The course History of Political Thought offers a non-exhaustive overview of political theories and philosophies from antiquity until the first half of the twentieth century. We will follow some of the highlights of Western political philosophy, commonly referred to as “The Canon”. In addition to these thinkers we will cover a selection of philosophies that are often excluded from this canon, but are nevertheless important for understanding political philosophy today. As such we will not only trace the highlights of Western political thought by looking into scholars such as Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Marx, Arendt and Foucault, but also attempt to move beyond this by looking into other strands of thought such as Confucianism, Ubuntu and indigenous philosophies. We will explore several original texts from these thinkers and schools of thought in order to grasp the development of political philosophy to political science and ideology.

Some of the issues that will be discussed are: the nature and meaning of democracy; possible justifications for political authority; competing conceptions of nature in political theory; the role of citizens in government; the colonial bias in Western philosophies; the different understandings of political action; the moral-political limits to individual freedom, as well as the difference between acceptable and unacceptable exercise of power.