Tocqueville Forum

Course Offerings

Tocqueville Forum Course Offerings

The Tocqueville Forum contributes to the academic life of Georgetown University by offering courses in the Department of Government, providing partial and full funding of courses offered by our Post-Doctoral Fellow, Visiting Senior Scholars, and Adjunct Professors. The courses cover a broad range of subjects, all consistent with the mission of the Forum.

Courses for Spring 2010

• Dr. Ethan Schrum will teach a course titled "20th Century US Intellectual History."

This course seeks to introduce students to some of the most important ideas, thinkers, institutions and intellectual debates that shaped life in the United States during the 20th Century. The major general theme of the course is the influence of philosophy, religion, and science in shaping the public order of a liberal democracy. The course is also centrally concerned with the question of modernity: has a milieu or worldview distinctly recognizable as “modernity” existed? If so, what were or are its leading characteristics and chronological boundaries? How has modernity been different in the United States than in other parts of the world? How has modernity related to philosophy, religion, science, and liberal democracy? Has modernity now been eclipsed by “postmodernity”? The readings are chosen with these themes and questions in mind, and with the intent of providing a variety of voices or perspectives on particular subjects, or including the multiple parties involved in a particular debate. One of the major goals of the course is for students to learn how to read such complex texts carefully and judiciously, and how to discuss them fruitfully within a small learning community. The course will be conducted as a seminar, and therefore thoughtful and prepared student participation is essential for a quality learning experience. It is imperative that each student complete the week’s assigned readings prior to the course meeting and come prepared to ask thoughtful questions and make informed observations and interpretations based on the texts. In order to achieve this goal, students will be assigned to write short analytical papers on each week’s reading. These papers require students to make and defend an argument about one or more texts quite concisely, which leads to greater rigor and precision of thought and ability to articulate the ideas in a seminar setting. Readings might include selections from William James, John Dewey, Margaret Sanger, Randolph Bourne, Walter Lippmann, Reinhold Niebuhr, Milton Friedman, Thomas Kuhn, Martin Luther King, Jr., Clark Kerr, John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Richard Rorty.

• Dr. Steven J. Brust, Associate Director of the Tocqueville Forum will teach a course titled "Law and Morality," a seminar for honors students in the Department of Government.

This course explores answers to fundamental questions concerning law and morality which generally fall under the broad rubric of three claims: 1. You can’t legislate morality, 2. You can’t force your morality or religion on me, 3. The law and government should be neutral with respect to moral views. In attempting to discern the truth of these statements, a number of questions must be addressed: What is the nature of law? Does/should the government legislate morality? What is meant by morality? What is the rule of law and does it relate to morality? Does one have a right to do wrong? What is a right? What is liberty and how is it related to law and morality? What is morality? How is law related to society and culture? How should the Constitution be interpreted and does morality play a role in this interpretation? Is there such a thing as an unjust law? Are all moral views religious views? We will read moral, political and legal theorists and practitioners, seeking to answer these questions both at a theoretical level and a practical level of policy and law - especially as they are addressed in a number of Supreme Court decisions concerning fundamental issues. We will explore the extent to which answers to these questions imply or depend upon a particular view of the nature of the human person, moral truth, and even ultimate views of reality. In addition, since this is a university with a Catholic and Jesuit tradition, the course will include some exploration of Catholic teaching on law, morality and politics.

• Dr. Robert Kraynak Professor of Political Science of Colgate University and visiting professor of the Tocqueville Forum for Spring 2010 will teach a course titled "Catholic Natural Law."

This course will examine the theory of Catholic natural law and its practical applications to questions about the moral order of society – such as the best form of government, the best economic system, the right ordering of family life and marriage, the issues of just war and international law. We will begin with the sources of natural law in the Bible and classical philosophy, and then study major figures in the development of Catholic natural law – including Thomas Aquinas, Suarez and Vitoria, Pope Leo XIII and John Paul II, Jacques Maritain, Heinrich Rommen, and John Finnis.

• Tocqueville Forum JMC Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Christopher West, will teach "Theory of Executive Power."

The purpose of this course of study is to introduce you to the theoretical foundations of the institution of the American presidency, the debates and problems associated with them, and their demonstration in the history and development of the American Chief Executive. We will explore the concept of the modern executive that developed prior to the American founding and examine how it was joined to liberal constitutionalism. And, as we study the greatest American presidents, we will endeavor to come to an understanding of how the modern republican executive both challenges and undergirds the project of American constitutional democracy, as well as how it has met the problems of partisanship, popular rhetoric, and prerogative power.

Student Reading Group

Since Fall 2007, the Tocqueville Forum has hosted a weekly reading group for undergraduates interested in our mission. An informal gathering led either by the Postdoctoral Fellow or by the Graduate Fellows, the group reads classics of the western political, theological, and philosophical tradition.

If you are interested in participating in our current reading group and would like to reserve a free copy of the books being discussed, please send an e-mail to tocquevilleforum@georgetown.edu.

Past Courses

The Forum provided James Ceaser of the University of Virginia with travel funds to support his teaching a graduate seminar on “Foundational Ideas and American Political Development.” We also provided George Mason University’s Peter Berkowitz with a paid teaching assistant, Tocqueville Forum Graduate Fellow, Aimee Raile. Prof. Berkowitz taught an undergraduate seminar on “Critique and Defense of Religion.”

The Tocqueville Forum increased its support to include full funding for three courses during the 2008-9 academic year. In the Fall 2009 semester, our Jack Miller Center Post Doctoral Fellow, Brian Smith, offered an advanced level course, Govt. 424, “Machiavelli and the Art of Statecraft in Modernity”

In the Spring 2009 semester, Dr. Smith offered an advanced level course, Govt. 467, “Issues in American Political Thought” and Dr. Steven Brust offered an upper level course, Govt. 489, “Law and Morality.”