In this course, we shall explore the idea of how citizens ought to exercise their political morality in the aftermath of 11 September 2001. That aftermath is what the Bush administration has coined the "axis of evil" and the "war on terror." Should the political morality of citizens be connected to its government's acquisition and exercise of force, at the expense of ideals, to provide security for the liberal order from the conflict-ridden, harsh, evil realities of international affairs? Or should it be connected to its government's subscription to the ideals of international justice and cooperation? Indeed one neo-conservative commentator believes the former question should be answered favorably. He claims that Americans are "Hobbesian" rightly recognizing the stark, evil, and conflict-driven reality of this world and that Europeans are "Kantian" wrongly subscribing to the ideals affirmed in the latter question. Does this suggest then that the political morality of citizens can be philosophically circumscribed? To this question, the course shall presume the affirmative.

If the political morality of American citizens is "Hobbesian" as claimed (wrongly I believe), then how can Americans be inclined, even in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, toward a philosophy that underwrites the belief that their ideals of right and justice are transformative of any political order in the world and ought to be shared, at times even coercively to the resentment of other nations? In one case, ideals do not matter for the political morality of citizens; in the other, they do. But both cases are at work in the aftermath of 11 September 2001.

How then do citizens form morally lucid political judgments and take morally lucid political actions on today's urgent questions? How do they philosophically circumscribe their political morality? In so doing, how do citizens refrain from the jingoism and dogmatism of the right and the impotent and lugubrious pragmatism of the left in exercising their political morality?

The course shall allow students to pursue a framework for exercising political morality with lucidity, but always with the understanding that such a pursuit does not involve or presume religious faith. (Please do not draw atheistic, agnostic, or anti-religious conclusions from this claim! You would be mistaken, if you were to do so.) Such a pursuit shall involve resurrecting a moral language -- good and evil, sacrifice, nobility and respect -- and linking it to a set of "Enlightenment" ideals -- reason, hope, and happiness -- to yield a moral lucidity in political judgment and political action.

The course shall be rather eclectic, reliant on the "Old Testament," literature, songwriters, some exemplars from history, social science, as well as a few ancient, early modern, late modern, and contemporary philosophers. In short, it shall function like a capstone course for the student to ply her philosophical sensibility and knowledge to contemporary cultural and political criticism, allowing philosophy to serve as a cultural practice for today.

Pre-requisites: ENGL 120; 3 courses in philosophy. It is recommended that at least one of those philosophy courses has been at the 300-level. Or permission from the instructor.

Books: A variety of on-line materials and handouts plus the following:

1. Danielle Allen, Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006). ISBN-13:9780226014678. Cost $25.00.
2. Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York: Penguin Group, 2006). ISBN-13:9780143039884. Cost $16.00.
3. Seyla Benhabib, "Is There a Human Right to Democracy? Beyond Interventionism and Indifference," The 2007 Lindley Lecture (Lawrence, Kansas: The University of Kansas, 2008).
4. William J. Bennett, Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terror (New York: Regnery Publishers, Inc., 2003). ISBN-13:9780895261342. Cost $16.00.
5. Susan Neiman, Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004). ISBN-13:9780691117928. Cost $25.00.