HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT: ANCIENT & MEDIEVAL

This course will study the major texts of political theory in Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages, including (but not limited to) Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Politics, Cicero’s De Re Publica and De Legibus, Augustine’s De Civitate Dei, Aquinas’ Summa, and Marsilius’ Defensor Pacis.  Topics for study and examination will include the theory of the state in Antiquity and the Middle Ages; the concept of law and its relation to justice; theories concerning the source and scope of legitimate political authority; pre-modern ideas of democratic and non-democratic forms of rule; the nature of citizenship; pre-modern systems of political values.