Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL1026: Early Modern Political Thought

This module descriptor refers to the 2020/1 academic year.

Overview

NQF Level 4
Credits 15 ECTS Value 7.5
Term(s) and duration

This module ran during term 2 (11 weeks)

Academic staff

Dr Ross Carroll (Convenor)

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

Available via distance learning

No

This module will introduce you to the key works of some of the most important thinkers in the early-modern period, spanning from the Italian Renaissance to the French Revolution. These will include Niccoló Machiavelli (1469–1527), Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), John Locke (1632–1704), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) and Edmund Burke (1729–1797). You will be encouraged to study these works from a variety of perspectives, including: as addressing problems peculiar to the historical context in which they were written; as abstract theoretical explorations of some of the key concepts in politics, such as the state, sovereignty and liberty; and as important episodes in a narrative of the development of modernity that shapes how we understand both the history and identity of politics today. These perspectives need not be antithetical and the scope of the course encompasses all three.

Module created

01/12/2013

Last revised

16/07/2020