George Comninel | Department of Politics

George C. Comninel

	Comninel Home Page

Courses
	POLS 3020 Utopia, Power and Sovereignty
	Readings
	POLS 3025 A Century of Revolution
	Readings
	POLS 4030 Classical Political Theory
	Readings
	POLS 4090 Classical Marxist Theory
	Readings Recommended Bibliography

	Readings Recommended Bibliography
	Main Politics Website

Professor George C. Comninel
Hours: Tues. 3:00-4:00; Wed. 3:00-4:00
Phone: 416-736-5265

N833 Ross Bldg. OR S646 Ross
comninel@yorku.ca

This course offers an examination of the major political thinkers of ancient Greece and Rome, considered in relation to the specific historical social context of these societies when they wrote. There were 800 years between Plato’s Academy in Athens, and Augustine’s publication of The City of God in Rome. While there were numerous continuities between these ancient social contexts, there also were profound political differences between the Athens of Plato and Aristotle in the 4^th century BCE; the late Roman Republic in which Cicero figured as a leading political leader and renowned author and orator; and the Christian later Roman Empire in which Bishop Augustine of Hippo wrote following the sack of Rome by “barbarian” pagans in 410. The similarities and differences among these great classical theorists, considered in relation to their respective contexts, constitutes the focus of the course.

Each of these thinkers will be considered in relation to the political contexts in which – and for which – they wrote, but also to the development of the “canon” of Western political theory. Plato, the greatest student of Socrates, remains an inspirational thinker to this day. Aristotle, the preeminent moral, natural and logical philosopher of his age, has been the main point of reference for constitutional theory throughout the modern era. Cicero, leading rhetorician in Republican Rome’s age of crisis, and chief advocate for civic engagement, inspired the humanist revival that shaped politics in the Renaissance. Augustine, the most important theologian of the Roman West, gave voice to a Christian neo-Platonism of great depth and influence, conceiving the state as “the sword of God”, and informing the Lutheran Reformation.

The course will meet as a weekly seminar for discussion of the common readings, further stimulated by topical presentations based on additional readings. Each student will make one seminar presentation of 15 to 20 minutes.

Course Requirements

Participation (incl. one 15-20 min. presentation)	30%
1 short analytical paper (1600-2000 words)	20%
1 research paper (4500-6000 words)	50%

Required Readings

Ellen Meiksins Wood: Citizens to Lords (Not in bookstore; available through Amazon)
Plato: Protagoras, Republic
Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics, Politics
Cicero: Selected Works, De Re Publica, De Legibus
Augustine: The City of God

Schedule of Classes

Sept 12 Introduction to Course

Sept 19 The Social History of Political Theory
Wood: Citizens to Lords, Ch 1

Sept 26 Ancient Athens
Wood: Ch 2

Oct 3 Ancient Rome
Wood: Ch 3

Oct 10 Socratics vs Sophists
Plato: Protagoras

Oct 17 Platonic Antidemocracy
Plato: Republic

Oct 24 Aristotle’s Conception of the Good
Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics

Oct 31 Aristotelian Antidemocracy
Aristotle: Politics

Nov 7 Cicero’s Republicanism
Cicero: Selected Works, Parts I and II

Nov 14 Ciceronian Antidemocracy
Cicero: On the Commonwealth (De Re Publica), On the Laws (De Legibus)

Nov 21 Augustinian Neo-Platonism
Augustine: City of God, Parts I and II

Nov 28 Christian Antidemocracy
Augustine: City of God, Parts III - V

Readings for Seminar Presentations

To be distributed in class.