Monash University Handbook 2011 Undergraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Notes

Synopsis

Selected topics in the history of political thought, including the nature of epic or grand theories of politics and the role of various forms of moral, religious, scientific, and metaphysical thinking in such theories. Texts and arguments considered are of two kinds:

1. models of construction and deconstruction of the history of Western political and philosophical thought in writings of Heidegger, Feyerabend, Strauss, Derrida;
2. conceptions of knowledge, power and morality, culture and civilisation in the thinking of Socrates, Plato, Machiavelli, Rousseau and Nietzsche.

Assessment

Research essay (6000 words): 50%
Examination (3 hours): 40%
Class participation: 10%

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Michael Janover

Contact hours

2 hours (1 x 2 hour seminar) per week

Prohibitions

COS4399, EUR4399