Progress and despair: modern political ideologies and theories
M Janover
8 points * 3 hours per week * Second semester * Clayton
This subject explores some crucial currents of thought on the nature of modernity, community, authority and liberty from the French Enlightenment until the present. The principal `isms' of modern politics - liberalism, socialism, conservatism - will be studied as expressions of belief and hope in progress and of disquiet and even despair at the massive changes in social, economic, intellectual and moral life carried through over the last two centuries. Key thinkers discussed will include Rousseau, Bentham, Marx, Nietzsche, Weber, Marcuse and Foucault. They will be studied in the light of four major themes: (1) Enlightenment and progress; (2) Utilitarianism and social happiness; (3) Romanticism and individuality; (4) Modernism and technological society. Students will be encouraged to draw on modern literature and visual arts and to connect materials studied in this subject to their interests in other disciplines.
Assessment
Written (3000 words): 50% * Examinations (3 hours): 50%
Recommended texts
Bidiss M The age of the masses Penguin, 1977
Hall J and Eieben (eds) Formations of modernity Polity Press, 1992
Hawthorn G Enlightenment and despair CUP, 1976