürgen Habermas, "Three Normative Models of Democracy"
  10. Video: Deliberation in the Real World
  11. Leyendo: James Fishkin, "Deliberative Polling: Toward a Better-Informed Democracy"
  12. Video: The Westminster System in Practice
  13. Video: The Majority Rule
  14. Leyendo: Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Chs. 17-19
  15. Leyendo: Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Ch. XXI and XXII
  16. Leyendo: Buchanan and Tullock, The Calculus of Consent, excerpt from Ch. 6
  17. Video: Competition and Democracy
  18. Leyendo: Shapiro, "John Locke's Democratic Theory," in Locke's Two Treatises of Government, pp. 309-332
  19. Video: Electoral Systems
  20. Leyendo: Douglas Rae, "The Limits of Consensual Decision"
  21. Video: Reviewing the Enlightenment
  22. Leyendo: Shapiro, "Elements of Democractic Justice." Political Theory
  23. Video: Democracy and Human Freedom
  24. Leyendo: Post-Course Survey
  25. Video: Office Hours 5
Graded: Democracy

FAQs
How It Works
Trabajo del curso
Trabajo del curso

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Creators
Yale University
For more than 300 years, Yale University has inspired the minds that inspire the world. Based in New Haven, Connecticut, Yale brings people and ideas together for positive impact around the globe. A research university that focuses on students and encourages learning as an essential way of life, Yale is a place for connection, creativity, and innovation among cultures and across disciplines.
Ratings and Reviews
Rated 4.8 out of 5 of 1,047 ratings

CP

Excelent!

JS

good info, quizzes of reasonable difficulty

Richard Henkle

Thanks for a great course and course format.

SA

Very concise course in history of political philosophy. Cover a wide area and provocative questions for beginner.



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