VEV History of Political Thought/Politische Ideengeschichte - Detailseite

This lecture focuses on important thinkers from the history of modern political philosophy, including Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Frederick Douglass, Mary Wollstonecraft, Karl Marx and Rosa Luxemburg – through a close analysis and interpretation of their key works. We will consider the historical contexts each of these authors confronted, while also examining how they have shaped our understanding of central concepts in political and social philosophy, such as political authority, legitimacy, property, freedom, equality or class. This is not a survey course and the aim is not to run through the whole history of political thought. Instead, we treat a few key texts in depth in order to gain a deeper understanding of some of the most influential figures in political philosophy and how to go about interpreting a philosophical text.