The Foundations of Modern Governance and Equality

Why do we need politics in the first place? What right has anybody to force another person to do something against their will? Why should I obey the law when it does not suit me to? What is the right balance of community good versus individual rights? How do we manage social change? What is the relationship of politics to cultural and gender identity? 

These are some of the questions which this PHIL 244 course will approach. As we will see, the answers will depend on views we have about individual human nature and whether we can agree on a set of moral values. For the purposes of this course, the ‘political’ will be defined as social decision making and we will be seeking normative claims.

There are two unifying threads for this course. The first one is the discussion of political authority during the formative phase of modern state based on individual rights and of democracy as a type of social and political organization in which the people are the sovereign. The second thread is a conversation about the role of women in society: their participation in the economy and political life.  

We all use political philosophy; the only question is: Are we using it well or badly? Do we know what our ideas mean? Our job is to understand these ideas, where they came from, and the arguments for and against them to enable us to make more informed decisions about what they imply and whether or not we agree with them. We need to understand implications on all sides because using political ideas without knowing where they lead or where they came from can be dangerous.

Our study follows two unifying threads:

1. Political Authority & Democracy: We examine the formative phase of the modern state, focusing on individual rights and the concept of the people as sovereign.
2. The Role of Women: We engage in a continuous conversation about women’s participation in economic and political life.

Political philosophy is not just an academic exercise—we all use it daily. Our goal is to understand where these ideas came from and their dangerous implications if used without knowledge of where they lead.

Central Inquiries

Throughout the semester, we seek to define and debate:

• Justice and Freedom: What is the chief good of a political society? 
• Equality and Rights: How should we live together, and what are our mutual duties? 
• Agency and Exclusion: Who is permitted to participate in politics, and who is excluded? 
• Fulfillment: What kind of work and pursuits are truly fulfilling for a human life? 

Thematic Reading List

Phase 1: The State of Nature and the Sovereign

• Weeks 1–3: Thomas Hobbes & Catherine Macaulay
  • Required: Selections from Hobbes’s Leviathan on the natural condition of mankind, laws of nature, and the definition of a commonwealth.
  • Required: Catherine Macaulay’s Letters on Education regarding the duty of governments to produce civilization.
• Weeks 4–5: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • Required: Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men.
  • Required: Selections from On the Social Contract Books I–IV.

Phase 2: Rights, Duties, and Autonomy

• Week 6: Mary Wollstonecraft
  • Required: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, focusing on the rights and duties of mankind.
• Weeks 8–9: Immanuel Kant
  • Required: Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, focusing on moral law, duty, and the transition to autonomy.

Phase 3: Utility, Liberty, and Subjection

• Weeks 10–12: John Stuart Mill & Harriet Taylor Mill
  • Required: Mill’s Utilitarianism (the connection between justice and utility) and On Liberty.
  • Required: Subjection of Women (JS Mill) and Enfranchisement of Women (Harriet Taylor Mill).

Phase 4: Materialism and Economy

• Weeks 14–15: Karl Marx
  • Required: The Portable Karl Marx, covering the materialist conception of history and Marx’s economic writings.