Introductory description

How should human beings be governed? Could societies function without private property? Is violence justified as a response to grave social injustice? What does it mean to 'decolonise'? Political Theory from Hobbes invites students to critically confront the ideas of some of the most important (predominantly) European political and social thinkers since about 1640, with special reference to their best-known works. These include Hobbes's Leviathan, Locke's Second Treatise of Government, Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality, Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, J. S. Mill's On Liberty, Mill and Harriet Taylor's The Subjection of Women, Du Bois's Souls of Black Folk, Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto, Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism, Martin Luther King's writings on non-violence, and Angela Davis's Women, Race and Class. The module will consider how these ideas inform contemporary debates in political theory, such as debates about Black Lives Matter, no-platforming, decolonisation, climate change, and intersectionality.

The module builds on ideas explored in Introduction to Politics during your first year, and it leads towards the third year module, Issues in Political Theory, which deals with present-day arguments about social justice.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Throughout the module, we will study texts such as the following: Hobbes's Leviathan, Locke's Second Treatise of Government, Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality, Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, J. S. Mill's On Liberty, Mill and Harriet Taylor's The Subjection of Women, Du Bois's Souls of Black Folk, Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto, Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism, Martin Luther King's writings on non-violence, and Angela Davis's Women, Race and Class.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of how political thought relates to issues concerning freedom, equality, human nature, and forms of oppression.
• Interpret and assess critically the best-known texts of some of the most important western European political and social thinkers from Hobbes to Fanon, drawing, if appropriate, on a diverse range of thinkers from both within and outside western liberal thought.
• Confront and assess key sets of ideas in political theory, and present and defend your point of view in writing.

Indicative reading list

Hobbes's Leviathan, Locke's Second Treatise of Government, Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality, Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, J. S. Mill's On Liberty, Mill and Harriet Taylor's The Subjection of Women, Du Bois's Souls of Black Folk, Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto, Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism, Martin Luther King's writings on non-violence, and Angela Davis's Women, Race and Class.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

On completion of this module, you should be able to:
Demonstrate an understanding of how political thought relates to issues concerning freedom, equality, human nature, and forms of oppression.
Interpret and assess critically the best-known texts of some of the most important western European political and social thinkers from Hobbes to Fanon, drawing, if appropriate, on a diverse range of thinkers from both within and outside western liberal thought.
Confront and assess complex sets of ideas in political theory, and present and defend your point of view in writing.

Transferable skills

The module provides students with opportunities to acquire and to develop the following key skills:

Critical thinking and analytical skills. This involves identifying premises and conclusions of arguments; determining whether the conclusions follow from the premises; and understanding the practical implications of theoretical commitments.
Close textual analysis skills. This involves interpreting a complex text, and distilling from it various interconnected lines of argument.
Oral communication skills. This involves communicating complex ideas in person and responding constructively to the view of others.