Western Political Thought: From Plato to Marx

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Cover Western Political Thought Copyright Contents Preface Introduction Reading Classical Texts of Political Thought: Methodological Issues The Textual Method The Social Context Method Alternative Approaches Conclusion Notes The Greek City-State: Democratic Institutions in Athens Democracy in Athens Political institutions of Athenian Democracy The Sociological Basis of Athenian Democracy Notes Reading List Central Themes Plato (427–347 BCE): Justice and Reason Socrates and the Eudaemonist Axiom The Socratic Elenchus Plato’s Political Theory Platonic Rationalism Plato’s later Political Dialogues Moving Beyond Plato Notes Reading List Central Themes Aristotle (384–322 BCE): Moral Action and the Best Constitution A Theory of Moral Action From Moral Theory to Political Philosophy The Polity and Aristotle’s Classification of Constitutions Aristotelian Teleology Problems in Aristotle’s Political Theory Notes Reading List Central Themes Augustine and Thomas Aquinas: Christian Political Thought in the Middle Ages Saint Augustine Thomas Aquinas The Place of Politics in Christian Thought A Conception of Law The Conciliar Movement Notes Reading List Central Themes Machiavelli (1469–1527): Humanism and Republicanism The Republican city-States of Italy The Intellectual Context Princely Virtu and Fortuna Civic Virtu and Liberty Civic Virtu and Religion Problems with Machiavelli’s Political Theory Notes Reading List Central Themes Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679): Contract as the Basis of Political Obligation The Historical Context The Economic Conflict The Religious Conflict The Political Conflict Hobbes on Human Nature The State of Nature The Laws of Nature The Social Contract and the Creation of the State Sovereignty Hobbes on Liberty Hobbes’s Theory of Political Obligation Some Problems in Hobbes’s Theory Notes Reading List Central Themes John Locke (1632–1704): Theological Premises and Liberal Limits on Government Paternal Authority and Political Power Freedom and Equality in the State of Nature Private Property in the State of Nature Civil/Political Society The Limits on Government The Philosophical and Religious Basis of Limited Government The Right to Resistance The Limits of Locke’s Liberalism Notes Reading List Central Themes Rousseau (1712–1778): The General Will and Moral and Political Liberty Rousseau and Romanticism Natural Differences and Social Inequalities Social Institutions and Moral Man The General will Rousseau’s Paradoxes The Social Contract Tradition Notes Reading List Central Themes Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832): Representative Government as the Maximizer of Utility Utilitarian Principles Bentham’s Political Philosophy The Panopticon: Surveillance and Choice Problems with Bentham’s Theory Notes Reading List Central Themes John Stuart Mill (1806–1873): The Benefits of the Liberty of Men and Women for Society An Equal Freedom for Women The Importance of Individual Liberty Representative Government Beyond Utilitarianism Fault Lines Notes Reading List Central Themes G.W.F. Hegel (1770–1831): The Social Conditions for a Non-Contractual Theory of Freedom The Consciousness of Freedom The Embodiment of Freedom Critical Responses to Hegel Notes Reading List Central Themes Karl Marx (1818–1883): The State and Class Struggle Marx on the Human Species Marx’s Theory of Alienation From Alienated Labour to Commodity Fetishism Marx’s Theory of Exploitation Historical Materialism Marx’s Theory of Class Struggle Marx’s Theory of the State and Revolution Marx in the New Millennium Notes Reading List Central Themes Afterword About the Author Index