Critical Social Thought 249MW - Modern Western Polit Thought

Through the writings of such thinkers as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, and Mill, we will examine central issues of modern Western political thought. Understanding modernity to entail a turn from political legitimacy based on the will of God, age-old traditions, and/or patriarchal right to political legitimacy based on the conscious designs of human beings with equal natural status, we will focus on the significance of this turn for questions concerning the purpose of politics, the ideal relationship between rulers and ruled, the justice or injustice of social inequality, and the meaning of freedom.

Course limited to sophomores, juniors and seniors