This course is a seminar on the history of political thought. Its focus is the social contract tradition and its critics, including criticisms or amendments of contract theory based on the alleged sociability of humankind. We will study canonical texts in this tradition, with a special interest in their implications for law.
Readings will include works by Aristotle, Hobbes, Pufendorf, Locke, Hume, Smith, Rousseau, Bentham, Kant, Mill, Marx, Rawls and others.
Students will be expected to engage in close readings of these texts, participate in seminar discussion, and write a final paper.
This course is a Foundations seminar in the PhD Program in Jurisprudence & Social Policy (JSP) and is open to all JSP, JD, LLM, and JSD students as well as graduate students from other campus departments.
Law Website Course Description: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/courses/coursePage.php?cID=26544&termCode=D&termYear=2020
This is a cross-listed/room-shared course with the Law and Political Science Departments. Students may enroll through Law (Law 215.5) or Political Science (PS 211 Sec 002). The first class will meet on Thursday, August 17. Note, this course follows the Law School's Academic Calendar. (https://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/courses/academic_calendars.php)