Politics 239 - 19th C Critical Social Thought

An introduction to some of the great critical voices of the nineteenth century. We will explore the ideas of such mutinous thinkers as Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, focusing on the style as well as the substance of their theoretical works. The course will highlight their competing notions of the clash between appearance and reality, the logic and historical trajectory of domination and subordination, the basis and function of religion and morality, and the place of reason and irrationality in social life.