Political Science 212B: History of Political Thought: Early Modern (Renaissance to French Revolution)

In this iteration of the course in Renaissance and Early Modern Political Thought, we will focus on a close reading of The Elements of Law (1640) by Thomas Hobbes.  This work has a similar range to that of Hobbes’s 1651 Leviathan, though with much less attention to theological and ecclesiastical matters.  The earlier weeks of the course will be devoted to a consideration of background materials that are also of intrinsic interest, including Jean Bodin’s Six Books of the Republic.