Professor Kozlowski Lectures

Today, Professor Kozlowski tackles the preeminent development in political philosophy of the twentieth century - and spectre overhanging the twenty-first: Fascism and Totalitarianism. We'll examine Italian Fascism with Mussolini's own "The Doctrine of Fascism" as well as Umberto Eco's 2001 essay "Ur-Fascism"; Nazism with the Extra History video series Nazi Occultism and Folding Ideas' video essay "Triumph of the Will and the Cinematic Language of Propaganda"; and, finally, we'll read an excerpt of Hannah Arendt's compendious The Origins of Totalitarianism. Along the way we'll discuss how to recognize signs and symptoms of Fascism (including those in the Trump administration), its allure and its techniques for staying in power, its reliance on irrationality, mythology, and mysticism, its fundamental flaws as a system of government and its tendency toward self-destructiveness, as well as what we might do to fight it when it arises.Additional readings include:Quotations from Chairman MaoArendt - Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of EvilStanley - How Propagada WorksKoestler - Darkness at NoonOrwell - 1984Zamyatin - WeBulgakov - The Master and MargaritaLiu - The Three-Body ProblemThe Great Dictator (1940)Papers, PleaseIf you're considering dedicating your whole life and well-being to my charismatic leadership, why not start by visiting my website: professorkozlowski.wordpress.com?

Professor Kozlowski invites the wrath of the Internet by proposing to discuss Conservatism. To do that, we'll explore the history of conservative thinking (and American Conservatism in particular) from Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France and Romanticism (including Nietzsche's perspective in On the Genealogy of Morals), to the 20th and 21st centuries. We'll touch on major developments throughout history, including the New Deal, the Cold War, the Civil Rights movement, the Christian Evangelical Right, and Neoconservatism (including Irving Kristol's "The Neoconservative Persuasion), all the way up to the MAGA movement and Project 2025. It's a massive lecture for a massive topic, but how else were we going to introduce the 20th century?Besides the required readings linked above, the 20th century lectures will include many more additional readings. For our Conservatism discussion, they include:Nietzsche - Thus Spake ZarathustraSpencer - The Study of SociologyTagore - NationalismStelzer - The NeoCon ReaderWallace - Consider the LobsterPeterson - 12 Rules for LifeSandifer - Neoreaction: A BasiliskInnuendo Studios - The Alt-Right PlaybookContrapoints - CONSPIRACYRand - Atlas ShruggedHeinlein - The Moon is a Harsh MistressInvasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)BioshockCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)Spec Ops: The Line - good luck finding it!If you are incensed by this lecture and would like to vandalize Professor Kozlowski's other Internet projects, check out his website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠professorkozlowski.wordpress.com

The Communist Manifesto is one of the most influential and divisive works of political philosophy. Yet it almost seems quaint and harmless in a modern world of global Capitalist reach, and more rhetorical than scientific compared to the more systematic and explanatory Capital. Is Marx's theory of capitalist greed and social upheaval still relevant in a post Cold War world? Or is this a harmless historical phenomenon, relevant only in its time?Additional readings include: Bakunin's God and the State, Bernstein's Evolutionary Socialism, Sorel's Reflections on Violence, Chernyshevsky's What is to Be Done?, Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, and Morris' News from Nowhere. And while I suspect I should be able to find a better mechanical representation of political revolution in video game history, I'm stuck instead with Red Faction: Guerrilla, which is a smarter game then it first seems, but is still pretty dang dumb.If you would rather check out Professor Kozlowski's other online projects than immediately rise up against your oppressors (all you have to lose are your chains!), check out his website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠professorkozlowski.wordpress.com

At long last, Professor Kozlowski tackles that most divisive of all political thinkers: Karl Marx. Today we'll talk about the legacy of Marx (especially in the USA), and take our first steps to understanding Marxist views of capitalism through Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and excerpts from Marx's own Capital.Additional readings include: Weber's The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Durkheim's The Division of Labor in Society, Sinclair's The Jungle, Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop, and the Capitalist Utopian classic, Bellamy's Looking Backward: 2000-1887. And, since you asked, my video game recommendation this week is Offworld Trading Company - a game about peak Capitalism at its absolute scuzziest.If you or somebody you know would like to learn more about pinko scumbag Professor Kozlowski's other online projects, check out his website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠professorkozlowski.wordpress.com

Professor Kozlowski introduces his new course - History of Social Thought - with a lecture walking through the syllabus and describing the responsibilities and expectations of the course.

Today we confront the primary moral philosophy presented as a challenge to Kant's Deontology: Utilitarianism. We'll read Chapter 1 of Bentham's "An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation" as well as a sizable portion of Mill's On Liberty - which is remarkably NOT Utilitarian, and famous as one of the primary texts underlying contemporary Libertarianism. Along the way we'll have some very serious discussions about free speech, personal freedom, and Christian insularity - and how the world of rights and personal independence has changed in the past few hundred years.Additional readings this week include: Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Foucault's Birth of the Clinic, Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and Hugo's Les Miserables. It's a mixed bag, with some anachronistic choices, but these will provide a good cross-section of perspectives about the virtues and vices of Mill's text. Speaking of mixed bags and individualism run amok, our game recommendations for this week are: John Company (2nd edition) and Darkest Dungeon.If you're interested in Professor Kozlowski's other online projects, check out his website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠professorkozlowski.wordpress.com

Professor Kozlowski tackles the preeminent philosopher of Enlightenment philosophy: Immanuel Kant. In this lecture, we'll discuss the basic principles underlying Deontological Ethics (including an explanation of the Categorical Imperative), before moving on to appreciate the wry dark humor and cutting insights of his political essay "Perpetual Peace."Our readings include excerpts from the Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals (Or "Groundwork...") and the complete essay "Perpetual Peace."Additional readings this week include a healthy portion of sturm und drang: Goethe's Faust and Schiller's The Robbers, as well as the behemoth of Romantic Political Philosophy: Hegel's The Philosophy of Right. (Proceed with caution - Hegel is not for the faint of heart...) As for today's video game recommendation, we're going with the Gamecube-era JRPG: Tales of Symphonia for its unflinching deontological morality. Take that, Final Fantasy X!If you're interested in Professor Kozlowski's other online projects, check out his website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠professorkozlowski.wordpress.com

Professor Kozlowski finally reaches the American Experiment. Today we discuss the Declaration of Independence, several of the Federalist Papers (and the response by the mysterious "Brutus"), the American Constitution, and the legend of Hiawatha the Unifier*. Along the way we will discuss the current state of the American Experiment and how the decisions of the founders may have overlooked potential abuses or exploits, as well as the concerns and preoccupations of the founders in their own time.*(I include the link to the Erdoes and Ortiz book where I found the myth; it's not in the public domain, and the downloads I found were pretty dodgy)EDIT: The doctrine of Judicial Review (i.e. the Supreme Court determining that laws are unconstitutional) is NOT originally laid out in the Constitution, but is a product of the landmark case Marbury v. Madison. As expected, I've already been corrected by more knowledgeable scholars of American History.Additional Readings include: Common Sense by Thomas Paine, the other writings of Thomas Jefferson (I don't have a specific collection or writing in mind, though...), and "What is the Slave to the 4th of July?" by Frederick Douglass. And today you get a double game recommendation: A Few Acres of Snow (board game - good luck finding it, though...), and Assassin's Creed III.If you're interested in Professor Kozlowski's other online projects, check out his website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠professorkozlowski.wordpress.com

Professor Kozlowski tackles the French Enlightenment with excerpts from Montesquieu and Rousseau. The first is an orderly, encyclopedic thinker trying to categorize and classify every element of political philosophy; the second may well be a proto-Anarchist masquerading as an Enlightenment mainstay. Really, what were we expecting from the French?Readings today come from Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws, as well as The Social Contract and "Discourse on the Origin of Inequality" by Rousseau.Additional readings include Voltaire's Candide and Moliere's Don Juan, as well as a casual suggestion that you should read some David Hume, (here's an especially representative collection). And of course, today's video game recommendation is Europa Universalis. If you're interested in Professor Kozlowski's other online projects, check out his website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠professorkozlowski.wordpress.com

In a fit of spite, Professor Kozlowski condenses his discussion of landmark British political philosophers Hobbes and Locke - forerunners of the American constitution - into a single joint lecture. We'll compare and contrast the two states of nature proposed by these thinkers, examine their divergent attitudes toward the authority of government, and root their philosophical conclusions in the tumultuous history of the English Civil War.Hooray for English philosophers - no translations necessary for these texts! Here are the Project Gutenberg texts of Hobbes' Leviathan, and Locke's Second Treatise Concerning Government.Additional readings for this lecture include some more 17th-century English classics: Bacon's scientific Utopia, New Atlantis; Milton's epic masterpiece, Paradise Lost; and Swift's satirical classic, Gulliver's Travels. Finally, for my video gamers, I recommend the colonization-based management sim/city builder Anno 1404 (it may not be the most period-appropriate game in the series, but I think it is the best mechanical representation of this era without the industrialization mechanics of Anno 1800).If you're interested in Professor Kozlowski's other online projects, check out his website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠professorkozlowski.wordpress.com