Instructor: Gray Cox

How does one evaluate the merits and flaws of different political systems? How are values like liberty, equality and justice interpreted and applied in these systems? What different forms does democracy take? Are any of them worth working for, or are we entering a new era that demands new forms of revolution?

These are just some of the questions that challenge students in this political philosophy course. At each class meeting, three or four students are responsible for leading small group discussions focusing on themes and ideas that emerge from reading assignments. Following the small group discussions, students share their thoughts with the rest of the class. Instructor Gray Cox facilitates the large group discussion and offers additional insights.

First year student Mike Kersula of Bellows Falls, Vermont says that the interesting readings and lively discussions are highlights of the course that provide an essential overview of the evolution of political philosophy. Kersula feels that "understanding some of the key ideas of Locke, Marx, and Islamic political philosophy are essential to understanding the way the world works today."

A recent class on Plato's Republic generated a variety of philosophical questions with contemporary applications. Are laws sufficient to hold citizens' behavior in check? Are there selfless acts? Why do people work for environmental and social change if these changes don...trade;t have an immediate or direct impact on their lives? Is democracy in the United States headed uphill or downhill?

Learning to conceptualize and advocate for alternative political philosophies is one way that COA students prepare to shape the future. As one student commented, "We come to a school like this with the idea that we can change things. We';re here, getting this education to change things."

The desire to create change is what inspired Virve Hirsmaki, a first year student from Finland, to take this course in the first place. With a background in political activism but limited knowledge of the philosophical underpinnings of activist work, Virve says the course "offered me a chance to explore and develop a wider perspective on politics and related issues...I certainly have come to question our society's current polarized left-right divide, but furthermore I have re-evaluated my own views on ethics, religion and cultural diversity."

Course Readings

• Republic, Plato
• The Second Treatise, John Locke
• Selected Writings, Karl Marx
• On Liberty, John Stuart Mill
• To Perpetual Peace, Immanuel Kant
• Social Justice in Islam, Sayyid Qutb