POLITICAL SCIENCE 354: NATURAL RIGHT AND LAW
Spring, 2009
Professor Larry Arnhart
Office: Zulauf Hall 404
Telephone: 815-753-7049
Email: larnhart@niu.edu
Office hours: Tuesday & Thursday, 3:30-4:30 pm; Wednesday & Friday, 12:30-1:30 pm (other times by appointment). To be sure the instructor is going to be in his office, send him an email message to alert him that you will be coming at a specific time.
REQUIRED TEXTS IN THE BOOKSTORE
The New Jerusalem Bible (Doubleday)
Thomas Aquinas, On Law, Morality, and Politics, 2nd ed. (Hackett, 2002)
James Coolidge Carter, Law: It's Origin, Growth, and Function (G. P. Putnam's, 1907)
H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of Law, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, 1994)
E. Adamson Hoebel, The
Law of Primitive Man (
Raymond Wacks, Law: A
Very Short Introduction (
Raymond Wacks, Philosophy
of Law: A Very Short Introduction (
Press, 2006)
Other required texts in the schedule of readings are available online or on reserve in Founders Library.
CLASS MEETINGS
Tuesday & Thursday, 2:00-3:15 pm, DuSable 252
GRADING
The final grade for this course will be based on the grades for journal writing (30% for journal entries #1-6 and journal responses #1-6, 30% for journal entries #7-14 and journal responses #7-14), for class participation (15% for the first half of the course, 15% for the second half), and for a final argumentative essay (10%). Grades for the first half of the course will be given out on March 3.
Journal Writing
A journal entry will be due every Tuesday
at the beginning of class. Each journal
entry should be at least 600 words long (or roughly 2 double-spaced typed
pages). Each entry must have your
name, the date, and the number of the entry on the top of the first page. They must be typed. They must be stapled. All journal writing must be submitted in
class at the beginning of class.
Submissions outside of class will not be accepted. No submissions by e-mail will be
accepted. No late submissions will be
accepted. No submissions at the end of
class will be accepted.
You will be assigned to a journal group with two
other students. You must bring three
copies of your entry or response to class--one copy for the instructor and
two copies for the members of your group.
Of course, you should keep the original for yourself.
The journal entry should be a statement of your
thoughts about the reading assignment for that week. The purpose is to show your intellectual
struggle with the material. Do you
understand what the author is saying? If
so, do you agree or disagree? Why? If you do not understand what the author is
saying, what is it that you find confusing?
Intellectual struggle requires a logical
analysis of the arguments. What is
the issue? What position is the author
taking on that issue? What arguments
does the author develop to support that position? What are the strengths and
weaknesses in those arguments? Are the arguments ultimately persuasive or not?
Those are the kind of questions you must consider in analyzing the
arguments. You should not fill up your journal entry by merely summarizing,
paraphrasing, or quoting from the reading.
Hey, you’ve got a brain. Use it!
You are free to introduce whatever you find
pertinent--including ideas from your personal experience and ideas from other
classes you have taken--whatever helps you to make sense of the issues raised
in the readings. Integrating ideas from
our class discussions into your writing is important. Again, the purpose is to write an informal
statement of your thoughts about the reading assignments that show your intellectual
struggle with the material and with the questions raised by that material.
The reading for each week will suggest many
issues that might deserve comment. But generally it is best for your journal
entry to concentrate on just one issue that you can develop in two pages.
You will receive two grades for your journal
writing. On March 3 you will
receive your grades for the first half of the semester. Your grades for the second half of the
semester will come at the end of the semester.
To deal with emergencies (illness and so on), you
will be permitted to miss one journal entry and one set of journal responses
without any penalty. But missing more than that will lower your
grade.
Journal responses will be due every Thursday
at the beginning of class. Each
response should have your name, the number of the response, the date, and the
name of the person to whom you are responding.
Each should be typed. Every
Thursday, you will turn in two responses, and each response must
be at least 300 words long (or roughly 1 double-spaced typed page). Like the journal entries, you must bring
three copies--one for the instructor and two for the members of your journal
group.
If a member of your journal group does not give
you an entry, you should turn in a note indicating that you cannot write a
response because you have not received an entry. You will not be penalized when you cannot
write a response because you have not received a journal entry from one of your
journal group members.
The journal responses will be your written
responses to the journal entries of the two other people in your group. So each Thursday you will come to class with
two responses of at least one page each for the two members of your journal
group. The purpose of the journal
response is to intellectually engage your fellow students. How does their handling of the reading
assignment compare with yours? What did
they see that you did not see? Sometimes
you will disagree. But don't be too
negative. Even if you disagree with a
journal entry, try to find some way to help that fellow student think through
the issues. You want to sustain a lively
intellectual exchange with your fellow students in which everyone learns
something from the exchange. You want to
struggle together in thinking through the issues.
If you do not receive a journal entry from a
member of your journal group, you must turn in a note indicating that you cannot
write a response because you did not receive an entry from that person.
The grading for the journal writing will
be determined by how well you obey Arnhart's
Ten Commandments:
1. You
must turn in all your journal writing (of the required length) at the beginning
of each class.
2. You
must show some logical analysis of the texts that goes beyond merely
summarizing or quoting from the texts.
3. You
must avoid errors in spelling, diction, punctuation, and grammar.
4. You
must write journal responses that seriously engage the journal entries from the
other group members.
5. You must write on one or two major topics in
each journal entry rather than writing superficially about many topics.
6. You
must organize your writing into coherent paragraphs.
7. You must occasionally show how the readings
for one week relate to the readings for previous weeks.
8. You must develop your own line of reasoning
about law and politics over the course of the semester in response to the
readings and the class discussions.
9. You must take clear positions on the
controversies in this class and support your positions with evidence and arguments.
10. You must regularly probe the deeper
implications of the issues raised in the reading and class discussions beyond
what is clear on the surface.
To earn a "C," students must obey
commandments 1-4. To earn a
"B," students must obey commandments 1-8. To earn an "A," students must obey
all 10 commandments. Those students
failing to obey commandments 1-4 will receive a "D" or
"F." Anyone who commits
plagiarism—using someone else's words without putting them within quotation
marks—will automatically receive a final grade of "F" for the entire
course.
Class Participation
You are expected to attend class and contribute to
class discussions. High grades for class
participation will go to those who regularly attend class and who regularly
contribute to class discussions in an instructive way. You may miss two classes without
penalty. Missing more will be
penalized. You are expected to be in
class on time. Those who arrive late to class more than two times will be severely
penalized. Anyone whose cell phone rings
in class will be whacked!
A grade of "C" for class participation
requires regular class attendance (missing no more than two classes). A grade of "B" for class
participation requires regular class attendance and contributing to class
discussions at least once a week. A grade
of "A" for class participation requires regular class attendance and
contributing to class discussions at almost every class meeting.
Final Argumentative Essay
The final argumentative essay should be
15,000-2,000 words long (roughly 6-8 double-spaced pages). The topics in this course are
controversial. For this essay, you
should take up one of these controversial topics and defend your position on
that controversy. To do that, there are
four requirements. (1) State the
question at issue. (2) State your answer
to the question. (3) Support your answer
with at least three arguments—three good reasons for believing that your answer
is correct. (4) Respond to at least two
of the major objections to your answer. The
instructor will distribute a list of possible topics for this essay. If you want to write on a topic not on this
list, you must get the instructor's approval for this topic. Anyone who commits plagiarism—using someone
else's words without putting them within quotation marks—will automatically
receive a final grade of "F" for the entire course. This final essay is due no later than 12 noon on May 4 at the professor's office (Zulauf 404).
SCHEDULE
Jan 13: Introduction
Jan 15: Wacks, Law: A Very Short Introduction, pages 1-66
Riggs v. Palmer (1889), online at http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/archives/riggs_palmer.htm
I. PRIMITIVE LAW
Jan 20: Hoebel, pages 3-28, 67-126
Journal #1
Jan 22: Response #1
Jan 27: Hoebel, pages 127-210
Journal #2
Jan 29: Response #2
Feb 3: Hoebel, pages 211-333
Journal #3
Feb 5: Response #3
II. BIBLICAL LAW
Feb 10: Genesis 9:1-17; Exodus 18-24, 32-34; Leviticus 15, 18-20, 24, 25:44-46
Journal #4
Feb 12: Response #4
Feb 17: Numbers 27:12-23, 31; Deuteronomy 1, 5-6, 17-25, 27, 30-31; Joshua 6:17-21,
8:32-35, Judges 2:13-3:30, 11, 21:25; 1 Samuel 8-12; Matthew 5-7, 22:15-22;
Romans 1-2, 13
Journal #5
Feb 19: Response #5
III. NATURAL LAW
Feb 24: Wacks, Philosophy of Law: A Very Short Introduction, pages 1-17;
Aquinas, pages 10-59
Aquinas, ST, Supplement, Question 65, Article 1, online at http://www.newadvent.org/summa/5065.htm#article1
Reynolds v.
Journal #6
Feb 26: Response #6
Mar 3: Aquinas, pages 59-105, 130-163
Wacks, Law: A Very Short Introduction, pages 67-84
Journal #7
Mar 5: Response #7
Spring break
Mar 17: Aquinas, pages 164-196
"General Principles and Sources of the Law of War," online at http://www.lawofwar.org/principles.htm
Journal #8
Mar 19: Response #8
Mar 24: Larry
Arnhart, "Thomistic Natural Law as Darwinian Natural Right," Social
Philosophy & Policy, 18 (winter 2001): 1-33 (copies on reserve in Founders
Library);
Note, "Inbred Obscurity: Improving Incest Laws in the Shadow of
the 'Sexual Family,'" Harvard Law Review, 119 (June, 2006): 2464-2485,
online at http://www.harvardlawreview.org/issues/119/june06/note/inbred_obscurity.pdf
Journal #9
Mar 26: Response #9
IV. CUSTOMARY LAW
Mar 31: Carter, pages 1-81
Bruce Benson, "The Enterprise of Customary Law," online at http://www.mises.org/story/2542#
Journal #10
Apr 2: Response #10
Apr 7: Carter, pages 115-166, 214-217, 221-240
Plessy
v.
M. L. King, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," online at http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/popular_requests/frequentdocs/birmingham.pdf
Journal #11
Apr 9: Response #11
Apr 14: Carter, pages 241-262, 320-345
Journal #12
Apr 16: Response #12
V. POSITIVE LAW
Apr 21: Wacks, Philosophy of Law: A Very Short Introduction, pages 18-47
Hart, pages 18-25, 66-110
Lochner v.
Journal #13
Apr 23: Response #13
Apr 28: Hart, pages 155-237
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, online at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights
Journal #14
Apr 30: Response #14
May 4: final essay due before 12 noon at the professor's office (Zulauf 404)