POL320Y1Y L5101
Modern Political Thought
Themes
This course introduces the central ideas of the modern era through a close reading and analysis of the works of key political thinkers of the 18th and 19th century and some of their critics. The central question this course addresses is whether ‘modernity’ and modern rationality move toward human emancipation and freedom or instead mark a history of domination and oppression. We will endeavor to understand the theoretical foundations of modernity, its defining political values, and exploring how political thinkers legitimate their interpretation of human nature, progress, and liberty by paying particular attention to how these thinkers manoeuvre these interpretations in the context of imperialism, colonialism, slavery, class, and gender-based domination that developed alongside the advancement of modern rationality and enlightenment. These inquiries will push us to question whether a fulsome actualization of the principles of liberty and justice are attainable, or whether they are utopian.
Texts
Bolivar, The Bolivarian Revolution; Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France; Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk; Gandhi, Hind Swaraj and Other Writings; Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right; Kant, Political Writings; Marx, Marx and Engels Reader and Other Selected Writings; Mill, On Liberty, On Representative Government, and On the Subjection of Women; Mills, The Racial Contract, Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality and Other Writings; Rousseau, Basic Political Writings; Smith, The Wealth of Nation; Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women and a Vindication of the Rights of Man
Format and Requirements
participation (10%), first term essay (15%), midterm test (20%), second term essay (25%) and final exam (30%).
Prerequisites
POL200Y1 or POL200Y5 or (POLC70H3, POLC71H3)