'Political Philosophies from Plato to the Present

general courses

Remote learning

“Man is a political animal” said Aristotle and so Political Philosophy has potentially a major contribution to make to the design of the socio-economic arrangements whereby people live tougher and interact in communities. This course (which is necessarily selective given its duration) aims to introduce students to some of the main political philosophies that have over the centuries shaped political debate and influenced the political structures by which human societies have been governed. It will also seek to relate these philosophies to the manifold political challenges of the contemporary world.

The course seeks to introduce students to a selection of major political philosophies and to show how these have influenced real world politics and government institutions as well as the design of socio-economic structures. Topics to be included are Athenian direct democracy and Plato’s theory of the ideal state; the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and St Augustine’s City of God; Monarchies, the feudal system and the divine right of kings; Hobbes Leviathan and Social Contract Theory; Liberalism in its various guises and its relationship to (representative) democracy; Hegel’s philosophy of history; Marx’s dialectical materialism and critique of ideologies; Nationalism, the nation state, the United Nations and International Law; Anarchism and Libertarianism; Kant’s Essay Byon Perpetual Peace and the supranationalism of the EU.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, available freely online at https://plato.stanford.edu

Plato The Republic, Penguin Classics, London

Gaus G et al. Eds. (2025) The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy, 2nd Ed. Routledge, London: Parts 1 & 2

Hobbes T Leviathan reprinted with an introduction by Plamenatz J (1969) 4th edition, Fontana London

Kant I (1991) Political Writings 2nd ed, translated by Nisbet H Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

By the end of the course students studentsb will have an understanding of the main political phoilosophies which have exercised an influence on the design and role of governments in human societies as well as on the organisation ofsocio-economic structures. They will be able to see the abiding influence ofthese ideas in various types of political régime and to interpret certain key aspects of contemporary polityicla debate and controversy in the light of underlying differences of political philosophy. Stucents will be encouraged to form their own critically informed opinions o, points of political philosophy and government and will be able to debate these among themselves.

Group assignment: an interactive debate in assigned debating teams to be carried out in class time on an assigned date (20%)

One final closed book examination with open essay type questions (80%)

Two hour closed book examination after the end of the course