The Age of Ideology

Catalog description

With the French Revolution a new era of political thinking began. No longer moored to the idea that political order rested upon a proper conception of human being in itself, political speculation moved toward notions of world immanent order imposed through ideological systems. Eric Voegelin wrote that the "death of the spirit is the price of progress." In the context of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries this has manifested itself in warfare, genocide, and disorder. This course is an examination of the origins of ideological thinking, its effects, and the proper role of resistance as "(n)o one is obliged to take part in the spiritual crises of society.