Social and Political Philosophy

Assignment for fifth class (March 1)

Socialist and conservative challenges to the liberal tradition

We begin a new phase of our inquiry this week. So far we have been tracing the development of the liberal democratic tradition that forms the political mainstream in the US. Now we begin to look at some political positions that are critical of that tradition and of the political ideas and institutions that dominate our world.

It may seem odd to include conservatism in this category, but the conservatism I have in mind is the traditional conservatism represented by Edmund Burke, not the sort of modern conservatism that (as I have tried to explain) is really an older form of liberalism. Burke rejects the idea that society should be understood as deriving from any kind of contract, and he rejects the individualism and egalitarianism implicit in the social contract tradition.

Marx also criticizes that tradition, but his critique is part of a much broader critique of political ideas. In has famous “materialist theory of history” Marx develops a view of political philosophy as a form of ‘ideology’, which in his vocabulary means that political ideas are a smokescreen for material interests. We will try to understand this theory. (But even if we want to reject this broader view, we may still find valid criticisms of particular political ideas in his work.)

Our other major topic will be the ideas of socialism, both the criticisms that socialists make of a capitalist (market-oriented) society and their ideas about alternative forms of social organization.

Read:

Arnhart, Chapter 11

Selections from Edmund Burke, Karl Marx, and V. I. Lenin, in Princeton Readings in Political Thought, pp. 349-355, 435-466, and 530-543.

Online materials by Haslett, O’Hear, Hayek, and Bellamy as described in my email sent 2/15/03.

Write: 3-5 pages (total) answering the following questions:

1. Why are socialists so critical of capitalist societies? (Consider, at least: economic inequalities, alienation of labor, and claims that capitalism undermines democracy.)

2. What do you take to be the central principles of socialism? What features must a society have if it is going to count as a socialist society?

3. What, if anything, do you find attractive in the ideals of socialism?

4. What do you think are the most important criticisms that can be made of socialist ideas?

5. How do you think a socialist might respond to those criticisms?

6. What’s your own view, finally, about the feasibility and desirability of trying to move our society in the direction of socialism?