LFU:online

Students will be familiarized with key currents and central concepts of social and political thought from classics of the early modern period (Hobbes and Machiavelli) to contemporary debates. The seminar supports the lectures.

The course will take a thematic approach to social and political theory and cover such themes as the nature of power, social order, community, the state and capitalism, as well as major political ideologies. The thinkers examined will include Marx, Weber, Durkheim and (Karl) Polanyi. The roots of their arguments in classical political thought will be emphasized. The course will conclude with some contemporary debates in political and social theory concerning governance and citizenship.

There will be weekly readings (mostly original texts) to be discussed in the seminars.

Group and/or individual presentations.

Raymond Aron (1991) [1968] Main Currents of Sociological Thought (two volumes). Transaction: Piscataway, NJ.

Will Kymlicka (2001) Contemporary Political Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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