Tocqueville Forum

Summer Courses at Georgetown - 2009

The Tocqueville Forum is pleased to announce Georgetown University summer courses taught by faculty affiliated with the Forum. All of these courses will be very small, discussion-based explorations of their subject matter. We encourage our visitors to forward this information to any students who might be interested and in the D.C. area this summer.

2008-9 Jack Miller Postdoctoral Fellow Brian Smith will teach an introductory class in American Political Theory (Government 109, from July 6 to August 7), and an upper-level course in Just War Theory (Government 379, June 1 - July 2). Syllabi for these classes may be found here.

Examining major writings over the whole of American history, the American Political Theory course will provide an overview of the most important strands of our nation's thought. As such, the course will cover a wide range of topics including the Puritans, the American Revolution and Founding, state sovereignty versus the national government, the Civil War, transcendentalism, and pragmatism; the course will end with an examination of more contemporary American thought. 

Just War Theory will examine some of the wide variety of issues relating to the morality of armed conflict. We begin with a discussion of the ends and means of war. We will then turn to ancient and modern sources which presume that moral restraint has no place in war. Next, we will discuss the logic of Christian political thought through excerpts of various authors and the application of these notions to war's conduct. Following that, we will briefly survey the development of the just war tradition. We end with a few modern accounts of justice in war and look at their relationship to the rise of international law as a competing type of argument about the ethics of war. Throughout, we will observe the tension between moral theory and concrete practice, and discuss the relative merits of leaving questions of war to the prudential judgment of leaders versus restraining war powers under absolute rules.

Georgetown Government Ph.D. and University of Wisconsin Prof. Richard Avramenko will teach a course on de Tocqueville's Democracy in America (Government 481). This course offers students an opportunity to consider carefully Tocqueville's masterpiece. The class will consider, among other things: the relationship--historical and logical--between aristocracy and democracy; the instability of democracy; the significance of habit in Tocqueville's thought; the case for American Exceptionalism; the importance of religion for democracy. The intention is less to defend what Tocqueville says than to begin to comprehend the way in which he thought through democracy and its problems. The course will meet in the second summer session from July 6 to August 7.

Also in second summer session (July 6-August 7), Forum Graduate Fellow Lorraine Krall will be offering Georgetown's an introductory political theory course (Government 117). This course explores the foundations of politics and introduces themes that are central to political theory, such as the relationship between theory and practice, the (im)possibility of apprehending truth in the political order, and the role of conversation and dialogue in politics. Through a consideration of both canonical thinkers (including Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Rousseau), as well as of some thinkers who offer significant insights but are often tossed to the side (including Burke and Oakeshott), we will consider how politics relates to concerns with happiness, virtue, friendship, community and the good, the true and the beautiful. While many political theory courses downplay the role of Christian political thought, this course will move from classical to Christian to modern and contemporary thought.

Details about course enrollment for visiting students may be found at the Summer School's website. Georgetown also has a program that allows visiting high school students to enroll in lower-level college courses; both American Political Theory and Elements of Political Theory are on the list of approved courses.