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Power over People: Classical and Modern Political Theory

This course contrasts two conflicting views that have long shaped political theory and practice—idealism and realism.
Guidebook
 
 
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The Hindu Vision of Life

01: The Hindu Vision of Life

Professor Dennis Dalton discusses early Hindu philosophy and its values. Ancient India had separate castes for spiritual, or philosophical,leadership and political leadership.

Thucydides and The Peloponnesian War

02: Thucydides and The Peloponnesian War

This lecture examines the tragic history of Athens in the times of Socrates and Plato.

Law and Rule in Sophocles’s “Antigone”

03: Law and Rule in Sophocles’s “Antigone”

“Antigone” is the story of a young woman risking her life by doing what is right and disobeying a powerful tyrant. It gives us insight into ideas about law and leadership in ancient Greece.

Socrates and the Socratic Quest

04: Socrates and the Socratic Quest

Socrates was Plato's teacher and the hero of many of Plato's dialogues. Plato portrays him as a man on a quest for truth. In Plato's Gorgias, Socrates asks the quintessential question of philosophy, “What course of life is best?”

Plato—Idealism and Power, Part I

05: Plato—Idealism and Power, Part I

The “Republic” —Plato's great work on politics—takes the form of a dialogue with Socrates as its hero. Plato seeks to define right conduct in a political sense and ties the state into the Socratic quest for the best course of life.

Plato—Idealism and Power, Part II

06: Plato—Idealism and Power, Part II

The “Republic” —Plato's great work on politics—takes the form of a dialogue with Socrates as its hero. Plato seeks to define right conduct in a political sense and ties the state into the Socratic quest for the best course of life.

Aristotle’s Critique of Plato’s “Republic”

07: Aristotle’s Critique of Plato’s “Republic”

Aristotle, Plato's student, attacks Plato's three waves of radical change: gender equality, the status of private property, and rule by philosophers versus the citizens.

Machiavelli’s Theory of Power Politics

08: Machiavelli’s Theory of Power Politics

Machiavelli's “The Prince” is the most extreme example of realism. Machiavelli lived in an Italy composed of war-torn city-states. He felt that power and the security it brings should be the ultimate goal of the prince and that ethics should not interfere with the ruthless pursuit of this goal.

Rousseau’s Theory of Human Nature and Society

09: Rousseau’s Theory of Human Nature and Society

Rousseau believed human nature was basically good. He saw modern society as corrupt and rotten, and believed that a political solution, a new social contract, could lead to the establishment of a civil state, his ideal society.

Marx’s Critique of Capitalism and Solution of Communism

10: Marx’s Critique of Capitalism and Solution of Communism

Karl Marx's communism provided what is probably the best known ideal society. He blamed not only private property, but the entire institution of capitalism for the inequality and injustice in society.

Freud’s Theory of Human Nature and Civilization

11: Freud’s Theory of Human Nature and Civilization

Freud's dark view of the human psyche as divided into three parts, with conflicting drives, contrasts sharply with idealist philosophy's view of human nature as good.

Thoreau’s Theory of Civil Disobedience

12: Thoreau’s Theory of Civil Disobedience

Thoreau goes beyond the bounds of the liberal tradition established by John Locke in his essay “Civil Disobedience.” Many Americans believed—and many still do—that government that governs least governs best, but by taking that belief to its logical conclusion and stating “that government is best that governs not at all,” Thoreau shocked his contemporaries.

Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor

13: Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor

“The Grand Inquisitor” is a single chapter from Dostoyevsky's novel “The Brothers Karamazov.” It focuses on the concept that Satan has better understood human nature than Christ. This understanding says that humans fear freedom and seek the security from following and being dominated by someone who is stronger.

The Idea of Anarchism and the Example of Emma Goldman

14: The Idea of Anarchism and the Example of Emma Goldman

The idea of anarchism started in ancient Greece and is illustrated here by the example of Emma Goldman, a 19th-century Russian-American woman, who was known for expounding that “women need not always keep their mouths shut and their wombs open.”

Hitler’s Use of Power

15: Hitler’s Use of Power

How did Adolph Hitler come to power? How could the German people not only accept, but support, the actions of Hitler and the Nazi Party? Professor Dalton looks at two common explanations of Hitler's rise to power and then develops his own theory.

Gandhi's Use of Power

16: Gandhi's Use of Power

Gandhi is as uplifting as Hitler is terrifying. Gandhi leads a movement in India to end British rule, not by seeking power, but by promoting ideals. Professor Dalton explains five key concepts of Gandhi's idealist political thought.

Overview Course No. 443

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Marx, Gandhi - these exceptional thinkers sculpted, piece by piece, Western political thought from its inception in 5th-century (B.C.) Athens. Is human nature essentially spirit or matter? Is it directed by reason or dominated by passion? Is it fixed or malleable? Is it innately sinful, aggressive, and violent, or is it fundamentally benign, cooperative, and nonviolent?

Will the good society be characterized by perfect harmony or by continued conflict? If conflict is inevitable in the good society, must it be controlled through the leader's discretionary use of coercive power, or can it be contained constructively within political institutions?

Are social unity and harmony achievable or even desirable? Do the progress and vigor of society depend, by contrast, upon some form of struggle? Professor Dalton (Ph.D., Political Theory, University of London) was dubbed by Newsday “the guru of Barnard”; his courses are so popular that the Columbia Student Guide warns, “To get a seat in his class, you must arrive half an hour early (we're not joking.)” This course offers answers to all these questions and more.

About

Dennis Dalton
Dennis Dalton

There is such athing as unity of being, and that the highest truth is when we manage,as individuals, to perceive oneself in all being.  Once that is achieved, once the separateness is overcome,then illusions will be overwhelmed as well.

INSTITUTION
Barnard College, Columbia University

Dr. Dennis Dalton is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. He earned his B.A. from Rutgers University, his M.A. in Political Science from the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. in Political Theory from the University of London.

Professor Dalton has edited and contributed to more than a dozen publications and has written numerous articles. He is the author of Indian Idea of Freedom and Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action. His fields of interests include classical and modern, Western, and Asian political theory; politics of South Asia, particularly the Indian nationalist movement; nonviolence and violence in society; and ideologies of modern political movements in Europe, India, China, and Africa.

Dr. Dalton served as a review editor for the Journal of Developmental Studies (London) and as a U.S. correspondent for the South Asian Review (London). He is a member of both the American Political Science Association and the Association for Asian Studies.

Professor Dalton has been honored with numerous teaching awards, scholarships, and grants, including the Barnard College Margaret Mead Award 2009 for Distinguished Teaching, the 2008 Barnard Commendation for Excellence in Teaching, a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies, a senior fellowship with the American Institute of Indian Studies, and a Gandhi Peace Foundation Grant.

By This Professor

Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 3rd Edition

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