Resistance, Revolt, Revolution (S21)

Course Description: 
In this course we will analyze one of the central questions of political philosophy and political life: under what circumstances are we justified (as members, or as citizens) in resisting or even attempting to overthrow either the government or the political state (the two are not the same thing) in which we live. We will examine the different roles, benefits, and shortcomings of civil disobedience, uncivil disobedience, violence, rioting, hacking, and bossnapping, among other things. We will also examine the different justifications underpinning these varying modes of contestation, including democracy, morality, fairness, self-defense, freedom, and others. Over the course of the semester students will have to confront the realities of their own participation in the existing state, as well as what may rightly be demanded of them as political agents.

Week 1

  • Course introduction
  • Bernard Williams, “From Freedom to Liberty: The Construction of a Political Value” in Philosophy & Public Affairs 30.1 (pp. 3–26)
  • Michael Walzer “The Obligation to Disobey” in Ethics 77.3 (pp. 163–175)
  • Candice Delmas, “On Michael Walzer’s ‘The Obligation to Disobey’” in Ethics 125.4 (pp. 1145–1147)

Week 2

  • John Rawls, “Duty and Obligation VI.55-59” in A Theory of Justice (pp. 319–343)
  • A. John Simmons, “Civil Disobedience and the Duty to Obey the Law” in The Blackwell Companion to Applied Ethics (pp. 50–61)
  • Andrew Sabl, “Looking Forward to Justice: Rawlsian Civil Disobedience and Its Non-Rawlsian Lessons” in The Journal of Political Philosophy 9.3 (pp. 307–330)

Week 3

  • William Scheuerman, “Recent Theories of Civil Disobedience: An Anti-Legal Turn?” in The Journal of Political Philosophy 23.4 (pp. 427–449)
  • David Lefkowitz, “On a Moral Right to Civil Disobedience” in Ethics 117.2 (pp. 202–233)
  • Andrea Sangiovanni, “Justice and the Priority of Politics to Morality” in The Journal of Political Philosophy 16.2 (pp. 137–164)

Week 4

  • William Smith, “Civil Disobedience and the Public Sphere” in Journal of Political Philosophy 19 (pp. 145–166)
  • Candice Delmas “Political Resistance: A Matter of Fairness” Law and Philosophy 33.4 (pp. 465–488) 

Week 5

  • Daniel Markovits, “Democratic Disobedience” in Yale Law Journal 114.8 (pp. 1897–1952)
  • Robin Celikates, “Rethinking Civil Disobedience as a Practice of Contestation – Beyond the Liberal Paradigm” in Constellations 23.1 (pp. 37–45)
  • Robin Celikates “Democratizing Civil Disobedience” in Philosophy & Social Criticism 42.10 (pp. 982–994)

Week 6

  • Candice Delmas, “Disobedience, Civil and Otherwise” in Criminal Law and Philosophy 11.1 (pp. 195–211)
  • Iris Marion Young, “Activist Challenges to Deliberative Democracy” in Political Theory (pp. 670–690)
  • Robert Jubb, “Disaggregating Political Authority: What’s Wrong with Rawlsian Civil Disobedience?” in Political Studies 67.4 (pp. 955–971)

Week 7

  • David Lyons, “Moral Judgment, Historical Reality and Civil Disobedience” in Philosophy & Public Affairs 27.1 (pp. 31–49)
  • Christopher J. Finlay, “Legitimacy and Non-State Political Violence” in The Journal of Political Philosophy 18.3 (pp. 287–312)
  • Kevin K.W. Ip, “Legitimate Authority in Forceful Resistance and the Consent Requirement” in Political Research Quarterly (November 2020)

Week 8

  • David Waddington, “Riots,” in The Oxford Handbook of Social Movements (pp. 423–438)
  • Steven Wilkinson, “Riots” in Annual Review of Political Science 12 (pp. 329–43)

Week 9

  • Avia Pasternak, “Political Rioting: A Moral Assessment” in Philosophy and Public Affairs 46.4 (pp. 384–418)
  • Joshua Clover, “A Theory of Riot” in Riot. Strike. Riot (pp. 1–31)

Weeks 10-11

  • Guy Aitchison, “(Un)Civil Disobedience” in Raisons Politiques 69 (pp. 5–12)
  • William Smith, “Disruptive Democracy: The Ethics of Direct Action” in Raisons Politiques 69 (pp. 13–27)
  • Piero Moraro, “Is Bossnapping Uncivil?” in Raisons Politiques 69 (pp. 29–44)
  • Guy Aitchison, “Coercion, Resistance and the Radical Side of Non-Violent Action” in Raisons Politiques 69 (pp. 45–61)
  • Candice Delmas, “Is Hacktivism the New Civil Disobedience?” in Raisons Politiques 69 (pp. 63–81)
  • Gwilym David Blunt, “Illegal Immigration as Resistance to Global Poverty” in Raisons Politiques 69 (pp. 83–99)

Week 12

  • Norman Geras, “Our Morals: The Ethics of Revolution” in Socialist Register 25 (pp. 185–211)
  • Allen Buchannan “The Ethics of Revolution and its Implications for the Ethics of Intervention” in Philosophy & Public Affairs 41.4 (pp. 291–323)

Week 13

  • Juliet Hooker, “Black Lives Matter and the Paradoxes of U.S. Black Politics: From Democratic Sacrifice to Democratic Repair” in Political Theory 44 (pp. 448–69)
  • Jennifer Kling and Megan Mitchell, “Bottles and Bricks: Rethinking the Prohibition against Violent Political Protest” in Radical Philosophy Review 22.2 (pp. 209–237)

Week 14

  • Stephen D’arcy, “The Militant’s Vocation” in Languages of the Unheard: Why Militant Protest is Good for Democracy (pp. 13–33)
  • Stephen D’arcy, “The Liberal Objection” in Languages of the Unheard: Why Militant Protest is Good for Democracy (pp. 35–56)
  • Stephen D’arcy, “The Democratic Standard” in Languages of the Unheard: Why Militant Protest is Good for Democracy (pp. 57–73)

Week 15

  • Chad Kautzer, “Notes for a Critical Theory of Community Self-Defense” in Setting Sights: Histories and Reflections on Community Armed Self-Defense (pp. 35–48)
  • Tommy J. Curry, “Please Don’t Make Me Touch ‘Em: Towards a Critical Race Fanonianism as a Possible Justification for Violence against Whiteness” in Radical Philosophy Today 5 (pp. 133–158)
  • Frank B. Wilderson III, “The Black Liberation Army and the Paradox of Political Engagement” in Postcoloniality–Decoloniality–Black Critique (pp. 175–207)