Philosophy Department

Lincoln: Democratic Values (Holv 3970)

John Davenport
 

This course is open primarily to seniors in the Honors Program, and to others only by permission given space. This senior values seminar will survey key themes in American political philosophy from the Federalist Papers to the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, focusing on rival conceptions of the moral conditions that must be met for democratic government count as legitimate, or capable of making law that deserves our principled allegiance. Using famous texts by Henry Jaffa and Gary Wills, we will consider the relation between popular sovereignty and human rights; the balance between personal conscience and constitutional order; and arguments for greater centralization of power for essential coordination and to secure basic justice. We will construct this powerful ideal of democratic justice from the tradition of ‘civic republicanism’ as it developed in the Federalist and Whig parties up to 1860. But we will also consider contemporary implications of this conception of democratic justice, e.g. for global governance. The course is interdisciplinary and includes discussion of historical and political developments up to the Civil War; it is open to students of all majors.