PHIL 1920

PHIL 1920

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2017-2018.

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 Spring.

Breadth Requirement (HB)
Distribution Category (HA-AS)

Comments PHIL 1920 can be taken in sequence with PHIL 1410 .

View Enrollment Information

Syllabi: none
  •   Summer Special Session 2.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: GOVT 1615

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  1202 PHIL 1920   LEC 001

    • MTWRF Mcgraw Hall 165
    • Jun 25 - Jul 13, 2018
    • Moon, A

  • 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

  •  1203 PHIL 1920   DIS 201

  •  1204 PHIL 1920   DIS 202