Note: This course syllabus presents a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary. Later sessions, in particular, may be revised to incorporate newer material, i.e. a new financial crisis, climate change calamity, crisis, etc. 

PE 100  Schedule of Readings and Lectures

Introduction  August 23: Central questions of political economy

• Joseph Schumpeter, "Science and Ideology" http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1812737.pdf?acceptTC=true
• Warren Buffett, "Stop coddling the Super Rich" http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html

Part I: The Political Economy of Community

 Augustr 28/ Aug. 30/ September 4/Sept. 6. Human Nature, the State of Nature, and The Social Contract: The Community Principle in governing allocation

August 28

• Aristotle :  Book I  in Sommerville pp. 59-65 and Book III Chapters 9 and 12 ONLY

August 30

• Hobbes in Sommerville 141-148 and 160-165 (top)
• Thucydides: Melian Dialogue

September 4

• Locke Of the State of Nature in Sommerville 169-175 and Of Property (excerpts)
• Paypal Founder Peter Thiel Invests $1.25 Million to Create Floating Micro-Countries  http://inhabitat.com/paypal-founder-invests-1-25-million-to-create-floating-micro-countries/
• Rousseau A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among Mankind (excerpts)
• Rousseau The Social Contract Book I Chapter VI The Social Compact in Sommerville, pp. 213-215

study break poems: "Noble Savage" http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tribal-ways-noble-savage/

September 6

• Adam Smith Wealth of Nations Book I Chapter 2 also here: http://geolib.com/smith.adam/won1-02.html
• Polanyi:  Chapter 4
• Stephen Johnson, "The Internet: We built That" http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/magazine/the-internet-we-built-that.html?ref=magazine&_r=moc.semityn.www

recommended video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g

recommended reading: Friedrich Engels, Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State, Chapter III
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family/ch03.htm

Sept. 11/13/18/20 Four Views on defining the Community Principle for distributing wealth and power

September 11: The Distribution of Power and the role of wealth: The Classical Perspective

• Plato The Republic in Sommerville pp. 17-45
• Aristotle Politics in Sommerville pp. 59-100

recommended: Aristotle Politics Book I (on the economy) http://www.constitution.org/ari/polit_01.htm

Study break poem: "All You Undisturbed Cities" by Reiner Maria Rilke http://memo.ryecroft.net/2010/03/all-of-you-undisturbed-cities/

Sept. 13 The Distribution of wealth: Fairness and Morality

• Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica  

Sept. 18 The Distribution of Power: The General Will (Beth's Birthday!)

• Rousseau in Sommerville, pp. 215-238

Sept 20 The Greatest Good For the Greatest Number

• Bentham "Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation,"  Chapter 1
• Bentham: "pauper management" (skim) and READ Excerpts
  

September 20: In-Class Quiz

Part II: The Political Economy of Freedom:

September 21st: Last Day to Drop/Add

Week 6 Sept 25/27  
Sept. 25 Why Freedom should trump Comminity as a Distribution And Governing Principle

• John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty", Sommerville pp. 302-341
• Thomas Jefferson, "Declaration of Independence" Sommerville pp. 239-45

 poetry break: Beautiful Individuality by Friedrich Schiller (who died the year before John Stuart Mill was born)

Sept. 27   Private Property as the Basis of Freedom:

• Locke Second Treatise on Civil Government Chapter 5 in Sommerville 175-178 ,
  
  Week 7 Oct.2/4     Creating the Market to uphold the "Freedom" Principle Part I

October 2 

• Polanyi, The Great Transformation, ch. 5.
• Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Chapter 5

Recommended:

• Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations Book III, Chapters 2-4

•  Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations, Introduction Book I, Chapters 1-3, 8
  

Week 8 Oct. 9/11  How the Market creates and preserves Freedom Part II --- Free Trade

Oct. 9   

• Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book IV (ch. 1-2, 7-8).
  
  Oct. 11    
• Plato The Republic:  Book II http://www.classicreader.com/book/1788/20/
• David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Chapters 1, 7 (paragraphs 11-36), 25, and 28. http://www.econlib.org/library/Ricardo/ricP2a.html# Ch.7, On Foreign Trade, comparative advantage

Week 9 Oct. 16/18  Three Limitations on Freedom:
Oct. 16   Morality: Our responsibilities toward others. Are they more important than self interest?

• Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments,  part VI, sections I-III.    

Oct. 18  Preserving Community: Should we limit the market or do away with it altogether?

• Polanyi Chapter 6
• John Cassidy, "What Good is Wall Street?" http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/11/29/101129fa_fact_cassidy#ixzz1DK0l6oAW
  

Oct. 23 Midterm

Oct. 25 Freedom, Community, Liberalism, and Conservatism: An Introduction to Mary Wollstonecraft

• Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, ch. 9 .
• Caitlan Moran on Feminism http://ttbook.org/wprplayer/popup or http://ttbook.org/book/51

Recommended:

• Stephen Holmes, "The Liberal Idea"

Part III The Political Economy of Equality

Oct. 30 Wollstonecraft and Marx: The Illusions of Liberalism--The Illusion of Freedom for Women and The illusion of human equality

• Manifesto of the Communist Party Chapter 1 http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm (also in Sommerville pp. 344-356)
• Preface to The Critique of Political Economy (you may begin with the fourth paragraph) http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/preface.htm
• The German Ideology, Preface and Part I (skip the first two sections and begin with the section entitled: "First Premises of the Materialist Method" http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/preface.ht
  

Nov. 1 Marx: The Origins of Inequality -- Exploitation and the Contradictions of Capitalism

• Read: Capital Vol. 4 Chapter 2 part 1 http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1863/theories-surplus-value/ch02.htm
• Manifesto of the Communist Party Chapter 2 and 4 http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm

Recommended:

• Capital Vol. 3 chapter 27 http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch27.htm

Nov. 6  Marx: The fruits of inequality--Alienation, and The Principle of Equality--Communism

• From Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/preface.htm
  Read only: First Manuscript "Wages of Labour," "Profit of Capital," and "Estranged Labor.
  Second Manuscript, "Antithesis of Capital and Labour. Landed Property and Capital"
• Capital Chapter 1 Section 4 http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch01.htm#S4
• "The Revolution of Capitalism" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14764357

Recommended:

• On the Jewish Question http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/jewish-question/  (selections TBA)
  

Part IV: Nationalism:  The Political Economy of Community in a global context

Nov. 8  Theories of Nationalism (Part I) 

• J.-J. Rousseau, Of the Social Compact (review Chapter IV Sommerville pp. 213-238)
• Giuseppe Mazzini, The Duties of Man (1844-58)  Chapter 1 and Chapter 5
  http://wadsworth.com/history_d/special_features/ilrn_legacy/wawc2c01c/content/wciv2/readings/mazzini1.html

Nov. 13 Theories of Nationalism (Part II)

• Fichte:  Addresses to the German Nation
  http://wadsworth.com/history_d/special_features/ilrn_legacy/wawc2c01c/content/wciv2/readings/fichte1.html
• Herder, "Reflections on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind"(excerpt)  http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1784herder-mankind.asp