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Introduction to Political Thought (Spring 2010)
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last edited
by ike sharpless 13 years, 7 months ago
Introduction to Political Thought
Class Notes to Date
- Political Thought, Jan 28, IPT, Introduction.pdf
- Political Thought, Feb 2, Plato.pdf
- Political Thought, Feb 4, Aristotle.pdf
- Political Thought, Feb 9, Thucydides.pdf
- Political Thought, Feb 11, Machiavelli.pdf
- Political Thought, Feb 18, Hobbes.pdf
- Political Thought, Feb 23, Locke.pdf
- Political Thought, Feb 25, Rousseau.pdf
- Political Thought, March 2, Immanuel Kant.pdf
- Political Thought, March 4, Edmund Burke.pdf
- Political Thought, class notes for week on utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill, Singer).pdf
- Political Thought, March 23, introducing Owen, Marx, and Socialism.pdf
- Political Thought, April 1, Distributive Justice.pdf
- Political Thought, April 8, Roberts and Sutch ch 8, Liberalism and Multiculturalism.pdf
- Political Thought, April 13, Feminism and Antifoundationalism.pdf
- Political Thought, April 15, Vandana Shiva.pdf
- Political Thought, April 22, Fukuyama and Huntington.pdf
- Political Thought, April 27, Amartya Sen.pdf
- Political Thought, April 29, Friedman and Rand.pdf
- Political Thought, May 4, Anarchism.pdf
Course Description: This course is intended to provide a broad overview of Western political thought. The focus each class is on specific authors and their ideas, and one of the core learning objectives is to gain proficiency reading primary texts from a range of different cultural and political backgrounds. Particular emphasis will be placed on the development of key political and ethical philosophies, including contractarianism, utilitarianism, liberalism, socialism, realism and consequentialism. This course engages with the following thinkers: Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Kant, Rousseau, Burke, Marx, Bentham, Mill, Rawls, Habermas, Foucault, Appiah, Singer, Shiva, Fukuyama, Huntington, and Sen.
Reading Response Guidelines: For each of the three modules, select one or more work/author to write a reading response to. Each reading response can be turned in anytime up to the end of the module in question, and should demonstrate both an understanding of the thinker’s key ideas and some critiques of their potential shortcomings. Each reading response should be 3-4 pages long; clarity is valued over length. Ideally, I would like you to compare and contrast the views of two of the authors discussed to date. If you choose to focus on only one author, I expect a greater level of detail and scrutiny. You are expected to learn from the comments and suggestions I provide on previous reading responses: in essence, what I am looking for is a balance between demonstrating that you've thoroughly read the works in question (and aren't just regurgitating the class notes) and an engagement with your critical views on those works--too much of your opinion and I can't tell that you've done the reading, and too much outlining the text and I don't get any sense that you've grappled critically with the text at all.
Student Upload Guidelines: You are expected to upload a relevant link, video, or other media source with a comment relating the ideas of the thinkers we are discussing to a pertinent current issue. The mechanism for logging on to the pbworks site will be explained in class.
Some useful writing tips
Relevant Assignment Dates
Date |
Session Name |
Assignment |
2/11 |
Machiavelli, The Prince |
First reading response due |
3/30 |
Mill, Utilitarianism, day 2 |
Second reading response due |
4/27 |
Shiva, radical environmentalism |
Long paper outline due |
5/4 |
Sen, "Development as Freedom" |
Third reading response due |
5/17 |
Long Papers Due |
Guidelines forthcoming |
Current Events Assignments
Political Thought link archive
Political Thought Course Readings
Aborted course link for Fall 2010 course: Introduction to Political Thought (Fall 2010)
Introduction to Political Thought (Spring 2010)
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