verview of Course
- Exams are open book and open note b/c course is about thinking NOT regurgitation
- Midterm – 4 short questions (5 min each) and 1 short essay (30 min)
- Final – option between 1 big, expansive essa
...
verview of Course
- Exams are open book and open note b/c course is about thinking NOT regurgitation
- Midterm – 4 short questions (5 min each) and 1 short essay (30 min)
- Final – option between 1 big, expansive essay and combo of short questions plus 2
essays
- Can take final at beginning or end of exam period
- Central question of course: When are governments legitimate?
: Enlightenment Political Theory
Eichmann
- Mid-level SS officer in charge of implementing final solution
- Not an architect of the final solution and not anti-Semitic
- Success for the first time in his life as member of Nazi party
o Obeyed orders; commited to 3rd reich ideal
o Wanted to do a good job
- Expertise was management (not interested in purpose of exercise)
What makes you uncomfortable about Eichmann?
- Didn’t question orders
o What’s wrong with following orders?
o Is there a higher moral obligation (i.e. religion, natural law)
- Banality of evil – he was not crazy nor marginal but rather a normal/average human
- Saw no obligation to higher law
What makes you uncomfortable about Israeli actions?
- Conducted trial as a show trial
- Set precedents – violated international law; made law and then applied it to Eichmann
(violated due process)
o Israel reinstituted death penalty and used it retroactively
- Victim’s justice
While Eichmann refused to make moral judgments, Israel did appeal to higher law BOTH approaches
are disturbing!
- Tension between Eichmann’s blind obedience to the law and Israel’s disregard for law
- Are the moral imperatives that apply to individuals different than those that apply to
collectives?
- 3rd Reich was a “rogue” or illegitimate state – troubling that Eichmann treated it as a
legitimate power
- Israel was a legitimate state that disregarded international law and due process
What makes states legitimate? (i.e. When do we owe them alliance and when are we obliged to
disobey?)
- Enlightenment Traditions/ Answers
o Utilitarianism – promoting greatest happiness of the greatest number defines a
legitimate state (Keyword: UTILITY)
o Marxist Tradition – legitimacy linked to degree to which a state protects/ prevents
exploitation (Keyword: EXPLOITATION)
o Social Contract Tradition – legitimacy depends on degree of consent of the governed
(Keyword: CONSENT)
o All three reflect the supremacy of individual rights as the basic moral ideal and use
science as the instrumental ideal
- Rejection of Enlightenment Ideals
o Anti-enlightenment - appeal to tradition, community, supremacy of inherited ideals
- Democratic Tradition
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