History of Political Thought: The Foundations of Modern Political Thought

This course will study the foundational texts of modern political thought, including Machiavelli’s Prince, Hobbes’ Leviathan, Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, and Rousseau’s Social Contract.  Topics for study and examination will include the theory of the modern sovereign state; the origin of the state (especially the theory of the social contract); the concept of natural rights; theories of political liberty and equality; the permissibility of political resistance and revolution; early modern ideas of democratic and non-democratic forms of rule; religion and politics. 

Instructor: Rosemarie Wagner