History of Political Thought

Module Code: PO2610

Module Name: History of Political Thought

• ECTS Weighting: 10
• Semester/Term Taught: Michaelmas + Hilary Term
• Contact Hours: 2 lectures per week; 1 tutorial per fortnight
• Module Personnel: Lecturer - Professor Eddie Hyland
• Course Outline 2012-2013
• Essays & Seminar Topics 2012-2013

Learning Outcomes

Students should acquire a general overview of the major political thinkers from ancient Greece until the present. They should become familiar with the main themes of political thought, such as the nature of the state, the basis of political legitimacy. In addition, students will also be expected to acquire a more detailed knowledge of a selection of the main political theorists.

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

• Analyse, specify and appraise differing normative theories of society
• Discriminate between differing theoretical conceptions of the role of the state and evaluate the impact of these differing conceptions on citizens
• Name and appraise the theories of central political thinkers of the western tradition
• Evaluate the importance of concepts such democracy, liberalism,the state,political obligation,the sources of political authority
• Differentiate between theories of political legitimacy based on divine right as opposed to popular contractual consent.
• Appraise the claims that political order derives from the inevitability of conflict as against claims that socio-political community is natural to human beings.
• Critically appraise the logical cogency of complex arguments.
• Express your evaluations of arguments concisely and articulately in written assessments

Module Learning Aims

The general aim of the course is to introduce students to the emergence and development of the major ideas, theories and controversies in political thought from the time of classical Greece to the beginning of the twentieth century. The course will fall into four fairly distinct sections.
1. In the first we will deal with the classical world of Greece and Rome: we will be looking at the first emergence of such ideas as  “democracy”, “justice”, “natural law” and so on.
2. In the second section we will treat of the influence of Christianity on political thought in the medieval period.
3. Thirdly, we look at the great flourishing of political theory in the 16th-18th centuries, with special reference to such topics as the nature of man and society, the social contract, the nature of the state, the function and limits of government.
4. The final section encompasses those theorists of the 19th century who contributed to the formulation of the political problems of the present era, such as  Marx and  J. S. Mill.

Module Content

This course introduces students to the main themes of political and social philosophy as they have emerged in the western intellectual tradition. The lectures will provide a critical survey of some of the main contributions to the history of political and social thought, while a parallel seminar programme will enable students to specialise in specific areas and discuss the major problems that arise, presenting papers on topics of their choice.

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Recommended Reading List

• A. Books that provide selections from primary text

• Masters of Political Thought  (three volumes) edited by M. B. Foster, W. T. Jones and L. W. Lancaster.

These books contain a good selection of quite long extracts from the classic works of political theory ranging from the pre-Platonic period to Marx. They also contain useful commentaries by the editors on the texts quoted.

• Some interesting and important selections from primary texts which are not included in the Masters  series can be found in Western Political Heritage by W. Y. Elliot and N. A. MacDonald (Prentice Hall, 1963)
• Classical Political Theories: From Plato to Marx, (ed), Robert Brown (London 1990).
• Classics of Moral and Political Theory, Michael L. Morgan (ed.), Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis (Cambridge,1992).

( This is an excellent collection of , in many cases, the complete texts of the relevant political thinkers)

B. Commentaries

• W. T. Bluhm, Theories of the Political System, a good attempt at demonstrating the relevance of certain classic political theories to contemporary political problems (Prentice Hall, 1965).
• G. H. Sabine, A History of Political Theory, standard textbook. It gives a good survey of political thought (N.Y., 1961).
• S. S. Wolin, Politics and Vision,  consists of a series of sophisticated interpretative essays. A serious work, well worth close study. (Little, Brown and Co., 1960).
• J. Plamenatz, Man and Society (two volumes) provides a good critical analysis of modern political theories of Machiavelli to Marx. (Longman, London, 1970).
• L. J. Macfarlane, Modern Political Theory (Nelson, London, 1970).
• D. Thomson, Political Ideas (Penguin Books, 1970).
• R. N. Berki, History of Political Theory (Dent, 1976).
• E. Wood and N. Wood, Class Ideology and Ancient Political Theory (Oxford, 1978).
• M. Forsyth and M. Keens-Soper (eds.), A Guide to the Political Classics: Plato to Rousseau (Oxford, 1988).
• Brian Redhead, From Plato to Nato (BBC publications)
• Iain Hampsher-Monk, A History of Modern Political Thought,( Basil Blackwell, 1992.)***
•  Edward Bryan Portis, Reconstructing the Classics: Political Theory from Plato to Marx, (N. Jersey, 1994).
• J. S. McClelland, A History of Western Political Thought, (London, 1996)*** 
• Janet Coleman, A History of Political Thought, Vols. I and II (Oxford, 2000).
• David Boucher and Paul Kelly, Political Thinkers From Socrates to the Present(Oxford. 2003) ***
• John Rawls, Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy (Harvard, 2007) – a very sympathetic and close reading of political theorists from Hobbes to Marx by one of the great political theorists of the 20th century
• Joseph M. Bryant, Moral codes and social structure in ancient Greece (New York, 1996) – a sophisticated work containing material relevant to Athenian democracy, Plato, Aristotle, Epicureanism and Stoicism

Students’ attention is drawn to the series Great Political Thinkers published by Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. There are volumes on most of the great political theorists and each contains an extensive collection of the most important writings on each political theorist.

C. Monographs
Unwin University Books publish a series of monographs on the major political thinkers. The ones so far available are:

• J. B. Morrall, Aristotle (1977)
• R. Plant, Hegel (1972)
• M. Evans, Marx (1972)
• F. O’Gorman, Burke (1974)
• R. J. Halliday, John Stuart Mill (1972)
• J. Steintrager, Bentham (1977)
• D. D. Raphael, Hobbes (1977)
• G. Parry, Locke (1977)
• R. W. Hall, Plato (1982)
• Two recently published books are of relevance as background to ancient Greek political thought, they are: Polis: An Introduction to the Ancient Greek City-State, Mogens Hansen,(Oxford. 2006) and Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice. Paul Cartledge,( Cambridge, 2009)

D.   Oxford University Press publish a series, Past Masters, containing volumes on Aristotle, Plato, Machiavelli, Marx and Hegel. These books are short, readable and readily available. They are excellent introductions to their subject.

• The bi-annual journal History of Political Thought, published since 1980, contains many important articles on all the political thinkers covered in the course.
• STUDENTS’ ATTENTION IS DRAWN to The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, there are entries on ALL the political theorists covered in the course. They are of  an ECXELLENT  standard and have in addition a very comprehensive and up-to-date extra bibliography. THIS IS AVAILABLE FREE ON-LINE.***

  *** ITEMS ARE  RECOMMENDED AS REALLY GOOD INTODUCTORY OVERVIEWS

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Assessment Details

2 essays counting for 12.5% each
1 x 3-hour examination

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