Survey of Early Modern and Modern Political Thought

This course is an introduction to early modern and modern political thought in the Western tradition. Students will carefully read, analyze, compare, and contrast great books from the Western political canon. Being an integrated humanities course, students will read works of history, literature, and philosophy in a liberal arts fashion. Students will learn the historical context and particular concerns of each work, while also analyzing how and to what degree of success the authors answer perennial questions of political and social life.

This is a 16-week course. Students will attend a lecture and have assigned reading and reading questions each week. Students will also attend a weekly one hour recitation in which we discuss the assigned work using the Socratic method. Students will take two exams and submit two 1,000 word essays.

Course Objectives:

1. To know and respect select works of the Western political tradition.
2. To strengthen one's appreciation for our Western intellectual inheritance.
3. To learn the perennial questions of political life and how each work seeks to answer them.
4. To prepare for citizenship, political life, and cultural engagement.
5. To become proficient in the conversational approach to learning.
6. To cultivate an appetite for learning as a way of life.

Texts:

• Luther, Temporal Authority
• Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Bk. IV, Ch. 20
• Richard Hooker, The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, modernized
• Johannes Althusius, Politica
• John Locke, Second Treatise
• Rousseau, The Social Contract
• Madison, Hamilton, and Jay, Federalist Papers
• Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
• JS Mill, On Liberty
• John C. Calhou, Disquisition on Government
• Selections from Catholic Social Teaching
• Yoram Hazony, The Virtue of Nationalism