The purpose of this course is to offer a detailed analysis of a few
works that belong to the canon of modern and social political
thought: Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws, Hegel’s Philosophy of
Right, Tocqueville’s The Old Regime and the Revolution, Marx’s
Communist Manifesto, German Ideology, and selections from the Capital
(Vol. 1), Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism plus selections from Economy and Society. The text that
will serve as our guide will be Raymond Aron’s Main Currents of
Sociological Thought. Depending on students’ interests, we may also
add selections from other important authors such as Adam Smith,
Comte, Durkheim, Simmel, and Ortegay Gasset. All students will be
required to write a research paper (due at the end of the semester)
and to make two oral presentations during the semester.