Modern Political Thought

This course will survey key issues, themes and concepts associated with modernity, including some of the following: origins, limits, and legitimacy of political authority; rights and equality; freedom and power; individualism, individuality and citizenship; and radicalism and revolution. We will also study the relationship between politics and economics, history, and morality, respectively. The course will explore the fundamental principles of modern political thought as well as key components in the critique of modernity. Readings will be drawn from the work of authors such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Kant, Descartes, Mill, Tocqueville, Burke, Paine, Wollstonecraft, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland reserves the right to provide some or all of the course content through alternative methods of course delivery, including remote methods of delivery, and it reserves the right to change the method of delivery at any time before or during the academic term, in the event of a health or safety emergency or similar situation when it determines, in its sole discretion, that such change is necessary and in the best interests of the College and the campus community.