Current course offerings

Please Note: Course profiles marked as not available may still be in development.

Course description

This course introduces students to canonical texts in the history of Western political thought. A range of texts will be studied to enquire into what it means to think politically and to explore the changing character of this thought over time. The course will seek to understand texts in their context by acknowledging the historical and often cultural-political distance that separate us from the texts under examination. It will explore arguments about forms of legitimate government, including ideas about power, the state, the relationship between politics, morality and religion, and politics and economics, and examine the competing ends to which they are put, such as the political ideals of freedom, equality, justice, democracy, and citizenship. It will also contemplate whether past texts in the history of political thought contain value and wisdom that can be redeemed for our times. Texts will be selected to give voice to a plurality of positions and identities.

Archived offerings