88048 - History Of Political Thought

Learning outcomes

The course aims to give theoretical tools for the study of history of Western modern and contemporary political thought, to highlight the milestone political concepts and its traditions, to analyze the relationship between the development of political theory and the building of political institutions and social processes.

Course contents

The course will pursue a critical exploration of some key political concepts, doctrines and their historic roots. At the end of the course, students are expected to (a) acquire knowledge of the milestone concepts and doctrines worked out in the history of political thought; (b) develop abilities to analytically read a text, by situating political concepts in the historical and linguistic context of different ages; (c) develop capacities to identify aspects of continuity and discontinuity between different political dotrines across the centuries.

The course analyses the most important Western ancient, modern and contemporary political doctrines through the lenses of the following concepts: 1) The relationships between politics and human well-being; 2) The idea of freedom; 3) Friendship and war in domestic and international relations. Human happiness, freedom and friendship are values that will emerge in their political significance and interconnectedness also with the help of a clarification of the following concepts: State, political power, political subject, pact/covenant, sovereignty, citizenship, representation, rights, civil society, democracy, government, constitution, political party.

The first part of the course (which will be delivered on line via TEAMS; duration: 26 hours) will be devoted to an analysis and critical discussion of some of the key theories in the history of political thought –Aristotle, Machiavelli, Bodin, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Schmitt, Rawls.

The second part of the course (delivered in classroom for 3 different groups of students; duration: 12 hours for each group) will focus on the critical reading of selected excerpts from the texts introduced in the first part (Aristotle, Machiavelli, Rousseau; Kant; Arendt; Rawls). The chosen texts will be the same for each group of students and will be made available by the teacher at the beginning of each week. Each group, however, will read the same texts in the light of respectively each of the three conceptual lenses proposed above: “Well-being”; “Freedom”; “Friendship and war”.

Readings/Bibliography

Attending students

Compulsory readings:

A. Ryan, On Politics: a History of Political Thought from Herodotus to the Present, Penguin, 2013.

C. Brown, T. Nardin, N. Rengger (ed. by), International Relations in Political Thought. Texts from the Ancient Greeks to the First World War, Cambridge University Press, 2002.

M. Cohen (ed. by), Princeton Readings in Political Thought: Essential Texts from Plato to Populism, Second Edition, Princeton University Press, 1996.

One of the following texts:

R. Bellamy, Citizenship: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2008.

B. Crick, Democracy: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2002.

M. Freeden, Liberalism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2015.

C. Pierson, The Modern State, Second Edition, Routledge, 1996.

M. Walters, Feminism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2005 AND L. Zerilli, Feminist Theory and the Canon of Political Thought, in The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory, ed. by John S. Dryzek, Bonnie Honig, and Anne Phillips, Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 106-124.

Non-attending students

The readings to be prepared by the students who choose not to attend the course are different from those to be prepared by the attending ones. For this reason non-attending students are kindly requested to contact and meet the instructor in due time and at least once before the exam.

Teaching methods

13 on line classes via TEAMS (duration of each class: 2 hours)

6 face-to-face classes (for each group of students) (duration of each class: 2 hours). 

The course will entirely consist in taught classes, although students will be warmly encouraged to express their critical views on the main themes and doctrines both in the first and in the second part. 

Assessment methods

Three intermediate written open question test and a final oral exam. 

Office hours

See the website of Elena Irrera