OLIVET NAZARENE UNIVERSITY

                                                 DIVISION OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

                                                 DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND

                                                           POLITICAL SCIENCE

 

 

                                              POSTMODERN POLITICAL THEORY

                                                                      PSCI 460

 

 

 

PSCI 460                                                                                             Spring 2001

Dr. Van Heemst                                                                                   Office Burke 002, x‑5127

 

REQUIRED BOOKS: (Note: These books are listed in the order that we will read them and not in the typical bibliographical listing)

 

• Tinder, Glenn.  Political Thinking: The Perennial Questions.  Sixth edition.  (New York: Harper Collins, 1995). 

• Nietzsche, Friedrich.  Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future.  Translated by Walter Kaufmann.  (New York: Vintage Books, 1966). 

• Rorty, Richard.  Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity.  (England: Cambridge University Press, 1989).

•  Voegelin, Eric.  Science, Politics, and Gnosticism.  (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1966).

•  Walsh, Brian and Richard Middleton.  Truth is Stranger Than it Used to Be.  (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1995).

•  Sire, James.  Chris Chrisman Goes to College and Faces the Challenges of Relativism, Individualism, and Pluralism.  (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993).

•  Newbigin, Lesslie.  Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship.  (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995).

•  Newbigin, Lesslie.  The Gospel in a Pluralist Society.  (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989).

•  Garber, Steven.  The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior During the University Years.  (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1996).

 

 

RECOMMENDED BOOKS: (by category)

 

INTRODUCTION TO POSTMODERNISM

 

• Foucault, Michael.  The Foucault Reader.  (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985).

•  Kamuf, Peggy (ed.).  A Derrida Reader: Between the Blinds.  (New York: Columbia Press, 1991).

•  Kearney, Richard and Rainwater, Mara.  The Continental Philosophy Reader.  (New York: Routledge, 1996).

•  May, Todd.  Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy: a Reader.  (USA: Prentice Hall, 1996).

 

POSTMODERN SELECTIONS

 

• Gadamer, Hans-Georg.  Truth and Method.  (New York: Continuum, 1993).

•  Habermas, Jurgen.  Legitimation Crisis.  (Boston: Beacon Publishers, 1975).

•  Heidegger, Martin.  The Question Concerning Technology.  (New York: Harper Collins, 1982).

•  Kierkegaard, Soren.  Fear and Trembling.  (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994).

•  Weiss, T.G.  Beyond Epistemology: New Studies in the Philosophy of Hegel.  (Norwell: Kluwer Academic Press, 1974). 

POSTMODERN FEMINISTS

 

• Irigaray, Luce.  This Sex Which is Not One.  (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985).

 

RESPONSES TO POSTMODERNISM

 

• Arendt, Hannah.  The Human Condition.  (Magnolia: Peter Smith Press, 1990).

•  Caesar, James.  Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought.  (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997).

•  Milbank, John.  Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason.  (Malden: Basil Blackwell, 1991).

•  Pangle, Thomas.  The Ennobling of Democracy: the Challenge of the Postmodern Age.  (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991).

• Voegelin, Eric.  The New Science of Politics.  (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).

 

POSTMODERNISM IS PASSE

 

• Ferry, Luc.  Why We are not Nietzschiennes.  (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997).

 

CRITIQUES OF CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIETY

 

• Bellah, Robert. et. al.  Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life.  Second edition.  (California: University of California Press, 1996).

•  Fowler, Robert Booth.  The Dance With Community: The Contemporary

• Debate in American Political Thought.    (Kansas:  University of Kansas Press, 1991).

• Sire, James.  The Universe Next Door.  (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997, 3rd edition).

 

DYSUTOPIAS

 

• Huxley, Aldous.  Brave New World.  (New York: Harper and Row,1946).

• Zamyatin, Yevgeny.  We.  (New York: Avon Books, 1972).

 

 

 

PURPOSE

This course is a continuation of the History of Political Philosophy.  In that course you were challenged to grapple with the insights of the major philosophers of the Western tradition and to question everything you have believed up to this point.  This course, Postmodern Political Theory, continues with those two themes by focusing on the most significant thinkers of the past century.  The central questions in this course are the following:  What do you believe and what difference does that make in your life?  In this course you will be challenged to address these basic questions honestly.  It has become excessively difficult to think clearly during the postmodern age and this course is designed to assist the student in a) understanding the contours of the postmodern society, and b) reflecting on a Christian response to postmodernism.  Above all else, the student will be asked to reflect personally and deeply about what they believe, whether it's true, and how that concretely impacts the student's life.

To accomplish these goals, the books, lectures, and discussions are designed to assist students in understanding the major competing postmodernists and the responses to them.  At the heart of postmodernism is a sense that "we" have moved beyond the perennial questions.  Grappling and wrestling with the perennial questions supposedly has not "gotten" us anywhere.  So, let's Agive up on it,@ as Richard Rorty is fond of saying.  To get a sense of what is being called on to "give up," we shall first assess the perennial questions, as described by Glenn Tinder in his Political Thinking.  

 

While it=s difficult to pinpoint an exact start to postmodernism, there is a general consensus that one of the fathers of postmodernism was Friedrich Nietzsche.  Thus, we will allow the postmodernists to speak for themselves.  We shall read his classic piece, Beyond Good and Evil, in which he points out that Western civilization needs to go beyond "slave morality" and usher in a new age of subjectivism in which the truly superior will not be limited by "slave morality."  Christianity, he argues, has been the death of Western civilization and represents little more than the Areligion of the masses.@

Following Nietzsche is the most significant living American postmodernist, my old professor from the University of Virginia, Richard Rorty.  So, the most noted American postmodernist, Richard Rorty, will be our next focal point.  We shall work through his ideas in his seminal Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity.  In this book he provides an excellent overview of postmodern political theory.  We shall examine how he has updated and applied postmodern thought to America at the birth of the new millennium.

What do you make of Nietzsche and Rorty?  For guidance, we should turn to the Master! Perhaps the most profound insight into Nietzsche and other gnostics was made by the one and only, Eric Voegelin.  To that end we shall examine his cogent but incredibly powerful arguments in his Science, Politics, and Gnosticism.   There is no finer philosophical analysis of postmodernism.

What might be a sophisticated, sensitive and intellectual Christian response to postmodernism?  Many so-called Christian responses to postmodernism are not worth the paper they=re written on.  The book you will read is an exception.  Walsh and Middleton, in their Truth is Stranger Than is Used to Be, provide an outstanding overview of postmodernism and a Christian response to it.  This book will provide you with the philosophical overview for the entire course.  Master this book!!!

How is all of this translated into the contemporary academic setting?  To get a handle on this question, you will read James Sire's powerful Chris Chrisman Goes to College.  In this piece, Sire provides an amazing insight into the present nature of argumentation in American colleges and universities.  While some of the book might be a bit Acheezy,@ his insights into the major arguments of postmodernism are nonetheless helpful.

Now, for the deep thinking.  From a Christian perspective, how might you begin to think through all of the issues of postmodernism?  To get a handle on this, we shall read two outstanding books by Lesslie Newbigin: Proper Confidence and his classic, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society.  Newbigin is a very difficult writer to understand because he is such a gifted philosopher.  Nevertheless, it is well worth the effort because his insights are well, uncanny.  You will certainly walk away with an amazing insight into Truth after having worked through Newbigin.  The first book we shall read is basically an elaborate thesis statement.  Then Newbigin Agets into it deeply@ in The Gospel in a Pluralist Society.

Finally, we shall ask the question, how does all of this apply to each of us?  What sense can we make of all of this during our university years?  To get a handle on this, we shall work through the much revered Fabric of Faithfulness by Steve Garber.  This book is helpful in gaining a sense of how to apply everything that we have learned through the semester to our immediate lives.   

At the end of the course, the student will be able to articulate what is meant by postmodern political theory, a postmodern society, assess how the U.S. got into this situation, and offer tentative solutions to the current, so‑called "crisis."  The student will be able to identify the major arguments of postmodernism, analyze and assess each perspective, compare and contrast the perspectives, and critique each from a Christian perspective.  At the end of the course, the student should be well acquainted  with  the  major  philosophical  arguments  regarding contemporary society,  possess a working knowledge of the major political theorists of our current age, and be able to respond to each from a Christian perspective.

 

 

 

FINAL GRADE EVALUATION

 

The student's final grade will be based upon the following criteria,  in which I use the traditional 90,  80,  70,  60 grade scale:

 

1 Major Paper              (1x10%)           10%

Book Outlines  (9x5%) 45%

3 Exams                       (3x15%)           45%

100%

 

Your one major paper will be due on January 30.  In that paper you will be asked to read a series of articles, write a unified paper, and respond to these specific questions: 1) Is the intellectual life something a Christian should pursue? (Read ACuriosity Killed the Cat,@ and AMinding the Evangelical Mind@), 2) what is the purpose of scholarship? (Read AEducating for Shalom,@ and AWhat are we doing here?@), 3) how would you describe what=s happening in our cultural currently in terms of Gen. X. and Atolerance?@ (Read AGen. X. Apologetics,@ and AAre you Tolerant?@), 4) what has happened to our culture from a Christian perspective? (Read, AWho Turned out the Lights?@), 5) why might a Christian be wary of postmodernism? (Read APostmodernism and a Christian Response@), 6) what might be an alternative Christian perspective to postmodernism? (Read AScripture, Law and Fruit@).  This paper should be 10-12 pages in length.  This paper will comprise 10% of your final grade.

You will also write extensive outlines of each of the nine books that we read.  Your task will be to outline each chapter in roughly one page.  So, if there are 10 chapters in said book, you will turn in a 10 page outline paper for that book.  The focus here is to read the authors of each book as carefully as possible.  Each of these will comprise 5%, totaling 45% of your final grade.  Each of the outlines will be due on the first day we begin discussing the philosopher.  Hence, you should have each book read before we begin discussing it.

Finally, you will take three exams in this course.  Since you have already mastered the content of what the philosophers are saying in your outlined summaries, in these three exams I will ask you to analyze, assess and critique what we have been reading.  The essay question will be a surprise to you when you walk into class on that particular day.  Nevertheless, fear not.  The questions will be based upon the reading, lectures and discussions we have had up to that point.  While none of these are the essay questions you will get, here are some examples of what you might want to be looking for in the books as you begin to think critically in preparation for the examinations:

 

Walsh and Middleton: Truth is Stranger Than it Used to Be

How does a Christian perspective respond to postmodernism?  In your paper you might want to focus on the two important themes of the Middleton and Walsh book: 1) what is postmodern, what are the big questions it deals with, what are concrete examples of it from the book and that you've notice in culture, from your friends, and in yourself?, 2)  how does a Christian perspective respond to these concrete problems?   Above  all  else,  making  sure  that  you  answer  the question, what does this mean to me and for me as I plan to leave Olivet in the near future?

 

Lesslie Newbigin: Proper Confidence

What is Lesslie Newbigin's path out of the postmodern quagmire, and do you agree?  Newbigin argues that the two major camps of contemporary Christianity fail to deal adequately with postmodernism: liberal theology and conservative fundamentalism.  Do you agree with his critique of these two camps?  What does Newbigin mean by a third way, the way of Proper Confidence?  Can you flesh out what he means by a "confident explorer?"  Would you describe yourself as a "confident explorer?"

 

Lesslie Newbigin: The Gospel in a Pluralist Society

What is the role of the Gospel in a pluralist society?  Hint: you might want to focus on the three big themes of the book: 1) what is the fact/value dichotomy, why is it so important, what's wrong with it?, 2) what is meant by the Bible as universal history?, why is it so vitally important?, 3) what is meant by the myth of the secular society, why is this so important?  how does this related to the first important theme?  what insights does this provide for you into contemporary politics, such as the idea that religion has no place in politics because of separation of church and state?

 

Steve Garber: The Fabric of Faithfulness

You could answer these two questions which Steve Garber has raised: What do you believe and what difference does that make in your life?  As you reflect on the first question, be sure to address the necessary sub-question, is it true?  As you reflect on the first question, also address whether you believe it to be true as a private issue and/or as public truth, keeping in mind Newbigin's reference to "universal intent" from Polanyi.  Describe what you believe and what difference that makes in the actual concrete living of your life: career or calling?, interpersonal relationships, goal of your life, involvement in society, etc.  Has this whole course been an academic exercise or has it challenged you to think meaningfully about how you think you will live your life now and in your post-Olivet years? 

 

 

 

 

 

COURSE OUTLINE

 

January 9          Introduction

January 11        Lecture: The Essence of Postmodernism

January 16        " "

January 18        Readings: Articles handed out in class and Tinder: The Perennial Questions

Paper Due: Outlined Paper of Tinder

January 23        " "  (Note: I will be gone-- Federal Seminar!)

January 25        " "                     " "

January 30        Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil

Papers Due: 1) Major paper over the articles

         2) Outlined paper of Nietzsche

February 1       " "

February 6       " "

February 8       Rorty: Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity

Paper Due: 1) Outlined paper of Rorty

February 13     A @

February 15     A @

February 20     Voegelin: Science, Politics, and Gnosticism

Paper Due: 1) Outlined paper of Voegelin

February 22     " "

February 27     Exam #1

March 1           Walsh and Middleton: Truth is Stranger Than it Used to Be

Paper Due: 1) Outlined paper of Walsh and Middleton

March 6                       " "

March 8                       " "

March 13         No Class!!  Spring Break!!

March 15         No Class!! Spring Break!!

March 20         Sire: Chris Chrisman Goes to College

Paper Due: 1) Outlined paper of Sire

March 22         A @

March 27         Exam #2

March 29         Newbigin: Proper Confidence

Paper Due: 1) Outlined paper of Newbigin

April 3              " "

April 5  Newbigin: The Gospel in a Pluralist Society

Paper Due: 1) Outlined paper of Newbigin

April 10                        " "

April 12                        " "

April 17                        A @

April 19            Garber: The Fabric of Faithfulness

Paper Due: 1) Outlined paper of Garber

April 24                        " "

April 26            Exam #3