Picking on Plato
CMC should reevaluate its classical approach to political philosophy
Emphasizing Greek classics and pre-Rousseau thought, Claremont McKenna’s Government Department teaches introductory political philosophy differently than most. Whereas CMC prides itself on close reading of primary texts with no secondary interpretation, most schools expose students to a variety of mostly post-1900 secondary sources on subjects like civil responsibility and controversial government actions.
Introduction to Political Philosophy at Scripps, for instance, is more mainstream, incorporating various schools of modern thought and exposing students to valuable secondary interpretations. In her course, Professor Rivka Weinberg explores the divide between the public and private spheres that defines the scope of state power. This, she says, is “a modern question that should be informed by modern texts.” While canonical thinkers like Rousseau and Locke do handle this question, 20th-century philosophers better address the modern state.
Nadon thinks that the discipline’s origins reveal most clearly the radical character of philosophical thought and its political implications. “The first thinker who stakes out a new claim often has a better understanding of its foundations and implications,” he says. “He can’t accept that premise as part of any tradition, but rather has to establish it and think it through for himself.”
So, rather than reading derivatives of Rousseau in order to understand critics of bourgeois, commercial society, Nadon advocates studying Rousseau because his analysis is more radical. Likewise, Nadon thinks that “no work challenges contemporary prejudices so much as Plato’s Republic, most especially the prejudice that ‘philosophy’ and ‘tradition’ can easily co-exist.”
But if modern applications are possible, CMC professors generally fail to contextualize theories and explicitly highlight their contemporary significance. “Students should do that for themselves, and will do it better for having done it themselves,” says Nadon, who does not think it is his job to profess or preach.
Many college students, however, need help understanding and evaluating dense philosophical texts. Weinberg believes that it is the professor’s duty to connect contemporary events to theory, allowing students to truly understand the material.
Whereas the Scripps class is more accessible, CMC’s tailors to a certain type of student. CMC professors seem to assume that undergraduates have the same level of critical thinking skills as graduate students. Though lecture-based courses may be the manifestation of professors’ high expectations, they often result in disinterest.
Yet we should not eschew the classics altogether. They are worth learning.
Pomona sophomore Michael Vassilevsky thinks that only few noteworthy political thinkers, like John Stuart Mill, came after Rousseau. He sees a contemporary split in political philosophy into two areas: political science, “which has some interesting insights but isn’t exciting,” and post-modern “critical” philosophy, “which is excessively influenced by Marxism.”
If we truly want to educate well-rounded future leaders, we should give them the opportunity to learn all approaches. At CMC, that might mean incorporating an alternative to the current Government 80 course, required for all government majors, or even changing the original syllabus to better reflect the breadth of philosophical traditions. A mixture is needed.