PS 220 - HUM The Good, the Free and the Powerful

4.00 credits.

(Humanities Core Course)
People inevitably find themselves in a political world. Our experiences of politics – as citizens obliged to other citizens, as persons anxious about the power of others who govern us, and as selves who come to value ideals such as freedom and equality – are complicated, insecure, exhilarating, and sometimes violent. Through careful readings of philosophical and fictional texts that engage the nature of political experience, students will grapple with different conceptions of how morality, freedom and political power are linked. In some texts, such as Plato’s Republic and Sir Thomas Moore’s Utopia, social harmony and the power of rulers reinforces one another. In other texts, such as Machiavelli’s Prince, government is an amoral force that is necessary to secure stability, even as it is feared. And in others, such as Huxley’s Brave New World, politics gives us the things we value – things we falsely believe we have chosen to value. By the end of the course, students will have investigated what they take to be good, and what it means to be free. And they will apply insights from their encounters with great works of philosophy and literature to a short story project that creates a political dystopia.