POLS 101. Modern Political Theory (TH)

In this seminar, we will study the construction of the modern liberal state and capitalism through the works of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, and then, in more detail, we will examine the greatest critics of the modern age-Marx, Nietzsche, Jung, and Foucault. Marx demands that we take history and class conflict seriously in political theory. Nietzsche connects the evolution of human instinct to the politics of good and evil for the sake of political transformation. Jung establishes psychology and mythology as foundations for politics, and Foucault uses all three of these critics to question the modern subject and the disciplines of power and knowledge that construct selves and politics in a postmodern age.
Social sciences.
2 credits.
Eligible for INTP
Fall 2024. Berger.
Fall 2025. Berger.
Catalog chapter: Political Science
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/political-science

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