88048 - HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

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.

Contenuti

The course analyses the most important Western modern and contemporary political doctrines through the lenses of the concept of war. Focusing on the political notion of war, it investigates some of the other key and interlinked political concepts that were developed, starting from the modern age, also with the aim of containing or neutralizing the possibility of conflict, such as: State, political power, political subject, pact/covenant, sovereignty, citizenship, representation, rights, civil society, democracy, government, constitution, political party.

In addition to the analysis and discussion of the texts written by some of the most important Western political thinkers regarding the political concept of war (from Machiavelli to Erasmo, Grotius and Hobbes, from Locke to Rousseau, Kant, Hegel and Marx, from Weber to Schmitt, Kelsen and Arendt), a special attention is devoted to the concept of freedom/liberty and to the investigation of its conceptual origin and evolution in the history of modern and contemporary political thought. In this light, freedom/liberty is thus seen in its continuous dialectical, and more or less conflictual, relationship with the risk of war and political disorder.

 

Testi/Bibliografia

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.

Metodi didattici

The course consists of 25 2-hour lectures, based also on the reading and conceptual analysis of the classical texts of Western political thought and aimed at providing students with the appropriate language and main conceptual tools of the history of modern and contemporary political thought.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Attending students

Attending students will undergo three written exams throughout the course aimed at assessing, for each of the three main sections of the course, their acquisition of the expected knowledge and critical and analytical abilities. Each exam is a 45-minute test that consists of 5 or 6 open questions. There will be no makeup exam throughout the course.

Attending students who miss or fail one of the written exams will undergo a makeup oral exam after the end of the class only if the grade of the others is sufficient.

Attending students who have not obtained a sufficient average gradewill undergo a written exam on the entire syllabus after the end of the class.

The oral exam is aimed at assessing the student’s level of knowledge of some of the most important topics addressed by the course, as well as her/his ability to critically analyse and verbally articulate them.

The final evaluation will be the average of the written and the oral exam scores.

The ability of the student to achieve a coherent and comprehensive understanding of the topics addressed by the course, to critically assess them and to use an appropriate language will be evaluated with the highest grades.

Gaps and deficiencies in one or more of those components will result in lower grades.

The absence of a minimum level of knowledge of the contents of the course, combined with inadequate language and lack of critical abilities will result in a fail grading.

Non-attending students

Students who do not attend the course will undergo a written exam that consists of 15 open questions after the end of the class. The written text is aimed at assessing their acquisition of the expected knowledge and critical and analytical abilities.

If they pass the text they will undergo an oral exam on the dedicated syllabus provided by the instructor.

The oral exam is aimed at assessing the student’s level of knowledge of some of the most important topics addressed by the course, as well as her/his ability to critically analyse and verbally articulate them.

The final evaluation will be the numerical average of the written and the oral exam scores.

The ability of the student to achieve a coherent and comprehensive understanding of the topics addressed by the course, to critically assess them and to use an appropriate language will be evaluated with the highest grades.

Gaps and deficiencies in one or more of those components will result in lower grades.

The absence of a minimum level of knowledge of the contents of the course, combined with inadequate language and lack of critical abilities will result in a fail grading.

Orario di ricevimento

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