PHILOSOPHY 383: Radical Philosophy Fall 2010
Time and place: Monday 7:00-9:30 pm,
Professor Tony Couture, Room 417, Main Building
This course explores attempts by philosophers to create alternative social movements that are highly critical of existing
social organizations and the state form of life. It provides an extended historical introduction to anarchism, Marxism and
feminist social theory. What does it mean to be radical as a philosopher? What is radical? How is radical philosophy
different from other forms of political philosophy? What does it mean to be truly radical and what is merely
pseudo-radical? What accounts of human nature lie behind anarchism, Marxism and feminism?
In Europe, around 1789 or the time of the French Revolution, as the public began to understand the limitations of the
early forms of capitalism (colonial system and free markets), two groups of thinkers began to develop radical
alternatives. Outsiders to the state system and against all governments were the anarchists:
William Godwin (1756-1836), Michael Bakunin (1814-1876) and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865),
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) and Peter Kropotkin (1842-1912). Godwin became a symbol of the corruption of philosophy
(a lost dreamer), but Bakunin and Proudhon became activists and Tolstoy and Kropotkin became influential writers.
Their proposals were never adequately put into practice and the movement they created ended in 1939 with defeat in the Spanish Civil War.
Another alternative was not to reject the state system but for the intellectual vanguard to seize it permanently and
abolish private property so that government worked for everyone instead of the ruling class and the economy was totally
planned. This second group were led by Karl Marx (1818-83) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), and their radical ideas
about property and materialistic transformation of philosophy into the science of history were eventually used to create
the Communist states in Europe and Russia that collapsed in the 1990's. We will study G.A. Cohen (1941-2009),
whose 1978 defence of scientific socialism exemplifies analytical Marxism, or a revised and clarified, ideal version of
Marx’s original philosophy.
However, from the intercourse of the anarchist and socialist movements, Emma Goldman (1869-1940) emerged as
a forerunner of a third group of radical philosophers, feminists. The most popular public lecturer in America during the
early 20th century and "the most dangerous woman in America", she challenged traditions of male dominance and control over reproduction.
In this course, I shall develop a narrative concerning the dialectical relationship among radical thinkers and some of
their conservative critics such as Thomas Malthus. I shall also discuss Darwinian ideas concerning natural selection
and its emphasis on reproduction, and how Kropotkin’s concept of mutual aid and Goldman’s concept of the liberation
of women challenged these ideas. I show that a pluralistic radical philosophy is reasonable enough to play a part inside
a larger liberal democratic framework, but that one-dimensional forms of radical philosophy reduce to ideologies that fail
the tests of public reason, and are too simple to provide realistic social design or a proper basis for substantive
judgments of justice. As contemporary capitalism and state communism continue to collapse due to peak fraud, peak
corruption or crime, peak oil, and peak climate change all occurring at the same time to shake up the world economic
order and contradict the life economy, radical philosophy takes on a new relevance in liberating our democracies in
revolutionary times.
COURSE WORK
10% 1) In-class, unannounced exercises (usually students are asked to write a short, anonymous paragraph which
is later typed up by the professor and circulated to the class at the end of the course for review purposes), or informal
debates. (If we do 10, worth 1% each). Persons who miss these exercises without providing a valid (medical or other
emergency) excuse lose the marks (no substitutions).
20% 2) one short assignment on Marx (10%); short assignment on Kropotkin (10%)
30% 3) Research essay: 6-8 pages typed, double-spaced (1500 words minimum; 2000 words maximum). Must follow
directions found in "Writing a Philosophical Essay" (handout). Assigned topics only. Due last week of classes.
40% 4) Final exam: time and place to be scheduled by the Registrar. Comprehensive. Open textbook, no notes
format. Students must write at this time unless they have an appropriate medical excuse or have made other
arrangements with the professor.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS:
1) Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defence, by G.A. Cohen, expanded edition, 2000, Princeton University Press.
2) Mutual Aid, by Peter Kropotkin. (1989, Black Rose).
3) Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader (Third edition), edited by Alix Kates Shulman
(1998, Humanity Books).–Other texts will be supplied as class handouts from the professor (no charge).
Professor Tony Couture, Room 417, Main Building, Phone: 566-0989; e-mail: tcouture@upei.ca;
tcouture@pei.sympatico.ca.
