Philosophy 316: Philosophy of Law

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Dr. James Luchte
Britt Hall 214
E-mail Dr. James Luchte
540-365-4324
Office Hours: MWF 10-10:50AM and by appointment

Philosophy of Law
1:00 - 1:50PM
Garber 127


Course Description:

This course will begin with the question of the possiblity of law, of justice as such.

We will turn next to the household as the site of justice in Aristotle's Politics.

In light of our investigations, we will turn to the basis of Modernist legal and political theory in Rousseau's Social Contract.

We will next examine the anarchist criticisms of Social Contract theory and of the possibility of law itself.

We will next engage in an in-depth reading of Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, in order to disclose an alternative theory on the character of Modern juriprudence and punishment.

In light of the impasse that has emerged in the reduction of justice to power, a retrieval of a sense of justice will be attempted in a deconstruction of ancient and modern legal codifications.


Texts:

Plato's Republic

Aristotle's Politics (Book I)

Ancient Law and Philosophy

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Social Constract

Anarchists and Fellow Travellers

"The Anarchist Movement Today" (1934) by Alexander Berkman

"Anarchy" by Errico Malatesta

Postmodern Philosophy and Law
by Douglas Litowitz
University Press of Kansas

Discipline and Punish
by Michel Foucault
Penguin Classics


Evaluation Criteria:

This course will be evaluated in three ways:

(1) a ten page paper on the Philosophy of Law.

(2) rotating explications on readings.

(3) a cumulative final examination.


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