GOVT 1615

Last Updated

  • Schedule of Classes - August 31, 2016 7:14PM EDT
  • Course Catalog - June 9, 2016 6:15PM EDT

GOVT 1615
Introduction to Modern Political Theory

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2015-2016.

This course offers a survey of modern political theory in the West.  We will examine some of the persistent dilemmas of political modernity and the attempts of several canonical political theorists to respond to them: Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Burke, Mill, Marx, and Nietzsche.  In each case, we will attend to the particular crises these theorists addressed in their work—such as the European wars of religion, the English Civil War, colonialism, the French Revolution, and industrial capitalism—as well as the broader philosophical and political issues they continue to pose to us now.  Our approach will be both historical and conceptual, in other words, with the hopes of providing students with a nuanced but clear understanding of political theory as a distinctive form of political inquiry.

When Offered Winter, spring, summer.

Breadth Requirement (HB)
Distribution Category (HA-AS)
Course Subfield (PT)

Comments Although not a prerequisite, GOVT 1615 can be taken in sequence with GOVT 3626 - [Introduction to Early History of Political Philosophy].

View Enrollment Information

Syllabi: none

  •   Six Week Summer. 

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  1197 GOVT 1615   LEC 001

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    • TBA
    • Jun 27 - Aug 5, 2016

    • Kramnick, I

  • Instruction Mode: Distance Learning - WWW
    This Online Summer Session class is offered by the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions. For details visit http://www.sce.cornell.edu/ss/courses/courses.php?v=654

Syllabi: none

  •   Summer Special Session 2.  Choose one lecture and one discussion.

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  1198 GOVT 1615   LEC 002

  •  

  • This Summer Session class is offered by the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions. For details visit http://www.sce.cornell.edu/ss/courses/courses.php?v=654

  •  1199 GOVT 1615   DIS 200

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  •  1200 GOVT 1615   DIS 201

  •  
    • MTWRF White Hall B06
    • Jul 18 - Aug 5, 2016

    • Staff

  •  1201 GOVT 1615   DIS 202

  •  
    • MTWRF Morrill Hall 111
    • Jul 18 - Aug 5, 2016

    • Staff

  •  1202 GOVT 1615   DIS 203

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  •  1203 GOVT 1615   DIS 204

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