Classics of Social and Political Thought III

*Taught Online for Summer 2021*  The Classics of Social and Political Thought sequence serves to introduce students to some seminal texts, issues, and problems in the history of social and political theory. Issues we will address this quarter include: the emergence of a mass-based social order and possibilities for ameliorating the excesses of such an order, the status of the individual and the possibility of human excellence in mass societies, the relationship between Christianity and the modern social and political order, radical critiques of liberal-capitalist and mass-based social orders, differing notions of emancipation, the social consequences of the death of God, the conditions for and logic of totalitarianism, and the possibilities for and limitations on genuine human agency and political responsibility.

At least as important as the foregoing, this course also seeks to develop the vital skills of thoughtful criticism, interpretation, and analysis, and their expression in both the written and spoken word. These operations should be directed not only at the texts assigned but also at the presumptions and biases you bring to the texts and at the claims made by the other members of our discussion, including the instructor.