Term 3: Week 1: Syllabus

 

Week 1

Nationalism, Liberal Democracy, Constitutionalism, Free Market Economies, Hobbes, Locke, Public vs. Private Distinction

Monday, January 24

Class

-          Take twenty five minutes to carefully consider the concept of “Nationalism”

-          Read Ways of the World, 796-800

o   Write in your notebook an answer to focus question #1

§  Discuss

o   Write in your notebook an answer to focus question #2

§  Discuss

o   Write in your notebook an answer to focus question #3

§  Discuss

Assignment

-    Write a well crafted, one-to-two page essay, answering focus question #4

Tuesday, January 25

Class

-          Take twenty minutes and discuss answers to focus question #4

-          Read Ways of the World, 723-727

-          Write in your notebook an answer to focus question #8

o   Discuss

Assignment

-    Write a well crafted, one-to-two page essay, answering focus question #9

Wednesday, January 26

            Class

-          Group Discussion on focus questions #5, 6 and 7

Assignment

-          Read selections from handout on Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

Thursday, January 27

            Class

-          Take forty minutes to carefully consider the concepts of Liberal Democracy and Constitutionalism

-          Take forty minutes to write a well-crafted essay that answers focus question #6

Assignment

-          Read Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on “Nationalism” http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nationalism/

Friday, January 28

            Class

-          Take forty minutes to review the Stanford Encyclopedia article on “Nationalism”

-          Take forty minutes and begin reading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (first two chapters)

o   Discuss

Assingment

-          Catch up on all unfinished reading

_____________________________________________________________________

Focus Questions

1.      What is a nation, and how is it distinct from a state?

2.      When did the idea of a “nation” develop?

3.      Why is the nation a “novel form of political community”?

4.      Why is Nationalism an “infinitely flexible and enormously powerful idea”?

5.      What is the value of instilling nationalist identities into citizens?

6.      Who belongs to a nation? Who can speak for a nation?

7.      Is Nationalism a Western idea?

8.      What was the cause of the Thirty Years Way, and how did it end?

9.      How might have the flexibility of Nationalism affected the Religious Wars of the 17^th Century?

10.  How are Nationalism and Capitalism related?

11.  Did Nationalism give rise to Capitalism or did Capitalism give rise to Nationalism?