Selected Works in the History of Political Theory

Catalog description

Detailed examination and analysis of a selected major work, thinker, or tradition in the history of political theory. PL SC 430W Selected Works in the History of Political Theory (3)The course will examine the tradition of 'liberal' political philosophy, focusing principally on the social contract tradition in Western political philosophy. We will examine the work of the 'classic' social contract theorists -Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant - and discuss some more recent variants. We will then consider broad contemporary critiques of this tradition. In particular, we will consider charges of exclusion, parochialism, and biased conceptions of the self allegedly manifested in liberal theories, especially as those charges that center on considerations of race and gender.