Week 6-The State pt. 1

I have made some slight adjustments. It seemed as if there was substantial interest in the sovereignty question and the democratic paradox last week so I am including a slightly larger Schmitt reading this week. As a result we will leave out the Locke and Rousseau readings. I will introduce them with the presumption that most of you have read both at some point in time and that a brief refresher will be sufficient to move on. So this week will consist of Gramsci, Althusser, and Schmitt. I have deleted the extra pages from all of the documents so everything in the PDF is to be read. Remember while the purpose of this week is to start thinking about what the state is consider how the questions of authority, legitimacy, and power implicate inter-state relations and international institutions. I would like to be able to discuss following last weeks discussion how different scales of governance differ in the ways they confront the democratic paradox as well as the relationship between force, sovereignty, and right.

Gramsci-Political Writings

Althusser-Ideological State Apparatus

Schmitt-Concept of the Political

Week 5

I have cut a few of the readings but subsequently made the readings we have longer. I think it is worth reading all of the Schmitt book (just 74 pages) and a significant portion of the McNeil book (about 160 pages). Sammy did a good job with Fanon so I think we can discuss the postcolonial context of these other readings without reading more of Wretched of the Earth. Both the McNeil and Schmitt readings employ materialist and ideational arguments for change. Try to identify when change is being driven by ideas, by material factors, or through the strategic interaction of ideas and material factors such as technology which is at the razor edge between materiality and human driven ideational change. See you next week.

McNeill-The Pursuit of Power

Schmitt-Notes on the Partisan

Week 4 Human Nature

Butler-Psychic Life of Power

Foucault-History of Madness

Connolly-Neuropolitics

Week 3-Human Nature Part II

Thomas Hobbes-Just read 'Of Man'

Fanon-Wretched of the Earth

Freud-Why War

Montaigne-Essays (Optional Readings for Discussing Hobbes' intelectual origins)