Course outline

 

 

Grades

 

 

Requirements

 

 

Essays: Topics and Dates

 

 

Schedule  Topics & Readings

 

 

Universal Syllabus Components

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 political science 406

 

 

Seminar on Plato’s Republic

 

 

Winter term, 2011-12

 

 
Tuesday evenings, 6-9 pm

 

 

email:  Don.Carmichael@ualberta.ca

 

 

office hrs:  Fridays, 2-3:30 and by appointment

 

 

 

 

 

Course Outline 

 

This will be a seminar on Plato’s Republic, with attention (i) to its power as a work of the philosophical imagination, (ii) to the adequacy of its central conceptions and arguments, and (iii) to the possible relevance of these conceptions today. 

 

Students in the seminar will not be expected to agree (or to disagree) with any parts of the work.  The aim is simply to read and reflect upon the Republic, and to develop these reflections creatively and critically.  It is presumed that students will already have a basic appreciation of the work through the pre-requisite Pol S 210 (or equivalent).  After the first few weeks of introduction, therefore, little time will be spent on lecture-explanations; rather the focus will be on critical discussion of the work’s arguments and the issues they raise.

 

Prequisites: Pol S 210 or equivalent.  No further work in political theory or philosophy is presumed, although students should know (or be prepared to learn) how to write brief “positional” essays.

 

 

Readings and Texts

 

Students will need two texts: a translation of the Republic, and a commentary.  I have not ordered any texts because most students will already have a copy of the Republic and many students will want to use one of the (free) commentaries available on line through the library; thus if you need to buy either of these, please make your own arrangements. 

 

Republic: any translation may be used so long as it includes the whole text with Stephanos pagination (eg ‘359a’). If you buy one, I suggest the Lee (Penguin), or the Reeves (Hackett), or the Bloom (Basic books).

 

Commentary: students will be asked to use a critical commentary to prepare for each session, so that we can skip over basic points of explanation and get directly into critical questions.  You may use any of the ones below.  Purshouse and Pappas are both available one line through the university bookstore. These are both comparatively basic. Bloom is somewhat controversial.  Annas is more advanced, but considerably more expensive. 

                        Purshouse, Plato’s Republic: A Reader’s Guide, 

                        Pappas, The Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Plato and the Republic

                        Bloom, The Republic of Plato (translation and commentary together)

                        Annas, An Introduction to Plato’s Republic (expensive, somewhat more advanced, but well regarded) .

 

 

Requirements 

 

All participants – including auditors -- will be expected to contribute to the seminar discussions and to prepare for these discussions by careful reading of the assigned material.   As part of this, students will be asked to write a brief reflection before each seminar on what they take to be the crucial point(s) of the assigned reading. Auditors are expected to prepare these reflections for any session they attend; those taking the course for credit are expected to do one each week with two weeks off of their own choosing.

 

Students taking the course for credit will be asked to do two short papers (5-7 pp) during the term and a slightly longer paper (8-9 pp) at or towards the end of the term. Topics and deadlines will be announced at the start of the class.  All essays should be terse, analytical, and "positional" -- arguing a definite thesis in relation to some aspect of the readings.  One of the short papers (5-7 pp) will be discussed in the seminar.  They should be critical re-examinations of any issue recently considered in the seminar and they should be e-mailed to participants with at least 24 hours’ notice. Students can choose their own dates and topics for these papers, subject to there being no more than one per week.

 

 

Grades

             Three essays: (equal weight)                       80%          

             Opening commentary                                  10%          

             contributions to the seminar*                      10%          

 

*  Seminar contributions will be evaluated by the quality of oral contributions, including questions.  One can contribute effectively to the quality of a seminar without speaking much, or even at all.  Students who are uncomfortable speaking in public are invited to discuss alternative forms of contribution with me.

 

 

Essay Varieties

 

All essays must be positional with a clear statement in the opening paragraph of the essay’s basic position.  These essays can be of different types:

(i)     interpretive: arguing that the text (or a specific passage) is best read one way rather than another.  Commentaries are especially helpful here because you can disagree with them. 

(ii)   critical-evaluative, arguing that a basic position in the text is right (as against some specific criticism) or wrong. 

(iii) reconstitutive”: I’ve made this term up to indicate a kind of essay that argues that a conception is valuable and can be applied today without some of the other aspects of Plato’s philosophy (eg, that specific conceptions in Republic could or should be adopted by democrats).

 

 

Essay Requirements, Topics, and Due Dates

Essays should be submitted as double-spaced paper copies with wide (1.5’-2”) margins on the right side and bottom for comments. All essays must contain a clear statement of the topic and thesis (position) in the opening paragraph, plus a bibliography (even if just one work) and citations for all references to the text.

 

            Seminar paper: should be emailed to all participants by midnight f the Sunday before it will be discussed.  (this date decided by the class)

 

Essay # 1: due Thursday, Feb 9th (4 pm in the General Office). 

 

            This essay may be written on the topics below or on any other topic covered up to this point.

1.      Assess the specialization thesis.

2.      “Justice is a kind of mental health” (444e).  Assess.

 

Essay # 2: due Thursday, March 22nd  (4 pm in the General Office). 

 

            This essay may be written on the topic below or on any other topic covered up to this point.

1.      What is the message of the Cave simile, and is it correct?

 

Essay # 3: due Thursday, April 19th (4 pm in the General Office).  Extended to Tuesday, April 24th

1.      Can liberal (or social) democrats be Platonists? (see essay variety iii). Consider with reference to any one issue.

2.      Hobbes famously denounced mytho-poetic language as the enemy of philosophical understanding (Leviathan 8:8) . But Plato has Socrates use such language quite frequently in discussion with Glaucon and Adeimantos.  Is this because they are stupid? Or is it instead because – for Plato --  philosophy requires mytho-poetic understanding?

 

 

Course Objectives

 

Apparently course outlines are required to include an explicit statement of objectives. If the objective of this course is not already obvious, you probably should not take it; but, for the record, the objective of the course is to help students develop a clear, critical understanding of Plato’s Republic and, through this, of their own positions on the topics discussed.



 

         

 

 

Schedule:

 

Jan 10      Introduction:  Cephalos and Polemarchos (327a - 336a)

NB: This will be a full (3 hour) session.  Following discussion of the course organization, there will be a discussion of Socrates’ conversations with Cephalos and Polemarchos.

 

Jan 17      Thrasymachos (336b – 354b)

 

Jan 24      A New Approach: The Dikaios Society (357a – 392c)

                        essay:   Arun  Bhaumik                       commentary: Neekoo  Collett

 

Jan 31      The Dikaios Society (cont’d) – (392c – 427c)

                        essay:   Michael  Doyle                        commentary: Dongwoo  Kim

 

Feb 7        Dikaiosune and the Individual (427d – 449a)           (► Essay # 1 due: Thurs Feb 9)

                        essay:   Philip  Stachnik                      commentary: Etienne  Rainville

 

Feb 11      (Sat)  Gotterdammerung in movie theatres (10 am – 4:30)

 

Feb 14      “Women and the Family” (449a – 471c)

                        essay:   Maura Roberts                        commentary: Erin  Wabisca

 

Feb 21      (no seminar: reading week break)

 

Feb 28      Philosophy (i):  philosophy and reality  (471c – 509c)

                        Roundtable # 1

                                                presentations:   Erin  Wabisca,   Lys-Divine Bacinoni, Mike Sydora

                                                 commentaries:   Philip Stachnik,  Arun  Bhaumik,  Michael  Doyle,

 

Mar 6       Philosophy (ii):  philosophy, truth, and education (509d – 541a)

                        essay:   Jennifer  McBean                    commentary: Mitchell  Bouwsema

 

Mar 13     Who, and What, is Best (i):  The Losers (543a – 576b … up to the end of tyranny)

                        essay:   Aaron  Pollock                        commentary: Lys-Divine Bacinoni

 

Mar 20     Who, and What, is Best (ii):  The Winners (576c – 592b plus 608c – 613e on the soul)     (►Essay # 2 due: Thurs Mar 22)

                        Roundtable #2

                                                  presentations:  Neekoo  Collett,  Dongwoo  Kim,  Etienne  Rainville

                                                  commentaries:  Jennifer McBean,  Maura Roberts,  Michael  Sydora

 

Mar 27     Art & Myth (i):  Wagner’s Gotterdammerung  (note: this session may be rescheduled)

                        No seminar essay this session

 

Apr 3       Art & Myth (ii): what’s with all the myths?  art (595a – 608b) + the myth of Er (614a – 621d)

                        essay:   Sydney  Mackie                      commentary: Aaron  Pollock

 

Apr 10     Conclusion – Republic: Myth, Music or Philosophy?  Book 1 & Its Questions in review (Bk 1)

                        essay:   Mitchell  Bouwsema               commentary: Sydney  Mackie

 

Apr 19       (Thurs)  Essay # 3 due

 

 

 

 

Universal Syllabus Components: 

 

(these appear on all course outlines in the faculty: posted here to save paper)

 

GRADING SCHEME:

 

           

Letter Grade

Grade Point

 

Excellent

A+

A

A-

4.0

4.0

3.7

 

Good

B+

B

B-

3.3

3.0

2.7

 

Satisfactory

C+

C

C-

2.3

2.0

1.7

Poor

Minimal Pass

D+

D

1.3

1.0

Failure

F

0

 

 



 

 

LATE PENALTIES, PLAGIARISM & ACADEMIC HONESTY:

Late assignments: It is your responsibility to inform the instructor as soon as it becomes clear that your work will be late. If you do not communicate in advance, and your reason for being late does not also explain this lack of communication, then you should be prepared to be penalized X% per day.

Plagiarism & Academic Dishonesty: The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty.  Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect.  Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/gfcpolicymanual/content.cfm?ID_page=37633 ) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence.  Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.  An important excerpt from the Code of Student Behaviour is appended at the end of this syllabus. Additional information and resources are available through the UofA’s Truth in Education project: http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/TIE/ .   (Note: All but the last two sentences of this statement must appear in all syllabi.)

 

SPECIALIZED SUPPORT & DISABILITY SERVICES:

 

Students with disabilities or special needs that might interfere with their performance should contact the professor at the beginning of the course with the appropriate documentation.  Every effort will be made to accommodate such students, but in all cases prior arrangements must be made to ensure that any special needs can be met in a timely fashion and in such a way that the rest of the class is not put at an unfair disadvantage. Students requiring special support or services should be registered with the office of Specialized Support & Disability Services (SSDS): http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/SSDS/. This is particularly important for students requiring special exam arrangements. Once you have registered with SSDS, it is your responsibility to provide the instructor with a "Letter of Introduction" and, if necessary, an "Exam Instruction & Authorization" form.

 

FEELING OVERWHELMED? (In need of student, social, financial or security services?):

 

The Student Distress Centre is there to listen, offer support, supply information and provide services:

 


 

Excerpts from the Code of Student Behaviour  

(updated effective APRIL, 2008)

 

30.3.2(1) Plagiarism

 

No Student shall submit the words, ideas, images or data of another person as the Student’s own in any academic writing, essay, thesis, project, assignment, presentation or poster in a course or program of study.

 

30.3.2(2) Cheating

 

30.3.2(2) a  No Student shall in the course of an examination or other similar activity, obtain or attempt to obtain information from another Student or other unauthorized source, give or attempt to give information to another Student, or use, attempt to use or possess for the purposes of use any unauthorized material.

30.3.2(2) b  No Student shall represent or attempt to represent him or herself as another or have or attempt to have himself or herself represented by another in the taking of an examination, preparation of a paper or other similar activity. See also misrepresentation in 30.3.6 (4).

30.3.2(2) c  No Student shall represent another’s substantial editorial or compositional assistance on an assignment as the Student’s own work.

30.3.2(2) d  No Student shall submit in any course or program of study, without the written approval of the course Instructor, all or a substantial portion of any academic writing, essay, thesis, research report, project, assignment, presentation or poster for which credit has previously been obtained by the Student or which has been or is being submitted by the Student in another course or program of study in the University or elsewhere.

 

 

30.3.2(2) e  No Student shall submit in any course or program of study any academic writing, essay, thesis, report, project, assignment, presentation or poster containing a statement of fact known by the Student to be false or a reference to a source the Student knows to contain fabricated claims (unless acknowledged by the Student), or a fabricated reference to a source.    

 

30.3.6(4)  Misrepresentation of Facts

No Student shall misrepresent pertinent facts to any member of the University community for the purpose of obtaining academic or other advantage. See also 30.3.2(2) b, c, d and e.

30.3.6(5)  Participation in an Offence

No Student shall counsel or encourage or knowingly aid or assist, directly or indirectly, another person in the commission of any offence under this Code.

 

The Truth In Education (T*I*E) project is a campus wide educational campaign on Academic Honesty.  This program was created to let people know the limits and consequences of inappropriate academic behavior. There are helpful tips for Instructors and Students. 

 

Please take the time to visit the website at:  http://www.ualberta.ca/tie