Political Theory - Master Syllabus
Introduction | Areas of Study | Field and Examination Requirements |
Master Syllabus |
Faculty |
Dissertation Prospectus Guide
Section I: History of Political Thought
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
- Sophocles, Antigone
- Aristophanes, Clouds
- Plato, Republic, Laws, Apology, Crito, Gorgias
- Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Politics
- Augustine, City of God, Confessions
- Cicero, Republic, On Duties, Laws
- Aquinas, Summa Theologica (Treatise on Law)
- Machiavelli, The Prince, Discourses
- Luther, Secular Authority
- Calvin, On God and Political Duty
- More, Utopia
- Hobbes, Leviathan
- Locke, Second Treatise of Government, A Letter Concerning Toleration
- Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws, Persian Letters
- Rousseau, Discourses and Social Contract
- Constant, "The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns"
- Kant, "What is Enlightenment?" "Perpetual Peace," Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
- Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, Wealth of Nations
- Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
- Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- Madison, Hamilton, Jay, The Federalist Papers
- Paine, Common Sense, Rights of Man
- Tocqueville, Democracy in America
- Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience"
- Hegel, Philosophy of Right, "Lordship and Bondage" in The Phenomenology of Spirit
- Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation
- Mill, On Liberty, On Representative Government, On Subjection of Women,Utilitarianism
- Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Genealogy of Morals
- Marx, "On the Jewish Question," "Thesis on Feuerbach," Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, "The German Ideology," The Communist Manifesto
- Lenin, Imperialism, State and Revolution, What is to Be Done
- Goldman, "Anarchism"
- Gramsci, Prison Notebooks
- Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
- Freud, Civilization and its Discontents
- Schmitt, The Concept of the Political
- Dewey, The Public and its Problems
- Adorno and Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment
- Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Representation," "Critique of Violence," "Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century"
- Heidegger, Being and Time, The Question Concerning Technology
- Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
- Isaiah Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty
- Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
- Arendt, The Human Condition, Between Past and Future, On Revolution, On Violence
- Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement
- Habermas, Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Between Facts and Norms
- Foucault, Discipline and Punish, Power/Knowledge, "Governmentality"
Section II: Contemporary Theorists and Current Controversies
- Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer
- Benjamin Barber, Strong Democracy
- Seyla Benhabib, Situating the Self
- Wendy Brown, States of Injury
- Judith Butler, Gender Trouble
- Conal Condren, The Status and Appraisal of Classic Texts
- William Connolly, Identity/Difference
- Robert Dahl, Democracy and Its Critics
- Jacques Derrida, "White Mythology", "Declarations of Independence," "Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences," "Le Difference"
- Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History," "What is an Author?" The Archeology of Knowledge
- Nancy Fraser, Unruly Practices
- Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method
- Clifford Geertz, Interpretation of Cultures
- Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice
- John Gunnell, Political Theory: Tradition and Interpretation, The Descent of Political Theory
- David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity
- Bonnie Honig, Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics
- Max Horkheimer, "What is Critical Theory?"
- George Kateb, Inner Ocean
- Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship
- Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy
- Steven Luke, Power: A Radical View
- Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition
- Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue
- CB Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism
- Charles Mills, The Racial Contract
- Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia
- Michael Oakeshott, "Rationalism in Politics"
- Susan Okin, Justice Gender, and the Family
- Carole Pateman, Participation and Democratic Theory, The Sexual Contract
- Philip Pettit, Republicanism
- J.G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment, "Languages and Their Implications: The Transformation of the Study of Political Thought"
- Karl Popper, The Poverty of Historicism
- Richard Rorty, Philosophy and Social Hope
- Michael Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice
- Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Liberty Before Liberalism, "Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas"
- Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History, "What is Political Philosophy?" Persecution and the Art of Writing
- Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self, "The Politics of Recognition," "Neutrality in Political Science," "Interpretation and the Sciences of Man"
- Michael Walzer, Spheres of Justice
- Max Weber, The Methodology of the Social Sciences
- Peter Winch, The Idea of a Social Science
- Sheldon Wolin, Politics and Vision, "Political Theory as a Vocation"
- Iris Marion Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference
- Students also might want to look at the following essays in Political Theory 30, no. 4 (2002): Kateb, "The Adequacy of the Canon;" Cavarero "Politicizing Theory;" Tully, "Political Philosophy as Critical Activity;" Brown, "At the Edge;" Shapiro, "Problems, Methods, and Theories in the Study of Politics"
updated 11/06
