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Keywords: Locke
(Complete Item Description)
- Abstract: This course is intended as an introduction to political philosophy as seen through an examination of some of the major texts and thinkers of the Western political tradition. Three broad themes that are central to understanding political life are focused upon: the polis experience (Plato, Aristotle), the sovereign state (Machiavelli, Hobbes), constitutional government (Locke), and democracy (Rousseau, Tocqueville). The way in which different political philosophies have given expression to various forms of political institutions and our ways of life are examined throughout the course.
(Complete Item Description)
- Abstract: Subject examines major texts in the history of political thought and the questions they raise about the design of the political and social order. Students are required to critically engage with these texts and to write essays on such issues as whether government should be controlled by the many or by the expert few; whether a community should respect a diversity of religions and philosophical opinion; whether there are such things as human rights; why values like liberty and equality conflict, and whether these conflicts can be reconciled. This course examines major texts in the history of political thought and the questions they raise about the design of the political and social order. It considers the ways in which thinkers have responded to the particular political problems of their day, and the ways in which they contribute to a broader conversation about human goods and needs, justice, democracy, and the proper relationship of the individual to the state. One aim will be to understand the strengths and weaknesses of various regimes and philosophical approaches in order to gain a critical perspective on our own. Thinkers include Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, and Tocqueville.
(Complete Item Description)
- Abstract: The course will explore the phenomenon of a priori knowledge. We'll consider some notable attempts to account for apriori knowledge in the history of philosophy (e.g., by Plato, Descartes, Hume, and Kant), some influential critiques of the notion; we will end by considering some contemporary approaches to the apriori.
- Subject:
Humanities, Social Sciences
- Grade Level:
Post-secondary
- Collection:
MIT OpenCourseWare
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