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Moral Foundations of Politics
  • Level Foundation
  • Duration 45 hours
  • Course by Yale University
  • Offered by

About

When do governments deserve our allegiance, and when should they be denied it? This course explores the main answers that have been given to this question in the modern West. We start with a survey of the major political theories of the Enlightenment: Utilitarianism, Marxism, and the social contract tradition. In each case, we begin with a look at classical formulations, locating them in historical context, but then shift to the contemporary debates as they relate to politics today. Next, we turn to the rejection of Enlightenment political thinking, again exploring both classical and contemporary formulations. The last part of the course deals with the nature of, and justifications for, democratic politics, and their relations to Enlightenment and Anti-Enlightenment political thinking. In addition to exploring theoretical differences among the various authors discussed, considerable attention is devoted to the practical implications of their competing arguments. To this end, we discuss a variety of concrete problems, including debates about economic inequality, affirmative action and the distribution of health care, the limits of state power in the regulation of speech and religion, and difficulties raised by the emerging threat of global environmental decay.

Modules

Course overview

    • 1 Videos
    • 3 Readings
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1 Videos

  • Welcome to Moral Foundations of Politics!

3 Readings

  • Course Overview
  • Meet Your Instructor
  • Readings

What you can expect

    • 2 Videos
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2 Videos

  • The Shape of the Course
  • Expectations

Introductory Lecture

    • 2 Videos
    • 1 Readings
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2 Videos

  • The Eichmann Case and Problem of Illegal but Legitimate Acts
  • The Paradox of Discomfort and the Organization of the Course

1 Readings

  • Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, pg. 21-55, 135-149

Natural law roots of the enlightenment

    • 3 Videos
    • 3 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Politics in the Enlightenment
  • Early vs. Mature Enlightenments
  • The Workmanship Ideal

3 Readings

  • Locke, First Treatise
  • Locke, Second Treatise
  • Hobbes Lessons for the Professors of Mathematics

Review

    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Mini Quiz - Enlightenment Political Theory

Origins of classical utilitarinism

    • 3 Videos
    • 1 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Elements of Utilitarianism
  • The Theory of Classical Utilitarianism
  • The Utility Monster and the Principle of Diminishing Marginal Utility

1 Readings

  • Bentham, Intro to Morals and Legislation

Classical utilitarianism and distributive justice

    • 3 Videos
    • 1 Readings
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3 Videos

  • The Panopticon and Bentham on Government
  • Distribution and Diminishing Marginal Utility
  • Bentham on Equality and Rights

1 Readings

  • Bentham in W. Stark, Jeremy Bentham's Economic Writings, 442

From classical to neoclassical utilitarianism

    • 3 Videos
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3 Videos

  • Neoclassical Utilitarianism: The Philosophical Context Beginning
  • Neoclassical Utilitarianism: The Economic Context
  • Ideological Stakes of the Transition from Classical to Neoclassical Utilitarianism

The neoclassical synthesis of rights and utility

    • 3 Videos
    • 1 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Introduction and the Harm Principle
  • Bentham, Mill, and The Rights-Utility Synthesis
  • The Harm Principle in Practice

1 Readings

  • Mill, On Liberty, Chs. 1-2

Limits of the neoclassical synthesis

    • 3 Videos
    • 1 Readings
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3 Videos

  • The Harm Principle and the Spectrum of Harm
  • Harm Examples
  • Is the Harm Principle Conservative?

1 Readings

  • Mill, On Liberty Ch. 5

Review

    • 1 Videos
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Utilitarianism: Classical and Neoclassical

1 Videos

  • Office Hours 1

The Marxian challenge

    • 3 Videos
    • 1 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Marx Introduction
  • Marx as an Enlightenment Thinker
  • Marx's Challenge to Classical Political Economy

1 Readings

  • Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party

Marx's theory of capitalism and exploitation

    • 3 Videos
    • 2 Readings
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3 Videos

  • The Working Class
  • Exploitation - The Micro Story
  • Exploitation - The Macro Story and the Theory of Crisis

2 Readings

  • Marx, Capital (Vol. I), Prefaces, Chs. I, IV, VI, XII, XVI (excerpts)
  • Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program

The Marxian failure and legacy

    • 3 Videos
    • 2 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Marx's Overall Failures
  • Failures in the Macro Theory
  • Rethinking the Labor Theory of Value

2 Readings

  • Marx, Theories of Surplus Value, Ch. XVII (Sections 8-11, 14)
  • Roemer, "Should Marxists be interested in exploitation?" Analytical Marxism

Review

    • 1 Videos
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Marxism, Its Failures and Its Legacy

1 Videos

  • Office Hours 2

Secularizing natural law/The state of nature

    • 3 Videos
    • 2 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Consent and Thomas Hobbes
  • John Locke and the Workmanship Ideal
  • Locke on Consent

2 Readings

  • Hobbes, Leviathan, Introduction, Chs. 13-17, 21
  • Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Chs. 2-5

The Rawlsian social contract

    • 4 Videos
    • 3 Readings
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4 Videos

  • Immanuel Kant's Ethics
  • John Rawls Introduction
  • John Rawls's Enduring Innovations
  • The Veil of Ignorance

3 Readings

  • Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals
  • Rawls, A Theory of Justices, pg. 3-19, 52-56 (Sections 1-4, 11)
  • Rawls, "Social Unity and Primary Goods," sect. IV, V in John Rawls: Collected Papers

Distributive justice and the welfare state

    • 3 Videos
    • 1 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Principles of Justice
  • The Difference Principle
  • Problems with Rawls

1 Readings

  • Rawls, A Theory of Justice, pg. 102-109, 118-123, 153-160, 221-227 (Sections 20, 21, 24, 29, 40)

The "political-not-metaphysical" legacy

    • 3 Videos
    • 2 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Political Not Metaphysical
  • Political Disagreement
  • The Overlapping Consensus

2 Readings

  • Rawls, "Justice as fairness: political not metaphysical." Philosophy & Public Affairs 14 (1985): 226-48 (Sections 2-6)
  • Shapiro, "Resources, Capacities, and Ownership." Political Theory 19.1 (February 1991), 47-72

Review

    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • The Social Contract Tradition I

The Nozickian minimal state

    • 3 Videos
    • 1 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Introduction to Nozick
  • Features of Nozick's Account
  • The Invisible Hand Evolution of the State

1 Readings

  • Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia, pp. 3-17, 26-35 (Chs. 1-3)

Rights-as-side constraints and the minimal state

    • 3 Videos
    • 1 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Necessity and Obligation
  • Incorporating Independents
  • Compensation

1 Readings

  • Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia, pp. 54-63, 78-84, 88-90, 108-119 (Excerpts from Ch. 4, 5)

Compensation versus redistribution

    • 3 Videos
    • 1 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Liberty Upsets Patterns
  • Markets and Power
  • It is Unjust for Chamberlain to Make So Much Money

1 Readings

  • Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia, pp. 149-164, 174-182 (Excerpts from Ch. 7)

Review

    • 1 Videos
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • The Social Contract Tradition

1 Videos

  • Office Hours 3

The Burkean outlook

    • 2 Videos
    • 2 Readings
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2 Videos

  • Burke's Conservatism
  • Devlin's Conservatism

2 Readings

  • Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (excerpts
  • Patrick Devlin, "Morals and the Criminal Law"

Contemporary communitarianism

    • 2 Videos
    • 1 Readings
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2 Videos

  • Introduction to MacIntyre
  • Emotivist Culture

1 Readings

  • Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue, Chs. 1-3

Contemporary communitarianism 2

    • 3 Videos
    • 1 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Practices
  • Failure of the Enlightenment Project
  • Concluding Anti-Enlightenment Thought

1 Readings

  • Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue, Chs. 5

Review

    • 1 Videos
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Anti-Enlightenment Politics

1 Videos

  • Office Hours 4

Republicanism vs. democracy

    • 3 Videos
    • 1 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Democracy and its Critics
  • The Federalist Papers
  • The Republican Tradition

1 Readings

  • Hamilton, Jay, and Madison, The Federalist Papers, Paper No. 1, 9, 10, 14, 39, 48, 51, 62, 70, 78

In search of the General Will

    • 3 Videos
    • 4 Readings
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3 Videos

  • Discovering the General Will
  • Habermas' Deliberative Ideal
  • Deliberation in the Real World

4 Readings

  • Jean-Jaques Rousseau, The Social Contract and the First and Second Discourses, Book I Ch. 6-7, Book II Ch. 3
  • William H. Riker, Ch. 5, "The Meaning of Social Choice" in Liberalism against Populism, pp. 115-23
  • Jürgen Habermas, "Three Normative Models of Democracy"
  • James Fishkin, "Deliberative Polling: Toward a Better-Informed Democracy"

Majority rule

    • 4 Videos
    • 5 Readings
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4 Videos

  • The Westminster System in Practice
  • The Majority Rule
  • Competition and Democracy
  • Electoral Systems

5 Readings

  • Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Chs. 17-19
  • Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Ch. XXI and XXII
  • Buchanan and Tullock, The Calculus of Consent, excerpt from Ch. 6
  • Shapiro, "John Locke's Democratic Theory," in Locke's Two Treatises of Government, pp. 309-332
  • Douglas Rae, "The Limits of Consensual Decision"

Democracy, Science and Rights

    • 2 Videos
    • 2 Readings
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2 Videos

  • Reviewing the Enlightenment
  • Democracy and Human Freedom

2 Readings

  • Shapiro, "Elements of Democractic Justice." Political Theory
  • Post-Course Survey

Review

    • 1 Videos
    • 1 Assignment
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1 Assignment

  • Democracy

1 Videos

  • Office Hours 5

Note to students

    • 1 Readings
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1 Readings

  • Professor Shapiro's Letter to Students

Auto Summary

Discover the "Moral Foundations of Politics" course, designed for those interested in personal development and political theory. Led by Coursera, this foundational course delves into when governments deserve allegiance or denial, exploring Enlightenment theories like Utilitarianism, Marxism, and the social contract, alongside their modern-day implications. It also examines the rejection of Enlightenment thinking and the essence of democratic politics. Over approximately 2700 minutes, learners will engage with debates on economic inequality, affirmative action, and more. Subscription options include Starter and Professional, catering to a wide audience.

Ian Shapiro
Instructor

Ian Shapiro