PLM4130

Women of ideas: Arendt, Heller and Pateman

Gillian Robinson

12 points -2 hours per week -Second semester -Clayton

Objectives This subject aims to familiarise students with a range of important works written by women who are major political thinkers of our time and to provide a variety of intellectual responses to the way 'the human condition' has been conceived in modern political thought.

Synopsis This course examines the work and ideas of three major philosophers of modernity, democracy and gender. It will principally focus on the following themes: the human condition; political action; public and private spheres; rationality and reason; shame and conscience; gender and democracy; modernity and antiquity. The major texts for this course are H Arendt The human condition and The origins of totalitarianism; A Heller The power of shame and General ethics; C Pateman The sexual contract and Participation and democratic theory.

Assessment Written (6000 words): 50% -Examination (3 hours): 50%

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