Syllabus for Bruce Hauptli's Midcoast Senior College Course for Fall 2021
Plato's "Aristocratic and Authoritarian" Republic vs. Dewey's "Pragmatic" Democracy
Tuesdays, 9:30-11:00 September 14, 2017-November 2 via Zoom
Copyright © 2021 Bruce W. Hauptli
Course Description:
In his Republic Plato provided a characterization of, and an argument for, his ideal individual and state. His view is that those who know what is good should rule, paternalistically if necessary; and that those who lack such knowledge have the best chance of living the good life if they surrender their freedom and accept the rule of the wise. On his account democracy (which was the sort of government in at his time) is one of the worst forms of government imaginable! He emphasizes the transformative role which education can play in producing good individuals and states and the importance of acquiring both knowledge of unchanging and objective essences, and the objective and unchanging nature of human virtue. His influence on our culture is immense.
Writing roughly twenty thee centuries later, John Dewey provides both a critique
of Plato’s views, and a defense of democracy rooted in an American pragmatism
which provides some significant challenges to a number of deep contributions
which Plato has made to the Western culture. Rejecting Plato’s
fixations with the fixed, permanent, unchanging, and singular essences (of man, justice,
virtue, and knowledge), Dewey offers a contrasting view of the good life for
individuals, good civic states, and the value of democracy. In this course we will study Plato’s
views and arguments and contrast them with Dewey’s.
Texts:
Plato’s Republic, trans. G.M.A. Grube, revised by C.D.C.
Reeve (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1992). ISBN: 978-0872201361
John Dewey’s “The
Influence of Darwin on Philosophy” (click to view or
download)
John Dewey's: The Political Writings, eds. Debra Morris and Ian Shapiro
(Indianapolis: Hackett, 1993). ISBN: 978-0872201903
John Dewey's A Common Faith (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2013 [1934].
ISBN: 978-0300186116.
Brief Biography:
I earned a BA in mathematics from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI (1970); and an MA and PhD in philosophy from Washington University in St Louis, MO (1973 & 1974). I am an Emeritus Professor of philosophy at Florida International University in Miami, FL (The State University of Florida in Miami) where I taught for thirty-nine years, and before that I taught at Drake University in Des Monies, IA. I used some of Plato’s early dialogues in my Fall 2016 MSC course “Introduction to Philosophy,” and regularly taught Plato's Republic in the Introduction to Philosophy course I taught most semesters. I intentionally used that text to help students think about the value and importance of democracy by getting them to understand Plato's reasons for rejecting democracy. I regularly taught Dewey's views in an American Philosophy course which I taught, but did not focus on his social and political theories. In this course I hope to bring the differences between these two philosopher's views into clear focus.
Anticipated Course
Schedule:
Supplementary materials:
“What Is Philosophy?”, “Introduction
to Plato”, and
Assignment for next session: read Plato’s Republic 327-411d [these
numbers refer to the marginal numbers in our edition of Plato’s Republic,
translated by G.M.A. Grube, revised by C.D.C. Reeve (Indianapolis: Hackett,
1992). They refer to a collection of Plato’s works (Platonis
Opera [Paris: 1578]) edited by Henri Stephanus. That
edition’s pagination has become the standard way of identifying and referring to
Plato's works--thus the Republic began at
327a, and I would like you to read through 374a at the top of p. 49.
II. September 21 Class:
1. Book I—A preliminary overview [327-354c]
Supplementary material:
III. September 28 Class:
3. Socrates begins developing the ideas behind the ideal state [368d-373e]
5. Stories and the early education of the guardians [376e-411d]
7. The Four Virtues in the City [427e-434c]
8. Justice in the Individual [434d-445e]
Y
IV. October 5 Class:
10. “Is this “Ideal State” Merely “Ideal?”--the “Ideality” of the Ideal State and the Role of Philosophy [472-475e]
11. Knowledge and the Forms [476-480b]
12. The Parable of the Navigator and How Potential Philosopher Kings Are Mis-Understood
and Mis-Educated by Existing States [484-502c]--the discussion from 490c-505e can be
skipped or read with less care.
14. Higher Education of the Rulers: Mathematics and Dialectic [521b-541b]--this material may be read less carefully. | 15. The Comparison of the Just and Unjust States and Individuals and the
Tyrannical Life [543-576b]
16. Which Life is the Better One? [576c-592b]
Supplementary
material:
V. October 12 Class:
Assignment for next session: read Dewey's "The Democratic Conception in Education (pp. 110-120), "Philosophy and Democracy" (pp. 38-47), "Democracy and Human Nature" (pp. 219-229), and "Creative Democracy--The Task Before Us" (pp. 240-245).
VI. October 19 Class: Dewey's Pragmatic View of Philosophy, Human Nature, and Democracy
"The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy"
"The Ethics of Democracy"
Supplementary materials :
Assignment for next session: read Dewey's
October 26 Class: Continuing discussion of Dewey's conception of, and defense of, democracy.
"
"Philosophy and Democracy"
"Democracy and Human Nature"
"Creative Democracy--The Task Before Us"
A Common Faith.
Supplements to Dewey's Intelligence and Morals," "The Democratic Conception In Education," "Philosophy and Democracy," "Philosophy and Democracy," "Democracy and Human Nature," "Creative Democracy--The Task Before Us" and A Common Faith
Assignment for next session:
November 2 Class: Finish the discussion of Dewey's "moral argument for democracy," finish critical contrast between Plato's and Dewey's views, and critically consider Dewey's view.
A Common Faith
Recommended Additional Readings:
Rebecca Goldstein, Plato At the Googleplex: Why Philosophy
Won't Go Away (NY: Pantheon, 2014).
Tim Whitmarsh, Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World (NY:
Knopf, 2015).
Eli Sagan, The Honey and the Hemlock: Democracy and Paranoia In
Ancient Athens and Modern America (Princeton: Princeton UP.,
1991). Robert Westbrook, John Dewey and American Democracy (Ithaca:
Cornell UP., 1991).
Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson, Why Deliberative Democracy? (P:rinceton:
Princeton UP., 2004).
Midcoast Senior College Website
Email: hauptli@fiu.edu
Last revised: 11/01/21