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BA Politikwissenschaft § 5 (1) 4.a Political Theories and Political Thinking

Students acquire the ability to classify and explain the development of political thinking in the course of the centuries. They know how to present different definitions of rule and describe different theories of state as well as different theories of democracy.

Moreover, they know how to state historical genesis and cultural variability of social order. They are able to critically reflect gender coding in western intellectual and cultural history as well as in (social)scientific discourses of modern age and to autonomously evaluate political strategies of gender politics on a national, European and international level.

This course offers an introduction to the study of politics and political thought through engagement with fundamental questions that inform political modernity and the attempts of several canonical political theorists to respond to them: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Wollstonecraft, Marx, Arendt, Foucault, Habermas, Nussbaum, Benhabib, Spivak, Mouffe, Butler. Combining historical and theoretical insights, the effort is to understand the foundations of politics and scope of political inquiry through addressing issues such as origin of political society, proper rights of citizens, legitimate purposes of government, nature of rights, meaning of justice and good society.

Lecture and discussion

written exam

Barry, N. P.: An Introduction to Modern Political Theory, London/Basingstoke 1981; Held, D. (ed.): Political Theory Today, Stanford 1991; Brown, C.: Sovereignty, Rights and Justice: International Political Theory Today, Polity 2002.

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Texts and class discussions will be in English, so English language proficiency is required