Political Science 212B: History of Political Thought: Topics in Renaissance and Early Modern Thought

The purpose of the seminar is to examine selected writings of crucial thinkers in the history of Renaissance and Early Modern Political Thought (Erasmus, Machiavelli, Bacon, Shakespeare, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume and Marx). Secondary writings accompanying each thinker will assist us in considering some of the contextual and interpretive issues of relevance to these thinkers, and in considering such problems as: counsel, authority, sovereignty, tyranny, subjection, oaths, obedience, religious toleration, forms of political participation, sociability and civil government, justice, equality, and revolution.