socialethicssyllabus

Course Description

The course begins with a survey and analysis of Medieval politics and social structures including the business practices and the guild system, feudalism, land policies, demographic shifts giving rise to towns and a new middle class of small businessmen, money lending and apparent changes in teachings regarding and related changes in business practices. We also examine the relationship of political and economic change to religious forces connected to the Reformation, the rise of modern descriptive politics beginning with Machiavelli, which contributed to a new understanding of virtue, the ends of government, and the purpose of politics. A more detailed study of Social Contract Theory and its relationship to the French and American Revolutions, the rise of liberal capitalism and its relationship follow this survey to democracy and Protestantism and other factors that contributed to the dissolution of the Medieval synthesis. We then proceed to study contemporary ideologies such as libertarianism, liberalism, conservatism, Marxism-Leninism, Nazism, Socialism, and Feminism which were all reactions is one way or another to economic and political changes associated with the Industrial Revolution. The course culminates with a study of papal social teaching beginning with Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum and continuing through to the pontificate of Pope John Paul II. We examine classical philosophical answers to economic and political questions regarding the best types of government and the relationship of ethics to economics and economic justice. Understanding and insight into complex social questions regarding political and economic structures and restructuring is increased by recourse to theological principles relative to economic and political justice. We also examine the relationship between church and society, the eclipse of liberalism and socialism and the birth of solidarity and alternative social and political models for the 21^st century based upon understanding and application of political theory learned from Classical Antiquity, from the Scholastic Era, from Sacred Scripture and from modern Papal Social teaching.



	TOPIC 1: CHRISTENDOM Topic I: Lecture I. Feudalism Lecture I Online Test Topic I: Lecture II. Feudalism continued Lecture II Online Test Topic I: Lecture III. Usury Lecture III Online Test Topic I: Lecture IV. St. Thomas Aquinas I: Introduction to Politics Lecture IV Online Test Topic I: Lecture V. St. Thomas Aquinas II: Plenitudo Potestatis Lecture V Online Test			Readings for Topic One: Aquinas’ Treatise on Law Pope Benedict XIV Vix Prevenit (On Ususry)

	TOPIC 2: FALL OF THE MEDIEVAL SYNTHESIS Machiavelli, Protestant Reformation, Economic Changes, Age of Discovery Lecture I Online Test			Reading for Topic Two: Machiavelli: The Prince John Calvin On Civil Government and Resistance Excerpts from Institutes of Christian Religion Martin Luther Address to the German Nobility The 95 Theses The Freedom of a Christian The Jews and Their Lies Let Your Sins be Strong The Small Catechism

	TOPIC 3: ABSOLUTISM AND CONTRACT THEORY Social Contract Theory: Hobbes, Locke Rousseau Lecture I Online Test			Reading for Topic Three: Hobbes: Leviathan Rousseau: Social Contract Locke A Letter Concerning Toleration Second Treatise on Civil Government Locke's Farewell Bossuet Treatise on Divine Right King Henry VIII The Act of Supremacy English Parliament (William and Mary and Eclipse by Parliament) Declaration of Right

	TOPIC 4: THE ENLIGHTENMENT, ABSOLUTISM, CONSERVATISM AND CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING The Natural Law, Jefferson, Deism, French Rev. Democracy, Popular Sovereignty, American Revolution, US and Polish Constitutions, Adam Smith, Physiocrats and Mercantilists Lecture I Online Test			Readings for Topic Four: Polish Constitution of May 3, 1781 Preamble to United States Constitution Voltaire Voltaire's Dictionary Catherine the Great On the Enlightenment Montesquieu Spirit of Laws D'Alembert Discourse Encyclopedia Condorcet The Future Progress of the Human Mind Thomas Jefferson The Jeffersonian Bible Jonathan Swift The Abolition of Christianity French National Assembly Decree Abolishing the Feudal System Civil Constitution of the Clergy Pope Pius VI (April 13, 1791) On The Civil Constitution of the Clergy French National Convention Meeting of September 21, 1792 Various French Documents The Revolution of 1848 (Napoleon) Absolutism Frederick II Essay on the Forms of Government Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness Conservatism Von-Metternich Political Confess Faith Wardsworth Tin tern Abby Edmund Burke Reflections on the French Revolution: Thoughts on Present Discontent and Various Speeches Catholic Social Teaching Pope Leo XIII (July 19, 1881) Diuturnum: The Origin of Civil Power Pope Leo XIII (November 1, 1885) Immortale Dei: On the Christian Constitution of States Pope Leo XIII (January 18, 1901) Graves de Communi Re: On Christian Democracy

	TOPIC 5: INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION LIBERALISM AND CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING Classical Liberalism, Industrial Revolution, Laisse Faire, Spencer and Social Darwinism Lecture I Online Test			Readings for Topic Five: Pope Leo XIII (May 15, 1891) Rerum Novarum: On Capital and Labor Engels Industrial Manchester Franz German Banking Cloth Merchants of Leeds Leeds- Cloth Merchants Letter Cloth Workers of Leeds Leeds- Woolen Workers Petition Robinson Mill Girls Ure Philosophy of Manufacture Liberal Tradition Susan B. Anthony Women's Right to Vote Malthus Population Mill Liberalism Sanger Autobiography Adam Smith Wealth of Nations Charles Darwin Origin of Species Charles Dickens Hard Times (Chapter 2: Murdering the Innocents)

	TOPIC 6: SOCIALISM AND CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING Democratic Socialism, Utopian Socialists, Democratic Socialism, Reform Liberalism, Progressivism, Populism, Great Society, Fascism, Progress Lecture I Online Test			Readings for Topic Six: Pope Pius XI (May 15, 1931) Quadragesimo Anno: On Reconstruction of the Social Order Pope John XXIII (May 15, 1961) Mater et Magistra Pope John XXIII (April 11, 1963) Pacem et Terris Pope Paul VI (March 26, 1967) Populorum Progression: On the Development of Peoples

	TOPIC 7 MARXISM-COMMUNISM AND CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING Rise of Marxism, Russian Revolution, Marxism-LeninismMarxist Social and Political Philosophy Lecture I Online Test			Readings for Topic Seven: Karl Marx The Communist Manifesto Interview With Marx The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte Frederick Engels The History of Early Christianity Pope Pius XI (March 19, 1937) Divini Redemptoris, On Atheistic Communism Lenin Call to Power State and Revolution Testament What is to be Done Stalin Purges

	TOPIC 8: NEW AGE POLITICS AND CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING Future of Ideology Liberation Ideologies and Feminism, Liberation Ideologies, Post Communism and Globalism/Internationalism Lecture I Online Test			Readings Topic Eight: Pope John Paul II (December 30, 1987) Solicitudo Rei Socialis, On the Social Teaching of the Church Pope John Paul II (May 1, 1991) Centesimus Annus, Hundredth Anniversary of Rurum Novarum Pope Benedict XVI Caritas in Veritate