This module will introduce students to key debates in modern social and political thought, through a close examination of seminal texts by Thomas Hobbes, Baruch de Spinoza and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
The module will give students a deeper understanding of our intellectual and socio-political history, as well as a more profound perspective on the still active debates stemming from the positions taken by these philosophers – principally, concerning the nature of freedom, power, and democracy, and the role of the state.
We will analyse critically the different answers given to these questions by Hobbes, Spinoza and Rousseau, and consider whether their philosophical accounts of the state and society provide us with a useful means of engaging with contemporary social and political issues.
- Module Supervisor: Plamen Andreev