PSC 104—Introduction to Political Philosophy

Most political science courses contend with theories that purport to describe how the world does work. By contrast, this course introduces students to a variety of different perspectives on normative political theory?theories that deal with questions of how the world should work. What does a just society look like? What does being a good citizen require? What is the nature of the state? Such inquiries have occupied political theorists for millennia. This course will address these questions, and others like them, through classic works by Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Niccolo Machiavelli, Karl Marx, and John Stuart Mill, as well as more contemporary writings by scholars such as John Rawls and Martin Luther King, Jr.