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Modernity and Its Discontents (303-0-20)

Instructors

Sam McChesney

Meeting Info

Annenberg Hall G29: Mon, Wed 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

This course tracks problems of knowledge and truth in modernity. If the "moderns" defined themselves by their rejection of "ancient" dogmas, their use of new "rational" methods of inquiry, and their acquisition of truth through the free circulation of information, contemporary politics is marked—so we are told—by a resurgence of myth and irrationalism, ironically through the very forms of free exchange that were supposed to liberate humanity from its "self-imposed immaturity."

So what happened? Has the modern project of truth-seeking failed? Was it overthrown, or dismembered by the forces it unleashed? Did it run aground against certain inherent features of politics? Or is modernity alive and kicking, albeit in different shoes? In "Modernity and Its Discontents," we will attempt to get to grips with these and other questions through a plethora of "modern" (and in some cases, "pre-modern" and "post-modern") perspectives on the relation of truth and politics. How does "truth" make itself felt in politics? What political status should attach to the possession of knowledge? Who is authorized to tell truths in political life, and what does this truth-telling look like? And what should we make of truth's various absences, including silence, ignorance, distortion, lying, and bullshit?

Registration Requirements

Reserved for Political Science Juniors or Seniors. Sophomores, please contact the instructor for a permission number.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this class, you should be able to:

  • Demonstrate an understanding of multiple views on the relation of knowledge, truth and politics, including epistocracy, perspectivism, power-knowledge, and standpoint theory, through interpretation of multiple canonical texts of political theory;
  • Compare and analyze the varied attitudes of a range of influential "modern" thinkers toward the status of truth in politics;
  • Develop a reflexive interpretive stance toward your own political status and position as possessor, subject, seeker, interpreter, and wielder of knowledge and truth;
  • Teach others (through written, verbal, or the creative medium of your choice) about a chosen text from the course.

Evaluation Method

  • Class participation (20%)
  • Set of five brief (one page) reflections on the week's readings (20%)
  • One longer (max 2000 words) research paper (20%)
  • Communications project (20%)
  • Plussage (your highest graded assessment is worth an additional 20%)

Class Materials (Required)

Hannah Arendt, Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought (New York: Penguin Books, 2006). ISBN: 978-0-14-310481-0
John D. Caputo, Truth (London: Penguin Books, 2016). ISBN: 978-1-846-14600-8
René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, trans. Donald A. Cress, third edition (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1993). ISBN: 978-0-87220-192-7

Class Attributes

Ethical and Evaluative Thinking Foundational Disci
Ethics & Values Distro Area

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Reserved for Political Science students who are Juniors or Seniors