Ideology & the Common Good

Catalog description

Political ideologies are like different pairs of glasses: each one helps us to see and focus on certain features of our world. In this course, we explore the connection between our assumptions of human nature and the organized political beliefs that reflect these assumptions-ideologies! To a large extent, ideologies reflect who we want to be, and who we want to be is largely based on what we think human nature allows us to be. We will therefore examine political thought by critically engaging a range of assumptions about human nature and a number of modern political ideologies that build on these assumptions-from classical liberalism to contemporary anti-racism. Senior standing required.