Modern Political Philosophy

For this class, we will cover the origins of conservative political philosophy. Conservatism really emerged in the aftermath of the French Revolution (1789-1799). The term conservative was first used to identify the supporters of Edmund Burke (1729-1797) who was known for his writings on the revolution in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). Burke was known for criticizing the revolution for moving too fast, and henceforth the term conservative came to identify those who wanted preserve traditions from radical change. In theory, conservatives are not against change, they just prefer a slower pace of change, but in practice that does not always seem to be the case. The revolution began in 1789, and within a few years had overturned all of French society. It is tough to summarize an event as complicated as this, but basically France had been a monarchy for a long time, and in recent years the power of the monarchy had grown to the point there were very restraints on the power...

 John Locke (1632-1704) is one of the most important political philosophers, and the one that has arguably had the greatest impact on American politics–even though Locke was English. Locke's defense of limited government, his idea of natural rights, and government by consent were a huge influence on the founders of the American republic. Locke lived during a tumultuous time in English history. Many people have heard of the French Revolution (1789-1799), less known but equally important was the English revolution against the monarchy in the previous century, and resulting civil war (1642-1651).  Much like the French, the climax of this historical event led to a full scale rebellion against the English monarchy, and the execution of the English king Charles I. Charles I being led to his execution, 1649 However, the monarchy was eventually restored, although by the end of the 17th century the power of the monarchy was significantly limited as the British Parliament became the su...

 As mentioned last class, Machiavelli's Discourses (full title  Discourses on Livy ) are his lesser known, but arguably most important work. The Discourses were written after The Prince , are much longer, and represent his more mature or developed political philosophy. Similar to The Prince , Machiavelli's method of writing is fairly simple, he examines historical sources and tries to derive some kind of insight or truths about politics from them. Unlike The Prince which mostly (but not exclusively) looked at contemporary rulers, in this later work Machiavelli looks to the ancient Roman Republic, before it became an empire ruled by an emperor. Livy refers to the ancient Roman historian Titus Livius (64 or 59BC-12 or 17AD, the dates of his life are not certain) who chronicled the history of the republic. Machiavelli is basically reviewing his writings and giving his own commentary on them. The downfall of the republic and its transformation into an empire is a fascinating a...