Political Ideas 2102-ANG-L-D1POID

The course will introduce students into the realm of political ideas, their importance in politics and social life as well as to the content of the main currents of political thought, both ancient and modern.

Asessment of the status and real impact of political ideas depends on our fundamental understanding of politics and political process as such. According to some scholars, political ideas are secondary to such factors as material or economic foundations of social life. Others consider such ideas to be reflections and rationalizations of what they see as deeper, cultural structures. However, according to another approach, relations between thought and living conditions and experiences look different – ideas are primary, they shape our understanding of social life, expressing not only what is (explaining status quo), but also what could or ought to be (promoting change).

We will discuss all major interpretations, naturally focusing on the latter approach.

Topics:

1. Outline of ancient and medieval political ideas.

2. Modernity as the turning moment. Leo Strauss’s interpretation of the differences of between classical and modern political philosophy.

3. Early modern ideas - the importance of Thomas Hobbes’s and Niccolò Machiavelli’s ideas.

4. European Enlightenment and the heritage of the French Revolution 1789 as another formative period in the development of political ideas.

5. Main currents of political thought:

- liberalism
- conservatism
- socialism and communism
- anarchism
- Fascism and Nazism