PLM4390

Grand theories of politics

Michael Janover

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

Objectives On successful completion of this subject students should be able to exposit arguments relating morality to power in works of political thinkers studies; recognise and evaluate philosophical, cultural and moral contexts of political ideas; critically analyse rival models of traditional continuity versus incommensurable discontinuity in the history of political ideas.

Synopsis This subject introduces honours and/or graduate students to a strand of selected topics in the history of political thought. These topics include the nature of epic or grand theories of politics and the relation of political theories to other (moral, religious, scientific, technical, metaphysical) forms of thinking. The subject has two principal aims. Firstly, it will provide a survey of the ideas of Socrates, Plato, Machiavelli, Rousseau and Nietzsche on themes such as knowledge and power, political change and cultural identity, social structure and political institutions, ethics and politics. Secondly, the subject explores the functions of the intellectual history of political thought within the wider ambit of political science and social theory.

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

Recommended texts

Bloom Z Legislators and interpreters Polity, 1987
Detwiler B Nietzsche and the politics of aristocratic radicalism U Chicago P, 1990
Euben J P The tragedy of political theory Princeton U P, 1990
Rocco C Tragedy and enlightenment UCP, 1997
Wolin S Politics and vision Little Brown, 1960

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