PHI 61 — Classics of Modern Political Philosophy
Spring
Tuesdays
7:00—8:50 pm
Date(s)
Mar 29—May 31
10 weeks
Drop By
Apr 11
2 Units
Fees
$405
Format
On-campus course
Open
The classical thinkers of modern political philosophy asked questions that are still highly relevant: Who may legitimately rule over others? What is the ultimate foundation and goal of politics? When can people resist and rebel against the political order? What is the relationship between politics and legal, economic, social, and cultural life? In this course, we will discuss the range of answers offered to questions such as these by key political philosophers in the liberal, socialist, and conservative traditions. Our discussions will be based on readings from John Locke, Edmund Burke, John Stuart Mill, Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Irving Babbitt, Friedrich Hayek, Michael Oakeshott, and Jürgen Habermas. We will read selections from seminal texts in political philosophy, such as Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, Mill’s On Liberty, and Marx’s Capital. The American political spectrum is still divided along the lines of conservatism, liberalism, and socialism. We will examine the extent to which the conservative, liberal, and socialist ideas we will be discussing can be used to philosophically justify their contemporary political expressions.
Admir Skodo, Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley
Admir Skodo is a historian of modern European ideas and culture. He has lectured at UC Berkeley Extension and Berkeley City College. He is the author of The Afterlife of Idealism: The Impact of New Idealism on British Historical and Political Thought, 1945–1980. Skodo received a PhD from the European University Institute.Textbooks for this course:
(Recommended) Iain Hampsher-Monk, A History of Modern Political Thought: Major Political Thinkers From Hobbes to Marx (ISBN 9781557861474)