In this course we read and discuss some of the modern era’s most influential, Western political theorists and texts. Because the course is designed to approximate a first-year graduate school seminar, we will also be reading a variety of influential, contemporary critics and critical approaches to interpreting political theory, including scholars from the so-called “Cambridge School” (which represents a specific approach to the study of history and the history of ideas), feminists, Straussians, critical race theorists, civic humanists/ republicans, liberals, and others.
Some of the course themes include: freedom or emancipation; the development of modern liberalism and the emergence of its critics; the appropriate relationship between the state and the individual; the nature of power (and corollary themes of gender/power and race/power); the nature of history, and its role in political thought; and the appropriate role of religion, reason, the passions, and virtue in political affairs. We will also explore the contemporary relevance of our highlighted thinkers and their ideas.
An additional note:
This selection of authors and texts is quite standard for similar courses at colleges and universities around the country, regardless of the professor’s gender, race, ethnicity, or ideology. I teach other Swarthmore courses (such as Introduction to Engaged Scholarship) that feature very diverse sets of authors, but in 16th through 19th century European society far fewer identities were allowed at the table. I hope it’s obvious that by centering these texts I don’t endorse the exclusionary forces that lay behind the relative homogeneity of the author group. My own cultural heritage isn’t represented here, but I (and many others) find the ideas and debates fascinating, important, and—if not universal—at least applicable far beyond the authors’ own identity groups.
Some of the course themes include: freedom or emancipation; the development of modern liberalism and the emergence of its critics; the appropriate relationship between the state and the individual; the nature of power (and corollary themes of gender/power and race/power); the nature of history, and its role in political thought; and the appropriate role of religion, reason, the passions, and virtue in political affairs. We will also explore the contemporary relevance of our highlighted thinkers and their ideas.
An additional note:
This selection of authors and texts is quite standard for similar courses at colleges and universities around the country, regardless of the professor’s gender, race, ethnicity, or ideology. I teach other Swarthmore courses (such as Introduction to Engaged Scholarship) that feature very diverse sets of authors, but in 16th through 19th century European society far fewer identities were allowed at the table. I hope it’s obvious that by centering these texts I don’t endorse the exclusionary forces that lay behind the relative homogeneity of the author group. My own cultural heritage isn’t represented here, but I (and many others) find the ideas and debates fascinating, important, and—if not universal—at least applicable far beyond the authors’ own identity groups.
- Teacher: Benjamin Berger