PLT4139

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 subject examines the work 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. Each of these writers presents a critique of modernity from the standpoint of political and ethical theory; demonstrates a commitment to the normative and theoretical presuppositions of democracy; and provides an articulation of how human beings construct themselves through political action.

Assessment: Essay (6000 words) 60%
* Examination (3 hours): 40%