「民主」在今日具有不言自明的價值 。可是我們當真掌握了其內涵嗎？本課程將對「民主」概念進行三重反思。首先，教室內教學互動，是否有可能「民主化」呢？（如果可能性不高，這就暗示著我們恐怕得以不民主的方式培養有民主意識的公民。）再者，在什麼意義上，可以說民主政體比其它政體更能體現「政治」的精髓呢？是否可以說君主政體比民主政體更不「政治」呢？對政治的不同看法，是否也會影響我們對民主價值的認知？最後，民主政制的危險何在？在政體維持民主的原則下，是否有可能避免這些危險呢？

"Democracy," "democratic" are taken for granted as referring to something positive. But do we really know what it means? This course is a threefold reflection on the concept of "democracy." First: to what extent can proceedings in a classroom be "democratized"? (If the answer is "not much," this suggests that one is educated undemocratically to become a citizen for democratic society.) Second, in what sense can we speak of democracy as paradigmatically "political" compared to all other kinds of political arrangements? It is possible to think of rule of a single king or emporer as "less political" than a democratic rule? Finally, what are the dangers of democratic governments in general? Can these dangers be prevented without transforming democracy into another kind of government?