| Phil 457.1001/657.1001 Political Philosophy Dr. Deborah Achtenberg |
Fall 2018 Mon., Wed. 1:00 – 2:15 p.m. |
Critiques of the State Introduction approx. 3 classes
Precarity approx. 5 classes
 Aulnay-sous-Bois mural: “Oh my body, make me always a person who questions! Frantz Fanon” (c) Deborah Achtenberg 2015
Isabell Lorey, “Governmentality and Self-Precarization” (eipcp)
First paper Governmentality and power approx. 5 classes Michel Foucault “Truth and Juridical Forms”  F-House No. 1, Stateville Correctional Center, Crest Hill, Illinois (David Leventi Photography) “Governmentality”
“Boys Don’t Cry” (1999) theatrical trailer
The global south approx. 5 classes
Third paper “Algeria (1992–present),” Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl, Department of Politics, University of Virginia (2006)  Conclusion approx. 1 class Course topic: critiques of the state Foucault: the multiple locations of power—over bodies, acts, attitudes, behavior, population and through discipline and surveillance (biopower), how we internalize state power and govern ourselves (governmentality), how power produces truth, subjectivity and resistance. Dussel: the relation between global capitalism (the capitalist world system) and colonialism, how modern European philosophy ontologically and epistemologically justifies colonialism by constructing some people as subhuman based on ethics conceived as non-conventional, individualist, universal and founded on rational argument, why South-to-South philosophical dialogue is needed, how to move toward creativity and symmetry in philosophy in a transmodern (not postmodern) and pluriversal (not universal) philosophy that avoids philosophical fundamentalism, in a participatory (not liberal) democracy, and through interphilosophical global dialogue. Derrida: how vulnerability is essential to democratic states (since democratic self-rule or sovereignty is rule by others), how self-critique is essential to democratic states, how democratic states can–and always do—destroy themselves (autoimmunity), how dominant states such as the U.S. justify themselves by imagining other people to be rogues (thugs)—and other states to be rogue states—and by not recognizing that they are rogue (the rogue that I am/the rogue that I pursue), unconditionality and singularity—rather than universality—as philosophical justification for democracy (by way of the concept of khora, i.e. receiving without giving), how secularism is important for democracy, contemporary Islam for and against democracy, the declining sovereignty of the nation-state, future democracy as democracy beyond the nation-state, democracy-to-come. Course goals: through readings in philosophy, students will achieve familiarity with some recent critiques of the state; in class discussions and papers, students will learn to analyze, explain, compare and evaluate those critiques. Course texts: Course texts are available from the university bookstore and from online distributors. Students are required to utilize a hard copy of all course texts. Isabell Lorey, State of Insecurity: Government of the Precarious, Aileen Derieg, translator (Verso, 2014 <2012>) Michel Foucault, Michel Foucault: Power, James D. Faubion, editor (Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984) (The New Press, 2000) Enrique Dussel, “Agenda for a South-South Philosophical Dialogue” (Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge: Volume 11 : Issue 1, Article 3, 2013 Available either through the bookstore or online for printout at <https://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1440&context=humanarchitecture> Jacques Derrida, Rogues: Two Essays on Reason, Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas, translators (Stanford University Press, 2005 <2003>) Course requirements: Attendance: Much of the important work in this course goes on in class. Students are expected to be in attendance except in cases of illness, emergency, religious holiday or university-sanctioned extracurricular activity, to be present for the entire seventy-five minute period and not to make appointments that conflict with class sessions. Graded assignments are based, in part, on class discussion and are expected to reflect familiarity with topics discussed. As a result, it is to your disadvantage to miss class. Attendance is required and will be taken at the beginning of each class session. It is the student’s responsibility to sign the roll sheet in each class. Students may miss three classes without penalty. Five points will be subtracted from the final course grade for the fourth class missed and two points for each class missed after that. Exceptions will be made in the case of illness, emergency, religious holiday or university-sanctioned extracurricular activity. A written excuse or other evidence must be provided for exceptions to be made. Missed classes: If you miss class, contact one of your fellow students to find out what we did in your absence and to get notes on the class you missed. Once you have done that, you are invited to talk to the instructor about what you missed. Please do not email the instructor to find out what you missed in class or to tell the instructor that you will not be attending. Thanksgiving break: November 22-23, 2018 Papers: The papers will be essays. They will be five to seven pages long. Papers are due as scheduled on the course outline. You need use no books other than the course texts to write the papers. One of the papers will centrally feature material from the student’s interview. In an essay, you state a thesis, explain it and argue for it. The basic structure of an essay is: an introduction in which you state your thesis, the body of the essay in which you explain and argue for your thesis, the conclusion in which you summarize or highlight what you have done in the essay. Application paper: Students will apply what they have learned in this course and in previous Core and philosophy classes by interviewing someone in our area (Reno, Sparks, Fallon, Incline Village, Las Vegas, etc.) who works or who has worked in the past and then centrally utilizing material from the interview in one of the four assigned papers. The interview will be on course-related topics such as: How does work affect your views on political issues and on whether life here today is fair? How do you deal with the stresses and insecurities of your work life? Who or what helps you achieve security or stands in the way of it? What are your plans for the future? What were your last five jobs like? Have you been treated ethically in your work life? Have you been allowed to be autonomous and responsible at work? Are you doing what you hoped to be doing in your life? How is your work connected to the rest of your life? How does work affect your overall bodily health and happiness? Etc. Through the interview, students will enhance their reading and discussion of ideas such as precarity, security, threats to security, others as instrumental to or threats to security (dangerous others), the state as guarantor of or threat to security, how we govern ourselves (governmentality), how our bodies are governed (biopower), how we are governed through surveillance and discipline, how self-empowerment and resistance are possible. Students will generate ten interview questions. They will utilize oral communication skills by conducting the interview. They will practice philosophical thinking by discussing their interviews in class and by incorporating analysis of and reflection on the interview into a philosophical essay. Reflection on the interview, for example, might provide exemplification of concepts found in our readings or our discussion of them and, for another example, analysis of the interview might provide support for or against claims and arguments made by the philosophers we will read during the semester. Further ideas about interview topics will be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the semester so that students can think about who to interview and what questions to ask. We will aim at students interviewing people engaged in a variety of types of work—from service jobs to professional ones, from construction jobs to academic jobs, from police work to military work to casino work to sex work and work in the home, work as an engineer to work as an auto mechanic, translation jobs to performance jobs, etc. Students are asked not to interview philosophy department members. They are asked not to interview family members as well unless they can give the instructor strong reasons for doing so. No later than the end of our reading of “Governmentality,” students will select who they wish to interview, set the time, date and location of the interview, and submit ten interview questions to the instructor for review. Students will complete their interviews by the end of our Dussel readings. Essay format: Essays will be typed or word-processed, double-spaced and in ten- or twelve-point type. They will be in finished form and without errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation. They will have a title and a title page. Pages will be numbered. There will be no extra spaces between paragraphs. All quota-tions will be accompanied by a reference in parentheses. Block indent passages that are more than three lines long. When you block indent, you do not need quotation marks (the block indentation serves to show that the passage is a quotation). In addition, block indented quotations do not need to be in italics. In general, put the author’s ideas in your own words, and then cite the passage in which you find those ideas, for example: Lorey believes we imagine some people as dangerous people who are abnormal and alien and, as a result, we feel justified in protecting some people from threats while the others remain without protection. For example, she asserts that “Legitimizing the protection of some generally requires striating the precarity of those marked as ‘other’” and goes on to say that “The threatening precariousness can be turned into construction of dangerous others, positioned respectively within and outside the political and social community as ‘abnormal’ and ‘alien’” (14). In general, you should have very few ellipses in quotations. In addition, quotations should include complete sentences. Here’s an example of what not to do: Lorey says that “Legitimizing the protection of some…requires striating the precarity of those marked as ‘other’…construction of dangerous others…as ‘abnormal and ‘alien’ (14). Do not start your paper with a broad general claim about the paper topic, for example: “The state has been discussed by human beings since the beginning of history.” Such statements do not further your goals in writing an essay, namely, to state, explain and argue for a claim. Every sentence in an essay, from the beginning to the end, fulfills one of those functions. So, jump right in at the beginning and start fulfilling those functions and, at the end, make sure every part of your essay clearly fulfills one of those functions. Essays will be evaluated on the following basis: 1. Do you have the parts mentioned above (introduction, body, conclusion)?2. Do you fulfill the functions mentioned above (state thesis, explain argue for it, summarize or highlight)? Do you argue against objections? Evaluation: Grades will be based on the four papers, weighted equally (1/4 each). Excellent class participation may raise your grade somewhat over the mathematical average, at the discretion of the instructor. Any points for non-attendance will be subtracted as described above. Late papers and take-home assignments will lose a letter grade for each class session they are late. Exceptions will be made only in the case of serious illness, emergency, religious holiday or university-sanctioned extracurricular activity. A written excuse or other evidence must be provided for exceptions to be made. Papers will be submitted on Canvas by midnight on the due date. Papers submitted after that will be considered late. Students will be held responsible for knowing what goes on in class. Absences will not excuse you from knowing due dates of papers or take-homes. The grading scale is: 94-100, A; 90-93 A-; 87-89 B+; 84-86 B; 80-83 B-; 77-79 C+; 74-76 C; 70-73 C-; 67-69 D+; 64-66 D; 60-63 D-; below 60, F. It is the instructor’s policy that cheating, plagiarism or submission of written work for this course which was submitted in another course merits a course grade of ‘F’. Course links: The course outline and class assignments are posted on the world wide web. They can be accessed through my personal academic website: <deborahachtenberg.com/pof18co>. They will also be distributed in class. My site can also be accessed through Canvas or through my page on the Department of Philosophy website: <www.unr.edu/philosophy>. Use of the internet: Use of the internet for research purposes is appro-priate. However, students should use their own ideas in papers they write. In addition, they should be aware that papers plagiarized from internet sources can easily be detected. Internet resources: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (another good on-line encyclopedia of philosophy, this one from Stanford University) Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper (In addition to suggestions I will make in class, you may find this webpage from Jim Pryor at NYU’s Department of Philosophy helpful.) Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (the electronic version of Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, published in 1961, with updates) Oxford English Dictionary (the electronic version of the OED with the latest new and revised entries) Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious offense. You plagiarize when you use someone else’s words or ideas without attribution. When you do this, you are putting forward someone else’s work as if it were your own. Changing a few words in a phrase or sentence is not enough to avoid plagiarism. (1) Instead, when you utilize someone else’s exact phrases, put them in quotation marks and cite in parentheses the person whose words you have used. (2) It is fine to paraphrase someone, but when you do, you must say so. You can make it clear by saying “As Lorey says…” or “According to Dussel…”. (3) Finally, do not utilize even short phrases from another person’s work without a citation. If you follow these three guidelines, you will find it is easy to use sources in your own writing without being academically dishonest. Class format: This class will be a combination of lecture and discussion. Discussions generally will have a focus rather than being general discussion or debate. Students will be expected to respond to questions asking them to reflect on the texts and the issues raised, to speculate in a thoughtful way when not sure, and in general to participate in discussion. Class discussions will refer to the course text. Students will need to bring the course text to class if they are to benefit from lectures and discussions. Web surfing and sending or reading email or text messages during class are not allowed. In addition, please refrain from carrying on extensive side conversations during class discussion, please silence cell phones before class and please do not eat during class. Studying: Many students will find that they do better work in this course if they study together with other students. Time-sensitive communications: In the unusual case of need for a time-sensitive communication, the instructor will contact students by email utilizing student email addresses available on MyNevada. Required statement on disability policy: “Any student with a disability needing academic adjustments or accommodations is requested to speak with the Disability Resource Center (Pennington Student Achievement Center, Suite 230) as soon as possible to arrange for appropriate accommodations.” Required statement on audio and video recording: “Surreptitious or covert video-taping of class or unauthorized audio recording of class is prohibited by law and by Board of Regents policy. This class may be videotaped or audio recorded only with the written permission of the instructor. In order to accommodate students with disabilities, some students may be given permission to record class lectures and discussions. Therefore, students should understand that their comments during class may be recorded.” Required statement on equal opportunity and Title IX: “The University of Nevada, Reno is committed to providing a safe learning and work environment for all. If you believe you have experienced discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic/dating violence, or stalking, whether on or off campus, or need information related to immigration concerns, please contact the University’s Equal Opportunity & Title IX office at 775-784-1547. Resources and interim measures are available to assist you. For more information, please visit: https://www.unr.edu/equal-opportunity-title-ix.” Required SLO’s and CO’s: “Upon completion of the course: (SLO1) Students will be able to state a thesis about a problem in contemporary political philosophy, and provide evidence and philosophical argument (including replies to counter-arguments) in its defense. (SLO 2) Students will be able to interpret the broadly ethical ideas associated with political philosophy (e.g., justice) in the contemporary philosophical literature. (SLO 3) Students will be able to distinguish better and worse reasoning, and recognize relevant logical relationships and patterns of inference (in the context of contemporary political philosophy). (SLO 4) Students will be able to show what is at stake in abstract debates in contemporary political philosophy, and indicate how different positions in these debates have ethical implications for individual citizens and states. (SLO 5) Students will be able to develop an original research project in which they interview active participants in contemporary political affairs and analyze their findings with the tools of political philosophers.” The course meets two UNR core objectives: “(Core Objective 12) Ethics. Students will demonstrate understanding of the ethical principles in general or in application of specialized knowledge, results of research, creative expression, or design processes. Students will demonstrate an ability to recognize, articulate, and apply ethical principles in various academic, professional, social, or personal contexts. (Core Objective 14) Integration & Synthesis. Students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge and skills developed in previous Core and major classes by completing a project or structured experience of practical significance.” Graduate Students: This course is a 400-level undergraduate course offered also for graduate-level credit. To receive graduate-level credit, students will fulfill some requirements that are the same as the requirements for undergraduate students, namely: readings as assigned, participation in discussion, attendance. Graduate students will also fulfill some requirements that are different than the requirements for under-graduate students. They will write three papers, ten pages each. Grades will be based on the three papers, weighted equally (1/3 each). Also, they will do some additional reading during the course of the semester and will meet with the instructor to determine it and then to discuss it. Graduate students will meet the same evaluation criteria as undergraduate students and some additional criteria, namely: Does the student’s writing reflect broad familiarity with philosophic concepts and modes of argumentation? Does the student’s writing reflect some understanding of the history of philosophic treatment of the concepts discussed? Is the student able to sustain multifaceted argument and analysis? My office hours are Tuesday, 9:00-10:00 a.m., and Wednesday, 2:45-3:45 p.m., or by appointment (101A Jones). You are invited to come by to discuss the course topics, your progress in the course or your progress at UNR. I look forward to meeting with you for such discussions. Please contact me as much as possible in person or by phone so that I can get to know you better! Please note that I do advising in person, not by email. Please try to meet with me during my scheduled office hours, if possible. If you cannot, and wish to make an appointment to see me at another time, call 784-6742 (my office), see me before or after class, or drop by my office and see if I am there, to make an appointment. If you try to get in touch with me and cannot, leave a voice mail message or a note with your phone number so that I can call you. Please do not send email messages informing me that you will not be attending class or asking me what we did in class. Please use email sparingly, primarily in unusual or emergency circumstances: <achten@unr.edu>. I want to get to know you, and the best way for that to happen in the short time we have together is for us to meet in person. |
“through permanent singular refusals, the small sabotages and resistances of precarious everyday life, a potentiality emerges that subverts the disciplining of governmental precarization time and again” (Isabell Lorey,
