PHL 499/599 The Political Philosophy of Occupy Wall Street more

PHL 499/599 Political Philosophy of Occupy Wall Street Winter 2012 Instructors: José-Antonio Orosco Office: 102-D Hovland Hall E-mail: joseph.orosco@oregonstate.edu Phone: 737-4335 (office) Office hours: M 2-3pm Tony Vogt Office: 204 Hovland Hall Email: vogtbl@onid.orst.edu Phone: 737-2955 (better to e-mail) Office hours: T & Th 3 – 3:50 Description This course examines the political philosophies behind the global Occupy Movement, such as classical and contemporary populism, Marxism, and anarchism, and the ethical ideals behind its strategies and tactics, such as participatory democracy, nonviolent direct action, and horizontal, egalitarian community organizing. This is an upper division philosophy seminar with both undergraduates and graduate students. Required Texts: • This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement. Edited by Sarah van Gelder. All other required readings are available on Blackboard. Course Outcomes At the end of this course, students should be able to: 1. Identify significant events, developments, and ideas in the Occupy Movement. 2. Interpret the significance of philosophical, historical, and sociological ideas related to the Occupy Movement. Class Protocols This course is conducted on the principle of cooperative learning. You will be expected to listen, learn, and respond to the ideas of your class colleagues and, in general, to maintain the integrity and flow of the conversation. Participation means more than just showing up for class and hoping you can get the answers from the professor or from the students who talk a lot. Cooperative learning means that you will be expected to offer your own views on the readings, and possibly revise them upon encountering other views. This class will be structured to make sure your opinions help others understand better and your input is taken seriously by all of us. In order to accomplish this goal, please make sure your comments are constructive and respectful of others, even in your disagreements. Personal attacks or disrepect of one another will not be tolerated in class. Come prepared for class. Being prepared means that you have read the assigned material for the day and are prepared to discuss it or have questions about it. Don’t be deceived by the shorter length of some of these readings— philosophy can be very demanding reading. Try to read the assignments at least twice before class and again after class discussion for maximum comprehension. Bring readings to all class sessions. We will refer to key passages frequently during class and ask you to interpret them in discussion. Obviously, you will need your texts for close reading. Please turn off all cell phones and other portable electronic devices during class discussion. Please do not text message or read other materials during class; if you do this, we will ask for your device, book, or newspaper until the end of the class period, or ask you to leave. Please do not use your laptop during class unless you have cleared it with us first, and even then you may be asked to sit in back to reduce any disruption to others. Lectures and class discussions may not be recorded without prior approval. Students with documented disabilities who may need accommodations should contact us as soon as possible so that we can work together to make arrangements for you. Grades and Assignments Your final grades will be calculated according to the following guideline. Factors such as increased participation and signs of improvement in your written work will definitely be taken into account. It is generally a good idea to keep in contact with us over the course of the quarter so that we can keep track of your progress and identify what you may need to do to improve. So here is an open invitation to come speak with us in person during office hours and learn the strategies for success in this class. All written work for this class must be your own. While you are encouraged to talk and study with other students, and to do your own outside research, every assignment must represent your own thoughts and ideas. Anything other than this is considered academic dishonesty. Participation: Thematic Summaries Final Essay: 30% 35% 35% Participation: An important component of your grade will be class discussion participation. Our class will be a mixture of engaged lecture and discussion: you will be expected to come to class to share your thoughts with one another and respond to one another’s ideas. Here are questions that should help you frame your thoughts for discussion: 1) 2) 3) 4) What are the main concepts, ideas, and arguments of the reading? What or to whom does the author seem to be responding to/arguing against? What does the author seem to want to accomplish with his or her writing? How does the reading relate/connect to previous readings? Individual participation grading is based on the following criteria: Individual Participation A= Student attends class regularly and frequently contributes to class discussion, either by offering an interpretation of the reading or asking questions; listens carefully to others and responds to them, building on their remarks or asking them to clarify their ideas. B= Student attends regularly and occasionally contributes to class discussion either by offering an interpretation of the reading or asking questions; listens carefully to others and occasionally responds to them, builds on their remarks or asks them to clarify their ideas. C= Student attends occasionally; or regularly, but hardly ever contributes to class discussion either by offering an interpretation of the reading or asking questions; listens carefully to others, but hardly ever responds to them, builds on their remarks or asks them to clarify their ideas. D-F= Student attends sporadically and hardly ever contributes to class discussion either by offering an interpretation of the reading or asking questions. Thematic Summaries: You will be required to turn in abstracts that examine the themes in the assigned readings. This requirement is explained in more detail at the end of the reading schedule. Late abstracts will not be accepted. Essays: Undergraduates will be required to complete one 7-10 page paper. Graduate students will be required to complete one 14-20 page paper. Papers are due during finals week. Instructions on format and topics will be given on our Blackboard course site. No late papers will be accepted, or extensions granted, except in emergency situations. Reading Schedule: Please note that this is a tentative schedule and is subject to change. It is your responsibility to find out if there are any alterations to these dates and readings. As we are studying a movement in process, and its ideas, we may add relevant readings during the course of the term as these become available. Week One: Introduction Week Two: Social Movements: History and Comparison This Changes Everything, Part I “Social Scientists Build Case for 'Survival of the Kindest'” on Blackboard (BB) “Situating Occupy” David Graeber on BB “Occupy Wall Street, Beyond Encampments” Luis Moreno-Caballud and Marina Sitrin on BB “Interpreting Occupy” George Shulman on BB Week Three: Capitalism and its Discontents Selections from Marx on BB Communist Manifesto on BB “How Wall Street Occupied America” Bill Moyers on BB This Changes Everything, Parts II and III Week Four: Anarchist Theory “New Anarchism” David Graeber on BB Other selections on anarchism, on BB Week Five: Neoliberalism and Globalization “The Fourth World War” Subcomandante Marcos on BB “N30: Skeleton Woman in Seattle” Paul Hawken on B “For and Against Pre-carity” Judith Butler on BB “Possibility, Universality, and Radicality: A Universal Chorus for Emanicpation” Isham Christie on BB Week Six: Feminist Consciousness Raising “Consciousness Raising: A Radical Weapon” Kathie Sarachild on BB “Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State” Catherine MacKinnon on BB Week Seven: Nonviolence, Civil Disobedience, Direct Action Selections from Gandhi on BB “Letter from a Birmingham City Jail” Martin Luther King, Jr. on BB “The General Strike” Gayatri Spivak on BB Week Eight : Participatory Democracy “Occupy: Rediscovering the General Will in Hard Times” Nick Couldry and Natalie Fenton on BB “Matrix as the Core Element” Rira on BB “Horizontalism” Marina Sitrin on BB Week Nine: Environmental Sustainability and the Commons “A Movement without Demands” Marco Deserlis on BB “Myth of the Tragedy of the Commons” by Ian Angus on BB "The Hidden Commons" by Jonathan Rowe on BB Other Selections on the commons, on BB Week Ten: Decolonization and Critical Race Theory “Moving Beyond a Politics of Solidarity Towards a Practice of Decolonization” Harsha Walia on BB “Whiteness and the 99%” Joel Olson on BB Thematic Summaries: Each week starting week two, you will be required to turn in a typed 2 page maximum thematic summary of the readings. Your task will be to identify and discuss the main themes that connect all the readings for that week’s class period. For instance, you try to show that there is a single theme that connects all the readings for the week, using specific examples from each reading to prove your point. You might compare how two different readings grapple with one theme in particular. You might select a theme that you think is not as well-developed from a particular reading or readings and explain how it might be better developed or supported. The goal here is to put the week’s readings into some kind of interpretive framework that makes sense for you. The grading system for the thematic summaries is as follows: 3 points: summary shows particularly unusual insight or high level of engagement with ideas; clearly defines theoretical concepts within the readings, is able to carefully explain the supporting arguments for the ideas, and demonstrates, with detail, the importance or relevance of the reading to contemporary concerns and to the other readings (rarely given) summary shows normal, expected, level of insight or intellectual engagement with ideas; defines some key theoretical concepts within readings well, is able to explain some of the supporting arguments for ideas (but may miss some explanations), and generally makes some reference to the relevance of readings to contemporary concerns and other authors but is not necessarily detailed. (frequently given) summary engages less persuasively with the readings; is unable to define clear themes, does not demonstrate connection between the themes and supporting arguments; and does not engage with the full collection of the week’s readings. (infrequently given) 2 points 1 point 22-27=A range; 15-21=B range; 8-14=C range; 1-7=D range ; 0=F Paper Guidelines: Your papers must be typed, 10-or12 point font, doubledspaced, proofread, and “spell-checked.” • Use in-text citations for sources from class—(Aristotle, 125), for example. If you use outside sources, please provide a bibliography page. There is no need for a cover page. An excellent guide to help you polish your written work for this class is the Philosophy Department Writing Guide. Check it out on Blackboard. • • Avoid Plagiarism! Plagiarism is defined at Oregon State University as: "representing the words or ideas of another person as one's own OR presenting someone else's words, ideas, artistry or data as one's own. This includes copying another person's work (including unpublished material) without appropriate referencing, presenting someone else's opinions and theories as one's own, or working jointly on a project, then submitting it as one's own." Plagiarism includes cutting and pasting excerpts from websites on the Internet without proper citation. If you are caught engaging in plagiarism, you will receive a failing grade for that assignment and further academic discipline may be administered, including failure in the course and a mark on your permanent record. You will be graded on the organization, content (your level of detail and use of specific examples), and style of your paper, as well as on writing mechanics, such as spelling, grammar, and use of gender appropriate language. The following is a rough guide to how papers are evaluated. A Paper= Paper is excellent work: represents outstanding comprehension of the subject matter; paper is very well organized and argument is logical; writer uses very specific and well-cited examples and evidence to support claims; language is sophisticated and flows very well; almost no spelling or grammar errors. Paper is good work; represents very good comprehension of the subject matter; paper is organized and argument is mostly logical, with perhaps some tangents or missing steps; writer uses some examples and evidence to support claims (but are not as detailed or well-cited as an A paper); language is well chosen and flows well; some spelling or grammar errors, but not enough to detract from the overall quality of the paper. B Paper= C Paper= Paper is average work; represents some familiarity with the subject matter but is missing some important key themes or concepts; paper may have some gaps in organizing the logical progression of the argument or includes tangents that are not related to the paper’s main points; writer uses very few examples or evidence to support general claims; language is sometimes general or vague; spelling or grammar errors that detract from the overall quality of the paper. Paper is poor work; represents very little familiarity with the subject matter and may be confused as to the key themes or concepts; paper may have serious gaps in organizing the logical progression of the argument or be self-contradictory; paper is written in generalities with no examples or evidence to support claims; language is very general, vague, and stilted; serious spelling or grammar errors that detract from the overall quality of the paper. Paper represents hardly any familiarity with the subject matter and has almost no grasp of key themes or concepts. Also given in cases of plagiarism and other academic malfeasance. You don’t want to go there! D Paper= F Paper=