Politics

FACULTY

Chair and Associate Professor Culp; Professors Dougherty, Harold, Parens (Philosophy) ; Associate Professors D.Burns, and Miller ; Assistant Professor Berry; Affiliate Assistant Professor K.Burns, and Schneider, Distinguished Emeritus Professor de Alvarez; Distinguished Research Scholars Shah and Wolfe

About the Politics Department

Politics is the activity of the polis (city), as athletics is the activity of the athlete. The polis, according to Aristotle, is the association whose purpose is the complete life. Politics, therefore, includes all the activities whose end is the complete human life. Political philosophy is the reflection upon or the attempt to understand the nature of these activities. Political philosophy, therefore, as understood at the University of Dallas, is a philosophical discipline concerned with the whole range of human actions to be found in the context of the polis.

Specifically, the department has the following objectives:

First: The general purpose of the department is to promote a critical understanding of political phenomena, an understanding of the nature of political life and its relation to human life as a whole. Accordingly, courses are designed to present conflicting points of view on a great variety of important political questions. Sustained and systematic analysis of how philosophers, statesmen and poets—ancient as well as modern—have answered these questions enlarges intellectual horizons and cultivates analytical and critical skills. Readings are therefore selected with a view to engaging the student in controversy, for controversy is of the essence in politics.

Second: The department seeks to promote enlightened and public-spirited citizenship. This requires understanding of the principles and purposes of our regime, as well as some personal involvement in, or commitment to, the larger political community. One of the distinctive features of the department is its emphasis on American statesmanship and the great controversies which have reflected and shaped the character of our people. The curriculum attempts to relate the political, legal and philosophical aspects of our heritage to contemporary questions.

Third: Together with the other liberal arts, the department seeks to promote civility. Civility requires, first, the capacity to appreciate what is to be said on diverse sides of an issue. Secondly, it requires a capacity to participate in serious dialogue, which in turn requires seriousness about the ends of learning and the ends of action. Finally, civility requires some degree of detachment from contemporary affairs, for total involvement in the present narrows and distorts our vision.

Fourth: The department seeks to preserve the great tradition of political wisdom, theoretical and practical, against modes of thought which assail or abandon it. This requires an understanding and critique of these various modes of thought.

Fifth: The department tries to prepare some students for active political life. This requires the study of politics from the perspective of the statesman as well as from the perspective of the citizen.

Sixth: The department seeks to prepare some students for graduate study in political science, or for training in the professional fields of law, public administration, diplomacy and related fields.

Degrees in Politics

Bachelor of Arts in Politics

4 + 1 in Politics

Concentration in American Politics

Concentration in Political Philosophy

Concentration in Legal Studies

Course Information

Courses in Politics