Modern Political Philosophy

  The philosopher G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1830) is one of the most unique political philosophers, and also one of the most challenging. Hegel is known for his philosophy of the mind and consciousness, writing about how human consciousness has changed and evolved over time, and argues for what he calls a dialectical approach to philosophy, or understanding how opposing forces are connected and how they change. For example, human consciousness changes as we encounter other consciousnesses (other humans) different from our individual selves. For the most part, we will not concern ourselves with these writings, but will focus more on his political philosophy as detailed in the work that has come to be known as Elements of the Philosophy of Right or more simply Philosophy of Right . In this book, published late in his life in 1820, Hegel starts with the idea of an individual who possesses certain fundamental rights and free will. In this regard, he is not that different than Locke, however h...

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) will be the final of the so-called social contract theorists we look at. Like Hobbes and Locke, Rousseau uses similar concepts in his political philosophy like the state of nature and social contract, however Rousseau takes his philosophy in radically different directions than the other two. For example, in his idea of the state of nature, human nature is much more flexible and malleable than either Hobbes or Locke had theorized. Both had assumed human nature was fixed, static, unchanging, or to put it another way eternal. Hobbes assumed that humans were greedy, vicious, and egotistical by nature. Locke had a less pessimistic view, assuming that people were capable of recognizing differences between right and wrong, and co-existing peacefully, at least up until a certain point, but still assuming that their behavior and thus their nature was more or less the same. Rousseau, on the other hand, argued that humans were fundamentally shaped by the kind of ...

  Kant (1724-1804) is one of the most important philosophers ever. His writings on perception and knowledge are still read to this day and many still consider Kant to be the final word on these matters. However, just as important is his political philosophy. In this class, we will cover two of his most important essays "Perpetual Peace" (1795) and "What is Enlightenment?" (1784) Kant's essay "Perpetual Peace" was written during the waning days of the French Revolution after the most violent episodes of the revolution had occurred. Many of the leaders of the revolution had been killed, often as a result of in fighting among the leaders of the revolution. When the revolution began, in almost no time at all, all the kings of Europe had mobilized armies to crush the revolution in France. They obviously saw this momentous event of overturning the monarchy and establishing a government by the people as a direct threat to their rule and sought to crush this m...

signing of the Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull   The American Declaration of Independence from 1776 is one of the most important political documents ever written. Its historical importance is unquestioned, but it is also very important as work of political philosophy for it addresses several of the key themes of political philosophy. The English writer G.K. Chesterton called this the creed of America, meaning it expresses the core values of American political culture, just as a creed represents the core values of a religion. The most famous phrase from the declaration, and the creed Chesterton refers to is: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Gov...