SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
Fall 2000
PHI PHM 3100-001
MW 11:00-12:15; CPR 122
Professor Willis H. Truitt
Phone: 974-5137
Office: FAO 241
Office Hours: W 1:00-2:00 or by appointment
Course Objectives
To gain through readings, lectures and discussion a general understanding of
modern and contemporary social-political ideologies and movements.
Lectures
The Theory of Ideology: DeTracy, Marx-Engels, Weber, Mannheim, and Habermas.
Liberalism: Social roots of liberal ideology; place of conservatism and radical
right; general characteristics.
Fascism: Social roots of Fascist ideology; relation to German philosophy; Italian
and German Fascism; American Fascism; Neo-Fascism.
Marxism: From Hegel to Marx; Social roots; exploitation of labor; Marxism-Leninism;
Marxism, democracy and freedom.
The New Left: Social roots of the new left Marcuse; Mandel (Trotsky); the decline
of the new left; the women's movement (feminism).
Third World Movements: Social roots; in America; abroad; Mao Tse-Tung.
Anarchism and Counterculture: The old; the new.
Mid-term: Essay examination (in class), Monday 9 October.
Final: Essay examination (in class), Monday 11 December.
A 15 page term paper is required.