POL381H1F L0201

Topics in Political Theory

Realist Political Theory

Themes

A survey of both historical and contemporary work in the “realist” tradition of political theory. The course will treat not realism in the international-relations sense but realism as a form of political theory. Realism rejects utopianism, moralism, rationalism, and the demand for social harmony and stresses non-rational human motivations, the fluid relationship between moral and non-moral appeals, the permanence of conflict (and the need to manage it), the perspective of political agents, and a respect for real politics.

Texts

Texts to include Machiavelli, The Prince; Hobbes, Leviathan; Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, The Federalist; Weber, The Vocation Lectures; and contemporary work by Raymond Geuss, Judith Shklar, and Bernard Williams.

Format and Requirements

Format: Lecture and discussion (details TBA). Tentative assignments: two short (ca. 1500 words) papers and an end-of-term exam.

Prerequisites

POL200Y1 or ?POL200Y5 or (POLC70H3 and POLC71H3)