POL381H1S L0101

Topics in Political Theory

Politics and the Idea of History

Themes

In 1989 Francis Fukuyama infamously proclaimed “the end of history,” a global condition in which the collapse of the Soviet Union was taken to imply the absence of any “serious ideological competitors” to liberal democracy. Five years later, Samuel Huntington argued that “clashes of civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace” and that bloody conflict over fundamental principles would continue well into the future. These opposed claims have been the wellspring of extensive controversy; proponents of either view continue to dispute the “end” or “endurance” of history. These popular debates are not new, however — indeed, they have deep and substantial moorings in the history of political philosophy. In this course we will examine the foundations of this debate through the close reading of primary texts written by political philosophers for whom the intersection of history and politics was a chief concern: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Alexandre Kojève.

Texts

Selections from Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Kojeve, Fukuyama, Huntington

Format and Requirements

Option of either (1) two short papers (30% each) or (2) one large paper (50%) and proposal (10%); plus one weekly response paper (15%); one discussion question (5%); and seminar participation (20%).

Prerequisites

POL200Y1 or POL200Y5 or (POLC70H3 and POLC71H3)