On Tyranny

What is Tyranny? Is it, as has been said, “a danger coeval with political life”? To help us consider these questions, we will read works of political philosophy, literature, and political commentary: Plato, Apology of Socrates, Republic VIII-IX and Charmides; Xenophon, Hiero, or On Tyranny; Machiavelli, Prince; Shakespeare, Macbeth and Julius Caesar; Hegel on master and slave; Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political; Leo Strauss on Xenophon, Alexander Kojeve’s Commentary and Strauss’s Restatement; Heidegger, Question Concerning Technology; Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition or Origins of Totalitarianism; Frederick Douglass, Narrative; Robert Penn Warren, All The King’s Men; and Ta Nahisi Coates, We Were Eight Years in Power). (not open to students who have taken PSCI 1158) 3 hrs. lect. (Political Theory)/