Modern Political Philosophy

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...

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...

 Welcome to Pol 227 Modern Political Philosophy. My name is Barry Murdaco. Hopefully, by now you have had a chance to view the syllabus on Blackboard. If there are any questions, please let me know. Before we get started I would like the class to create their own blogs. Some of you have already, thank you to those who did. I will make a list of the blogs soon, so if you are having trouble (totally normal if this is your first online class) seeing the other blogs might help. Since we will not have regular class discussions, seeing what the other students are up to will help provide a kind of virtual discussion for the class. As is says on the syllabus, each week the class will complete writing assignments based on the readings. Simply choose a quote from the readings each week, write out the quote, explain the meaning of the quote, and then why you chose it. I strongly encourage the class to read each other's posts and comment on them, that will count towards your overall participat...