Skip to main content

Introduction to Political Theory (201-0-1)

Instructors

Ricardo Galliano Court

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-329: Tues, Wed, Thurs 4:00PM - 6:20PM

Overview of class

Overview The goal of this seminar is to begin to build an acquaintance with the history of political theory through the ancient and early modern periods extending up to today. We will explore liberty, the advent of democracy, and principles of justice in western political thought. With this introduction you should confidentially move on to more advanced courses that will allow you to connect historical political thinking to modern issues and to be able to analyze the evolution of political thinking in our contemporary world. Many of these texts will strike you as outdated and perhaps even offend you with their views. I will not deny it. However, in this course I hope that we can strive to find what is genuinely radical in these thinkers, as they are not just describing or justifying their own worlds, but are striving to create a vision of the possible, and let's give credit to them in that they both created our world and a way to critique it and make it better. All readings on the syllabus are required and active annotation of all readings is expected. Readings will be made available in Canvas as Hypothes.is documents. All students will have read, annotated, and commented on the annotations of their classmates before class meetings ensuring a lively discussion of the question at hand.

Learning Objectives

With this introduction you should confidentially move on to more advanced courses that will allow you to connect historical political thinking to modern issues and to be able to analyze the evolution of political thinking in our contemporary world.

Teaching Method

Seminar

Evaluation Method

Discussion Participation Reading Annotations Weekly Writing Assignments

Class Materials (Required)

Texts available via Canvas and Hypothes.is

Class Attributes

Interdisciplinary Distro-rules apply
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area
Ethics & Values Distro Area