THE IDEA OF FREEDOM

In this course, we explore the concept of freedom, with a view towards appreciating the idea of individual, social and political freedom from multiple analytical perspectives. We will also investigate how the quest for freedom can help to generate new political systems or changes in existing ones. A key goal of the course is to provoke students’ creativity by having to devise their own particularistic notion of freedom, and to try to figure out ways of achieving it. At the same time, it is helpful to survey how the notion of freedom has been defined, used and critiqued by political and social thinkers. We also examine different political systems in an effort to perceive which systems have maximized or encouraged the achievement of freedom (variously defined) and which have minimized or discouraged its realization. And we spend time inquiring into the importance of freedom in the US political system today and how it is being achieved, or how it is being challenged and harmed. Students will be asked to write a series of short assignments in which they begin to develop their own notions of freedom, as well as a longer research paper which explores the potential for realizing their particularized, self-developed notion of freedom. Student evaluation will be based on those assignments and papers as well as on in-class discussion, quizzes and/or exams, and on-line discussion board participation.