Оглавление
Pete Woodcock. Political Theory
CONTENTS
Guide
Pages
Dedication
Political Theory. A Beginner’s Guide
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
KEY QUESTIONS
Purpose of this book
Why should we bother with the history of political thought?
Reasons to study the history of political thought
How to use this book
Contents of this book
What is the nature of politics?
Is humanity nasty or nice?
Why should I obey the state?
Is democracy the best form of government?
When can my freedom be restricted?
What would a just society look like?
Why have women been ignored in the history of political thought?
When is revolution against government justified?
Conclusion: Ideologies
Methodology
Works cited
Notes
2 What is the nature of politics?
KEY QUESTIONS
Chapter overview
Socrates and the examined life
Machiavelli and glory
Agathocles vs Borgia
Utilitarianism and happiness
Kant, Walzer, morality and dirty hands
Dirty hands
Weber
Conclusion
Works cited
Text reading activities
3 Is humanity nasty or nice?
KEY QUESTIONS
Chapter overview
Thomas Hobbes
The state of nature
The nature of humanity
John Locke
Locke’s natural law
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Natural goodness
Rousseau and morals
Corruption by society
Friedrich Nietzsche
Conclusion
Works cited
Text reading activity
4 Why should I obey the state?
KEY QUESTIONS
Chapter overview
Hobbes and obedience
Hobbes’s contract
Hobbes’s contract
Powers of the sovereign
Stop complaining!
The contemporary state
Hobbes and the modern state
John Locke’s critique
Critics of social contract theory
Rousseau and Patemen: obligation and participation
Rousseau on representation
Conclusion
Works cited
Text reading activity
5 Is democracy the best form of government?
KEY QUESTIONS
Chapter overview
Athenian beginnings
Rousseau and Montesquieu
Rousseau
The general will
Montesquieu
The role of the representative: Edmund Burke
All men created equal?
Democracy in America
The tyranny of the majority
Conclusion
Works cited
Text reading activity
6 When can my freedom be restricted?
KEY QUESTIONS
Chapter overview
Thomas Hobbes and freedom
Two concepts of liberty
Berlin’s critics
Mill’s Harm Principle
Conclusion
Works cited
Text reading activities
7 What would a just society look like?
KEY QUESTIONS
Chapter overview
Plato: justice as the harmonious state
The allegory of the cave
Aristotle: justice as happiness and the general good
Locke: natural rights and property
Hume
Rawls: Justice as fairness
Nozick
Conclusion
Works cited
Text reading activities
8 Why have women been ignored in the history of political thought?
KEY QUESTIONS
Chapter overview
Women in the history of political thought
Rousseau
Mary Wollstonecraft
John Stuart Mill
Women and slavery
Iris Marion Young
Conclusion
Works cited
9 When is revolution against government justified?
KEY QUESTIONS
Chapter overview
Burke vs Paine
French versus American revolution
Paine on rights
Capitalism
Karl Marx
How ideas come about
Conclusion
Works cited
Text reading activities
10 Conclusion: Ideologies
KEY QUESTIONS
Introduction
Liberalism
Conservatism
Socialism
Applying the ideologies
Conclusion
Works cited
Index. A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
V
W
Y
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Raphs and Issy
Whilst writing this book I have sought refuge in the University of Huddersfield’s library, the Leeds Library, and Lindley Library (Kirklees), and have benefitted greatly from the expertise of the staff of those institutions, and the tranquillity of the surroundings.
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You can still visit Bentham to this day. Bentham played a role in founding University College London, and left his body to the college. His mummified remains are displayed in the main reception area.
Other utilitarians include father and son team James and John Stuart Mill and Henry Sidgwick. It still has proponents in the contemporary world, with the works of Australian philosopher Peter Singer, who uses the idea to support vegetarianism and giving all of our disposable income to charity.
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