The Nature and Function of the State

Course Syllabus

Semester: Winter 2017

Instructor: Professor Philip Pettit (Princeton University; Australian National University)

E-mail: ppettit@princeton.edu

Course schedule:

Session 1: Tuesday, Oct. 31. 3.30-6.20 PM, Room J3014.

The nature of the state

Topics: the appearance of laws; laws and the state; need for coercion, territory, status

Reading: Hart The Concept of Law Ch 5; Skinner ‘The Genealogy of the Modern State’.

Session 2: Wednesday, Nov 1. 3.30-6.20 PM, Room J4019.

The agency of the polity

Topics: the nature of agency; group agency; why the state has to be an agent

Reading: Hobbes Leviathan Ch 16. Pettit ‘Group Agents are not Fictions’, Erkenntnis 2014

Optional: List and Pettit Group Agency, esp Ch 1; Pettit Made with Words Ch 5, 8.

Session 3: Thursday, Nov 2. 5.00-7.50 PM, Room J2080.

The modular polity

Topics: the Hobbesian argument for sovereignty; the critique of the mixed constitution; the possibility of modular agency and sovereignty

Readings: Hobbes Leviathan Ch’s 17-18; Julian Franklin ‘Sovereignty and the Mixed Constitution’.

Aims and Purpose:

The primary aims of this course are to discuss the concept of state in relation with its citizens, the issue of sovereignty and mixed constitution. The seminar will also improve student's analytical and argumentative skills.

Teaching Methodology:

The course is a combination of a lecture course and a seminar. Active participation of students is expected. It is therefore important, that students read the assigned literature before the class.

Requirements

Pass/fail grade will be assigned based on participation in the seminar.

Literature

FRANKLIN, J. H (1991). Sovereignty and the mixed constitution: Bodin and his critics. The Cambridge History of Political Thought, 1450.1700, p. 298-328.

HART, H.L.A. (2012). The Concept of Law. Oxford University Press. 390 p.

HOBBES, Thomas (1996). Leviathan. Cambridge University Press; 2nd revised ed., 624 p.

LIST, Christian; PETTIT, Philip (2011). Group Agency. Oxford University Press, 250 p.

PETIIT, Philip (2009). Made with Words: Hobbes on Language, Mind, and Politics. Princeton University Press, 192 p.

PETTIT, Philip (2014). Group Agents are Not Expressive, Pragmatic or Theoretical Fictions. Erkenntnis, Vol. 79, Supplement 9, p. 1641–1662.

SKINNER, Quentin (2009). The Genealogy of the Modern State. Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. 162, p. 325-370.

NB: The required and recommended readings will be provided in electronic form to students registered in this course.