PS 202: Introduction to Political Thought

This course is a chronological introduction to a selection of influential works in Western political theory. Some of the central themes that the course will cover are: justice, human nature and political action. The course will draw on the works of important thinkers, including: Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, and Tocqueville. Students are introduced to the ideologies of liberalism, conservatism, fascism, socialism, and nationalism, and consider how assumptions about human nature in general, and political ideals of order, liberty, equality, and justice, in particular, affect choice of ideology.