POL 243 Modern Political Thought

 Politically, the trend toward globalization is the legacy of the Western renaissance and reformation.  Selected documents in political thought since 1500 are used for firsthand analysis.  Supplementary lectures, survey textbooks, and the whole of students’ other courses help fill in the picture.  Hypotheses behind the themes are (1) human consciousness, involving people in large numbers, has been elevated to the mental plane, (2) barriers of separatism, isolation, and prejudice have been challenged and are breaking.

TEXTS:                  Niccolo Machiavelli, The  Prince
                                Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
                                James Harrington, Commonwealth of Oceana, System of Politics
                                John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government
                                Albert Camus, The Rebel
                               

required:  Björn Wittrock, "Modernity: One, None, or Many? European Origins and Modernity as a Global Condition," Daedalus, Winter 2000, pp. 31-60.  Library on-line reserve, password Saturday.

recommended:  any summary text of political philosophy since 1500—to identify names, ideas, writings, sequence of events:

Bluhm, William T., Theories of the Political System:  Classics of Political Thought and Modern Political Analysis (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965).
Cahill, Thomas, How the Irish Saved Civilization (New York: Doubleday, 1995).
Coker, Francis W., Recent Political Thought (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1934).
Curtis, Michael (ed.), The Great Political Theories (2 vols.; New York: Avon, 1961, 1962).
Dunning, William Archibald, From Luther to Montesquieu (New York: Macmillan, 1905, 1959).
Dunning, William Archibald, From Rousseau to Spencer (New York: Macmillan, 1920, 1959).
Gould, James A., and Vincent V. Thursby, eds., Contemporary Political Thought:  Issues in Scope, Value, and Direction (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969).
Hacker, Andrew, Political Theory:  Philosophy, Ideology, Science (New York: Macmillan, 1961).
Jones, W. T., Masters of Political Thought:  Vol. II Machiavelli to Bentham (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, n.d.).
Kateb, George, Political Theory:  Its Nature and Uses (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1968).
Lancaster, Lane W., Masters of Political Thought:  Vol. III Hegel to Dewey (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, n.d.).
Lipson, Leslie, The Great Issues of Politics (9^th ed.; Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1993).
Lurier, Harold E., The Emergence of the Western World (Dubuque, IO: Kendall/Hunt, 1994).
McDonald, Lee Cameron, Western Political Theory:  From Its Origins to the Present (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968).
Popper, Karl R., The Open Society and Its Enemies (2 vols.; New York: Harper Torch, 1962).
Porter, Jene M., ed., Classics in Political Philosophy (Scarborough, Ont., Canada: Prentice Hall, 1997).
Portis, Edward Bryan, Reconstructing the Classics:  Political Theory from Plato to Marx (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House, 1998).
Rosen, Michael, and Jonathan Wolff, eds., Political Thought (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1999).
Sabine, George, and T. Thorsen, A History of Political Theory (4^th ed.; New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1973).
Skinner, Q., The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1978).
Strauss, Leo, What Is Political Philosophy (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1959).
Strauss, Leo, and Joseph Cropsey, A History of Political Philosophy (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1987).
Tannenbaun, Donald G., and David Schultz, Inventors of Ideas:  An Introduction to Western Political Philosophy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998).
Thiele, Leslie Paul, Thinking Politics:  Perspectives in Ancient, Modern, and Postmodern Political Theory (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House, 1997).
Voegelin, Eric, The New Science of Politics (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1952).
Wild, John, Plato’s Modern Enemies and the Theory of Natural Law (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1953).
Wiser, James, Political Theory:  A Thematic Inquiry (Chicago, Nelson-Hall, 1986).