Freshman Seminars

Athenian Democracy

In classical Athens, ordinary citizens ruled over the political elite. That's what demokratia, “rule by the people,” meant. How did non-elite Athenians pull that off? In this seminar, we explore two fascinating, important and in some ways baffling short texts, both titled “The Constitution of the Athenians,” one attributed to Xenophon and the other written in the school of Aristotle. We'll read some additional brief extracts from Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle. Though the material concerns ancient Greek politics, we’ll approach it with all our assumptions and anxieties about modern democracy in mind. How different was ancient Greek democracy from what we call democracy today—and could we manage something more like it here?

Democracy Ancient and Modern

Dēmokratia, democratia, democracy. What did this term mean to the ancient Greeks who coined it, to the Romans who borrowed it, to the early modern Europeans who discussed it—and what does it mean today? Who or what was the original demos, how did it rule, and how different is the interpretation of “rule by the people” that now predominates? Through a thematically targeted selection of contemporary, ancient Greek, Roman, and revolutionary-era French sources, this course offers a historical exploration of the idea and practice of democracy, aiming to broaden our imaginative horizons with respect to what democracy has been, is, and could become.

Historical and Political Thought from Herodotus to Machiavelli

An introduction to ancient and medieval historical and political thought. Readings from Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, Livy, Tacitus, Augustine, Alfarabi, Maimonides, Aquinas, and Machiavelli.

Upper-Level Undergraduate Lectures

Ancient Greek Politics and Political Thought

This class explores the varieties of political experience and ideas in the ancient Greek world, focusing on the Classical era. We consider different regime types (kingship, tyranny, democracy, oligarchy), places (Athens, Sparta, Crete, Syracuse, and beyond Hellas, Persia, Carthage, and Egypt), political forms (city-state, nation, alliance, empire), institutions (assembly, council, courts, offices) and persons (political leaders or “demagogues,” citizens, women, foreign residents, slaves). The readings are broadly chronological and include a wide variety of sources: epic and elegiac poetry, tragic and comic drama, history, inscriptions, speeches, essays, and philosophy. Throughout, we keep an eye on the similarities and differences between ancient Greek and modern political ideas and practices, particularly respecting three themes: political agency, democracy, and justice.

Democracy Ancient and Modern

Dēmokratia, democratia, democracy. What did this term mean to the ancient Greeks who coined it, to the Romans who borrowed it, to the early modern Europeans who discussed it—and what does it mean today? Who or what was the original demos, how did it rule, and how different is the interpretation of “rule by the people” that now predominates? Starting with the first attestations of da-mo in the 12th century BC and ending with Iceland’s recent attempt to crowdsource its constitution, this course offers a broad chronological exploration of the idea and practice of democracy intended to broaden our imaginative horizons with respect to what democracy has been, is, and could become.

Modern Political Thought From Rousseau to Lenin

This course introduces some key texts and ideas in the history of modern political thought. The material is presented roughly chronologically in the form of four modules: (1) the French and Haitian Revolutions; (2) the division of labour and representation; (3) responses to capitalism and slavery; and (4) the Russian Revolution. Our list of texts is long and varied: political pamphlets, essays, speeches, legal documents, lectures, letters, poems, travelogues, dialogues, unpublished notes, book reviews, academic articles, interviews, even posters, from authors ranging from political actors and activists to commentators, theorists and philosophers. But excerpts are relatively short, core themes are revisited throughout the course, and lectures will provide as much context as possible. There are no prerequisites, and in the hope of providing some fascinating mental fodder for anyone interested in politics today, newcomers to the world of political theory are very welcome.

Upper-level Undergraduate Seminars

Classics of Ethics, Politics and Economics
This course explores some influential texts in the Western intellectual tradition, selected to promote reflection on three deceptively simple topics: What is ethics? What is politics? What is economics? As well as situating authors in their historical contexts and considering their engagements with their predecessors, we will keep a special eye on the following inquiry. How did ancient Greek oikonomia, the science of household management, ‘turn into’ modern economics, the master discipline of our time, which claims to illuminate choice-making under any and all conditions of scarcity—and what changing ethical and political presuppositions did this transformation involve?

Plato, Aristotle, Cicero

An opportunity to read, or to re-read, the most significant political statements of three foundational figures in the Western political tradition, paying attention to both historical context and philosophical argument. We will reflect on key elements of the modern political lexicon (e.g. politics, democracy, republic, justice, citizenship) by engaging with their Greek and Latin origins. Of particular interest will be the conceptualization of and relationships between a) the good (to agathon), the just (to dikaion) and the advantageous (to sympheron), and b) the honourable (honestas) and the useful (utilitas).

Graduate Seminars

Aristotle's Politics

In this course, we read the whole of Aristotle's Politics, spending two weeks on each book (combining Books VII and VIII for this purpose). Prior knowledge of ancient Greek is not necessary, although we have the original on hand and discuss the meaning of the Greek as we go. Topics include the polis (city-state), oikos (household), freedom, slavery, Aristotle's interpretation of Plato, citizenship, democracy, oligarchy, Aristotle's ideal political system, the political implications of economic disparity, and how to think about and avoid political revolution.

Aristotle in Context

The backbone of this course is three major political works by Aristotle, namely the Nicomachean Ethics, the Politics, and the Rhetoric, along with the account of Athenian history and politics written at his school. To help us get a better grasp of what Aristotle was responding to historically, ethically, and politically, where his thinking and argumentation was typical of his time, and where it's most distinctive, we'll support our reading of these texts with others from the late classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. Among other items, we’ll consider fragments of Protagoras and Antiphon; selected excerpts of Plato; an anonymous late 5th-century text on Athenian politics; the four extant Athenian “funeral orations”; speeches by Demosthenes, Aeschines, and Lykourgos of Athens; parts of the Rhetoric ad Alexandrum by Anaximenes of Lampsakos; and Plutarch's essays on Solon, Lycurgus of Sparta, Demosthenes, and Alexander the Great.

Collective Agency, Majoritarianism, and Solidarity

Politics, especially democratic politics, is a collective endeavour. But is collective or shared agency a coherent philosophical idea? Is majoritarianism an attractive way of generating group commitments to action and if so why? What does solidarity require of those who aspire to work together? And what institutional forms best support these practices? This course will explore these and related questions, drawing on both historical and contemporary works of political theory.

History of Political Thought: Ancient and Medieval

An opportunity to explore the political thought of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and early and medieval Christians from Plato to Marsilius. The emphasis is on canonical texts likely to be of most use to those preparing to teach in this or a related field, but anyone curious about the politics or the philosophy of these periods is encouraged to enrol. No Greek or Latin is assumed, though we will be attentive to original terminology and key terms will be taught and discussed throughout the course. Historical context will be supplied by the instructor and by additional recommended readings if desired.

Liberty, Ancient and Modern

In a classic lecture of 1819, Benjamin Constant represented the “liberty of the ancients” as collective public liberty—that is, direct political power—predicated on war and slavery, combined with citizens’ total subservience to the community as private individuals. By contrast, he represented modern liberty as a tissue of private liberties, such as liberty of speech, religion, and association, predicated on peace and commerce, combined with political representation—that is, a division of political labour between rulers and ordinary citizens. How plausible was that account? In the first part of this course, we study the conceptualization of liberty (eleutheria, libertas) and its opposite, slavery, and some aspects of both public and private life in ancient Athens, Sparta, and Rome. In the second part, we explore how a selection of canonical early modern authors approached the idea of liberty, paying special attention to the role that claims about ancient Greece and Rome and the concepts of public and private played in their thought. In the process, we consider how far these men’s writings suggest the existence of two distinct theoretical traditions (one more “political,” foregrounding the concept of sovereignty, the other more “economic,” foregrounding natural sociability). We close with two weeks on the French Revolution, asking how far it constituted an attempt to return to the politics of the ancient world, and finally return to Constant in the light of what we’ve learned.

Political Representation

It is not possible for everyone to engage in political activity all the time. Those who make political decisions or otherwise act on behalf of others are sometimes regarded as ruling over the rest. In other circumstances, they are regarded as representing them. What is political representation, especially as distinct from rule? What options are available for thinking about and practising it? How can we make representation work for us, and who is that “us” anyway? This course explores recent and earlier theoretical discussions of political representation, approaching it as both a philosophical concept and as a necessary technique of democratic politics. (1) We begin with Hanna Pitkin’s seminal work The Concept of Representation (1967), which distinguished among several forms of representation, including formalistic, descriptive, symbolic, and substantive modes. (2) Next, we review some of the most important theoretical contributions post-Pitkin. (3) We then turn to another way of thinking about representation: the distinction between synecdochical (part-for-whole) and metaphorical (this-for-that) representation and the political significance of that difference in ancient Greece and Rome. (4) We continue our exploration of earlier historical material by examining canonical discussions of political representation from early modern English, American, Swiss and French sources. And (5) we close by returning to the present, spending a week on each of three authors doing exciting work on the theory of representation today: Richard Tuck (Harvard and Cambridge), Hélène Landemore (Yale) and Wendy Salkin (Stanford). Schedules permitting, some of them will join us to discuss their current projects.

Political Thought of the French Revolution

This class is an opportunity to explore both major and less well-known political writings from the French pre-revolutionary and revolutionary periods, supplementing theoretical works with other documents and examining a variety of ideological and national perspectives. Knowledge of French is helpful but not required. Readings from Rousseau, Siéyès, Condorcet, Paine, Wollstonecraft, Robespierre, Gudin, Bentham, de Gouges, Grégoire, St Just, Hébert, Babeuf, de Maistre, Rehberg, Kant, Fichte, Boulay de la Meurthe, d'Hauterive, and Napoleon.