CAS 210 Humanities Circle
Winter Term 2008
Nicols

IMPORTANT. We will be meeting in the Collaboration Room, 122 of the Knight Library on Tuesdays, 4 to 5pm.

For information on how to reach me please go to the klio course site

I have assigned a selection of chapters from one book entitled Plato Popper and Politics . These essays deal with way Plato and his political ideas have been used and abused by politicians.

Some of the articles were written during the 1930s when it was not so clear how dangerous Soviet style Communism and Nazism would become; others appeared after the war. In all cases, the central dilemma is how does the intellectual elite [Plato's 'guardians' or 'philosopher kings'] cope with the inadequacies of democracy, s, or how do democracies cope with and and restrain elite and informed class?

We will be reading a chapter every two weeks for the first six weeks. We will also be doing a set of practical exercises and interviews to illustrate the points under discussion. I will be distributing these exercises as we proceed.

There are no written assignments. Your grade depends on participation in the discussion.