The Origin of Ethics and Politics

Catalog description

The meaning of goodness and justice and their relation to the formation and purpose of political community determine the central theoretical-practical questions animating Western philosophers, theologians and political agents from the ancient world to today. What purpose does politics serve?  What role do morality, virtue, justice and law play in the distribution and application of power?  How do we know what is good and evil, right and wrong?  Is there one standard that unites different value systems, and if not are all systems equally valid?  These basic questions will be examined in light of classic texts of political thinking, from the ancient Greek philosophers (Plato and Aristotle) and the Bible, to modernity (Hobbes, Spinoza, Mill) and contemporary thought (Nietzsche, Schmitt, Levinas), to help understand today’s global world of multi-cultural states.