Official Course Description
This seminar addresses the main political problem of the modern period: If common institutions are not divinely ordained and it is up to the people to decide how to set them up, what is their best design and how can it be justified? To provide an answer, political philosophers considered problems such as whether men are naturally selfish and greedy, or compassionate, or neither; whether the individual come before the community; what values (liberty, security, justice, community...) political institutions should promote, etc. In the first part of the seminar, we will read a selected group of political thinkers from the 17th to the 20th century, starting with Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Burke, Tocqueville and Mill. Through this, students shall understand some of the social contexts that have stimulated different groups of political thinkers and the basic disagreements that have separated them. Building upon this knowledge, we will then analyse how the discussions of these early philosophers feature in and shape contemporary political belief systems and ideologies. In the end, the students will better understand modern political ideologies by applying their ideas to contemporary societal debates.
This seminar addresses the main political problem of the modern period: If common institutions are not divinely ordained and it is up to the people to decide how to set them up, what is their best design and how can it be justified? To provide an answer, political philosophers considered problems such as whether men are naturally selfish and greedy, or compassionate, or neither; whether the individual come before the community; what values (liberty, security, justice, community...) political institutions should promote, etc. In the first part of the seminar, we will read a selected group of political thinkers from the 17th to the 20th century, starting with Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Burke, Tocqueville and Mill. Through this, students shall understand some of the social contexts that have stimulated different groups of political thinkers and the basic disagreements that have separated them. Building upon this knowledge, we will then analyse how the discussions of these early philosophers feature in and shape contemporary political belief systems and ideologies. In the end, the students will better understand modern political ideologies by applying their ideas to contemporary societal debates.
- Lehrende: Anonym
Semester: WT 2019/20