POLS208

This course examines the most influential thinkers in the tradition of Western political philosophy. What we understand today as representative government, democracy, communism, socialism, and capitalism are the institutional manifestations of such noteworthy minds as Aristotle, Plato, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, James Madison, Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, and Chantal Delsol. Students taking this course will come to appreciate the powerful influence philosophy has had on the shape and structure of the various competing modern political traditions and ideologies. The class will conduct a thorough examination of each thinker's perspective on such issues as the ideal structure of government, the role of human nature in political theory, the relationship between freedom and authority, the role that equality, inequality, economics, and power play in politics, and the competing definitions of political legitimacy. Students taking this course will be well-equipped to defend their own positions in the contemporary debates over issues of social and political justice. This course is the same as PHIL-205.

Fall Only

All Years