Political Philosophy Postgrad Seminar 2006
Lecturers: John Collier (collierj@ukzn.ac.za) and Julia Clare (clare@ukzn.ac.za)

Topic: The Political Philosophy of Noam Chomsky

We meet 14:00-16:00 Tuesdays in the Philosophy Resource Room (MTB 315 on the old numbering system)

February 14: Introduction and negotiation of workload.


February 22: Manufacturing Consent (1992) Biographical video with interviews.
       Background reading: Interview on the video by various activists (2002)


February 29: Foucault and Chomsky Debate, 1971, Chomsky on Foucault, from Language and Responsibility
Some choice quotes:
    Chomsky: "Michel Foucault is inoffensive; I mean he talks complicated things that nobody understands and so on. It's complicated to talk about him." April 2, 2005 http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20050402.htm   
    Takis Michas, The Wall Street Journal, November 4, 2005: But the brunt of his attacks has been reserved for Parisian "postmodernism," which he considers as the apotheosis of irrational nonsense. He has not hesitated to accuse some of the leading figures of French "postmodernism" (Lacan, Derrida and Foucault) as "charlatans" and "illiterates" while he has characterized their texts as "pretentious" and "gibberish."
      Language, Politics, and Composition, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Gary A. Olson and Lester Faigley, Journal of Advanced Composition, Vol. 11, No. 1 (search for Foucault)


March 7 and March 14:  Government, media, democracy and consent (two weeks: 1 and 2 below for the first week, and the rest the second week).
  1. Force and Opinion, Noam Chomsky 1991.
  2. Consent without Consent, Noam Chomsky 1996.
  3. What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream, Noam Chomksy 1997.
  4. The Disconnect in US Democracy, Noam Chomsky, Khaleej Times, October 29, 2004.
March 21 Holiday -- Excericse your Human Rights (assuming you are human -- the rest can just take a day off)

March 28 - April 4: The role of intellectuals (first two readings for the first week)
  1. The Responsibility of Intellectuals, by Noam Chomsky, The New York Review of Books, February 23, 1967.
  2. An Exchange on "The Responsibility of Intellectuals", Noam Chomsky debates with Fryar Calhoun, E. B. Murray, and Arthur Dorfman, The New York Review of Books, April 20, 1967.
  3. Intellectuals and the Responsibilities of Public Life, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Robert Borofsky, Public Anthropology, May 27, 2001.
  4. The Fate of an Honest Intellectual, Noam Chomsky, Excerpted from Understanding Power, New York, 2002, pp. 244-248.
  5. On the Afghanistan War, American Terrorism, and the Role of Intellectuals, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Suzy Hansen
    Salon.com, January 16, 2002. Chomsky explains why he gets criticised for saying the obvious.
  6. The Journalist from Mars, Noam Chomsky (a talk given at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting's fifteenth anniversary celebration in New York City on January 23, 2002) from the book Media Control.
  7. "The reasons for my concern", Noam Chomsky, Response to Celia Jakubowicz, in C. P. Otero (ed.), Language and Politics, Black Rose, 1988, pp. 369-72 (letter dated June 13, 1983) This is a personal perspective.
April 11: Break

April 18: Second part of Manufacturing Consent (the video). Assignment 1 due. Program for second term.

April 25: Introduction to Fukuyama
  1. The End of History: Introduction, Francis Fukuyama
  2. The End of History -- Article, Francis Fukuyama, The National Interest, Summer 1989.
  3. Francis  Fukuyma and The End of History, Roger Campbell
  4. Social Capital and Civil Society - Francis Fukuyama
It appears I forgot to put up further links to papers on my website. All are availble at Chomsky Info, but here are a bunch:
Notes on Anarchism, by Noam Chomsky
Triumphs of Democracy, by Noam Chomsky (Excerpted from Language and Politics)
The United States and the _Challenge of Relativity_, by Noam Chomsky
On the Afghanistan War, American Terrorism -- Noam Chomsky
2004 Elections, by Noam Chomsky
The Disconnect in US Democracy, by Noam Chomsky
Imperial Presidency, by Noam Chomsky
Chomsky-SimpleTruths2005
Francis Fukuyama-After Neoconservatism - New York Times
OpinionJournal - Francis Fukuyama-CONSERVATISM MATURES
Fukuyama-Regonal-Studies
OpinionJournal Francis Fukuyama-AT WAR

I was recently sent this link by someone in the US who is interested in Chomsky, and was inquiring about how I taught the material and how it went over:  On Chomsky: a ``Study in Total Depravity''


The following web sites may be useful  (additional  sites to be added):
Chomsky Info  ( Books, articles, audio and video, interviews, etc)
Znet interview by Michael Albert on the Iraq War (2003)
    There are numerous interviews with Chomsky, articles on Chomsky and articles by Chomsky on this site.


Course requirements: 1 set paper and 1 open paper. Lengths to be decided. Each student taking the course for credit must lead discussion on one topic during the semester. This would probably, but need not, be the subject of the open paper.

Assignment 1: Due after the Easter Break (April 18). Topic: Hume's paradox.