The aim of his
course is not to take sides on any public issue, but rather to explain what is at stake,
and to improve your own grasp of why those on all sides of many widely discussed public
questions—be they liberals, socialists or libertarians, radical feminists or
religious conservatives—think as they do. Dr. Shearmur’s work is thus
not persuasion, but clarification. And he accomplishes it through an analysis
that is more profound, cogent, philosophically informed, and comprehensive than anything
you’re ever likely to glean from ordinary news coverage or day-to-day political
commentary.
Questions to Consider
Dr. Shearmur begins with questions that you have probably asked at one time or another,
questions such as:
- What is meant by ideology? Is it something I have, or only something that those who
disagree with me happen to harbor?
- Is political debate a series of disputes over how best to realize ideals that we all
hold in common, or are those who support differing programs and policies truly striving
for quite different and distinct ideals?
- Is politics really driven purely by subrational motives such as material interests, or
can ideas make a difference?
- And if ideas do matter, what precisely are the schools of thought that inform our
political discourse today? Where do they come from? How have they changed over time? And
how do they interact with one another to form our public sphere?
Dr. Shearmur shows that most of our current public controversies—from tax and
welfare policy to issues touching on feminism, free speech, or the public status of
homosexuality— can be understood as arguments within a larger liberal tradition.
As he sees it, four related but seriously differing schools of thought
contend over questions such as "What motivates us?" "What is true human
flourishing?" and "What should our ideals be, and what kinds of institutions and
programs best realize them?"
How Ideas Affect Issues
Dr. Shearmur invites you to consider how ideas flowing from principles held by
these schools of thought apply to real issues such as taxes, welfare, the
environment, feminism, free speech, Americans’ declining civic and political
participation, and more.
As regards participation, a striking discussion has been opened up by
the Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam. In an essay and later a book titled Bowling
Alone, he has argued that Americans are increasingly less likely to belong to
voluntary groups and associations of all kinds, and that this will have serious
consequences for everything from personal health to our whole political system.
Putnam’s evidence, his proposed solutions, what they say about where
we are now and where we are going, and the responses of his critics from across
the spectrum—all will come in for your consideration.
Socialism, Ecology, and Feminisms
Both Marxian and non-Marxian socialists offer moral critiques of the existing social
order. Some of the latter, along with certain liberal theorists, have recently argued that
welfare liberalism and socialism share much ground, that the former even perhaps points to
the latter. What is the basis of such arguments, and what do critics of various stripes
make of it all?
Should ecological concerns prompt us to embrace extensive regulation
or the international redistribution of resources? Are there market-based solutions to
environmental problems? And what of "deep ecology," the view that ecological
systems should be considered valuable in themselves, and should impose moral constraints
upon human action?
Three lectures on feminism begin by exploring the work of John Stuart
Mill on the social situation of women in the mid 19th-century, and his ideas
for improving it. The American feminist Betty Friedan critically appraised those
improvements from the standpoint of the early 1960s, thereby launching the feminist
movement as we know it today.
Is feminism essentially an offshoot of liberalism, exposed to the same questions? What
of variants such as the socialist and "radical" feminisms of the 1970s or the
"difference feminism" that flows from the work of psychologist Carol Gilligan,
and which has influenced the outcome of actual court cases?
Finally, we look at responses of liberal feminists to criticisms of liberalism by other
feminists, and at conservative responses to feminism. From feminism, we turn to other
political ideas that bring issues of identity into the heart of politics.
Who Belongs? Nationalism and Multiculturalism
The next phase of your reflection focuses on nationalism and multiculturalism
as they affect politics both globally and locally. Again, you’ll get to the root of
current controversies by looking at how the politics of identity developed, and at the
arguments that go on between supporters and critics.
This, in turn, leads us to issues relating to homosexuality, not least because some
homosexuals have taken multiculturalism as a model for their own politics. Also worth
considering are the ideas of journalist and commentator Andrew Sullivan,
who makes a distinctively non-multicultural and even conservative case for gay marriage.
The ideas of Sullivan’s critics, both religious conservatives and homosexuals
influenced by "queer theory," also come into focus in Dr. Shearmur’s
evenhanded treatment.
The debate over gay marriage raises vital questions of a more general character,
concerning the relationship between religious and secular authority, and, more generally,
religion and politics in Western societies.
Hence the need for lectures on the questions of free expression and pornography.
Disagreements over these issues, Dr. Shearmur suggests, shed much light on how both
liberalism and conservatism see the world.
Do Political Ideas Have a Future?
Finally, your survey of today’s political discourse closes with a question
raised by the collapse of the Soviet Union: Is there really any room left for
serious arguments about ideas in politics, or has history shown decisively that liberal
democracy is the only answer to political questions?
Such a viewwhich echoes the liberal theme that liberalism
is the fate of everyonewas explored by Francis Fukuyama. He
made his case strikingly in his famous 1989 essay "The End of History?" and
later in his 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man.
Is Fukuyama (assuming his own views have remained consistent!) correct? Are we all
liberals (or soon-to-be liberals) now?
Dr. Shearmur caps your intellectual tour of the modern political landscape by asking
how people who hold the various ideas studied in the lectures might best respond to
Fukuyama’s argument.
Will history go on, or has the scope of political ideas narrowed, for better or worse,
in some final way? Not easy questions to answer, but you’ll be able to
make an informed try after absorbing these 24 revealing talks from an
exceptionally lucid and levelheaded student of politics today.
“Should I buy Audio or Video?”
This course works well in either audio or video. The video version is illustrated
with portraits and on-screen graphics.
