GOAL OF THE COURSE. The purpose of this course is to introduce
students to a variety of approaches and issues in political
philosophy by focusing on key authors. Half of the class will be
devoted to reading and commenting on canonical texts such as:
Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Politics, Machiavelli’s The Prince,
Hobbes’s Leviathan, Rousseau’s Social Contract, and Tocqueville’s
Democracy in America. After examining in detail each of these
classic texts, we shall then turn our attention to exploring the
various ways in which these works have been interpreted by mainly
fours schools: contextualist (Quentin Skinner and his disciples),
post-modern (Sheldon Wolin and his disciples), Straussian (Leo
Strauss and his disciples), and intellectual history (Isaiah Berlin,
etc.). We shall also cover select feminist and analytical
interpretations. On a general level, this course has several
pedagogical aims. First, it seeks to provide an overview of a few
canonical and authors that we often take for granted without knowing
well. Second, the course seeks to help students develop the capacity
to engage in textual exegesis and to critically evaluate alternative
approaches.

REQUIREMENTS.  All students will be required to write a research
paper and a bibliographical essay. There will also be the option of
writing two fifteen-page seminar papers (due on October 31 and
December 15) on topics discussed in class (instead of the large
research paper). Each student will also be required to serve
as “discussion leader”/moderator (along with me) for one session.