Week Four: Political Order- Hobbes, Locke, and the Arab Spring

Hobbes argues that political order comes about only when there is a sufficient, all-powerful, sovereign (Leviathan) to impose that order. Locke, by contrast, holds that both society and moral law exist prior to the state (and hence, there is a good bit of 'natural' social order), with the state merely being a way to overcome certain inconveniences of a pre-political situation.
Think about the 'Arab Spring' (a summary of events can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring). Do the significant changes that have occurred over the past several years tend to provide support to a Hobbesian view, a Lockean view, or do different aspects of events lend credence to both? Give examples and explain why.

Week Three: Biology and Ethics

Singer, Wright, and de Waal all argue that our biology, as it has evolved, contains the seeds for morality. Embedded in these ideas is the notion that we are, by nature, a social/political species (ie, morality has evolved to regulate social/political arrangements which in turn contribute to our biological survival). With reference to some of their comments, what do you think an understanding of evolutionary biology has to contribute to our understanding of politics?

Reading the Prince, etc...

Just an interesting article (not an assignment) that I came across on the value for business leaders, etc.... to read 'the classics' such as Machiavelli and Aristotle....
http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/03/mark-zuckerbergs-a-year-of-books-without-any-classics.html

Week Two: Makaveli

Machiavelli is one of the infamous 'bad boys' of philosophy (the hip hop artist Tupac Shakur reportedly studied Machiavelli while in jail and for a time went under the name Makaveli himself; supposedly President Richard Nixon kept a copy of The Prince on his night stand for bedtime reading). Is Machiavelli's fundamental stance towards politics (the place of power, the place of ethics, etc...) basically right or basically wrong? Defend your answer. (Throw in a few quotes from Machiavelli to support/illustrate your point--cite them with just the page number from our text in parentheses).