Prof Paul Kelly

This course is compulsory on the BSc in Government, BSc in Government and Economics, BSc in Government and History, BSc in Politics and Philosophy and BSc in Social Policy with Government. This course is available on the BSc in Environment and Development, BSc in Environmental Policy, BSc in International Relations and BSc in Social Policy. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

An introduction to the study of politics and political theory through the thought and texts of some of the most important western political theorists. A study of the ideas of some of the major political theorists from the ancient Greeks to the 20th Century. Topics will include theories of human nature, the origin of government and law, man's relation to society and the state, the rise, development and comparison of different constitutions (democracy, monarchy, republic etc), the nature of just and unjust government, the relation between the spiritual and the secular in thinkers, classical and modern natural law and natural rights, the basis of political obligation, the idea of social contract and the theory of utility. The thinkers discussed this year will include Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, J S Mill, Hegel, Marx, and Rawls..

20 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the MT. 20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT. 2 hours of lectures and 2 hours of classes in the ST.

Students are required to write two 1500 word essays in the Michaelmas Term and two 1500 word essays in the Lent Term. Specific reading lists referring to modern commentaries and historical contexts will be available on the Moodle page at the beginning of the course.  

D. Boucher and P. Kelly, Political Thinkers: From Socrates to the Present (Oxford 2009). See also Plato, Republic, Aristotle, Politics, Cicero, The Republic and On Duties, Augustine, City of God, Aquinas, Political Writings, Machiavelli, The Prince, Hobbes, Leviathan, Locke, 2nd Treatise of Government, Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality and The Social Contract, J S Mill, Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women, and On Liberty,  Hegel, The Philosophy of Right, Marx, Selected Writings (Ed D McLellan, Rawls, A Theory of Justice.

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.

Candidates will be expected to answer four questions from a total of sixteen.