Module POL1025 for 2018/9
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POL1025: Classical Political Thought
This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.
Module Aims
This module aims to:
- introduce you to the practice and tradition of political theorising in the West from the Greeks to the early Christian period through the study of selected texts by major thinkers;
- introduce you to a tradition of textual interpretation and commentary connected with this tradition and some of the major interpretations offered;
- equip you to critically assess such interpretations against the texts yourselves; and
- understand the significance and contributions of the major cultural components of that tradition, namely classical antiquity and early Christianity.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
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Module-Specific Skills | 1. demonstrate understanding of the major political theories of the Western tradition between Socrates and Augustine; 2. demonstrate the ability to understand, summarise and interpret complex and abstract arguments in politics; 3. summarise and precis a political theory; |
Discipline-Specific Skills | 4. identify and discuss the major concepts deployed in a theory and their argumentative articulation; 5. engage in both sympathetic interpretation and reasoned criticism of such theories, and to evaluate different interpretations in the light of appropriate evidence; |
Personal and Key Skills | 6. evaluate ideas, arguments and texts; and 7. develop and assess communication and peer evaluation skills. |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover the following topics:
Socrates on knowledge, virtue and Athenian democracy
Plato’s conception of justice
Plato’s theory of Forms
Plato’s Ideal State
Aristotle and the state as a product of nature
Aristotle on citizenship and constitutions
Epicurus’s and the Stoics’ critique of Greek political theory
Cicero and the roman reception of Greek thought
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
---|---|---|
26.5 | 123.5 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
Category | Hours of study time | Description |
---|---|---|
Scheduled Learning and Teaching activity | 16.5 | 11 x 1.5 hour lectures |
Scheduled Learning and Teaching activity | 10 | 10 x 1 hour tutorials |
Guided independent study | 73.5 | Preparation for and completion of summative assessments. |
Guided Independent study | 50 | Reading and preparation for Tutorials |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Basic reading:
Socrates: The Apology
Plato: Republic
Aristotle: The Politics
Cicero: On the Commonwealth, On Duties
Inwood, B. (1997). Hellenistic Philosophy: Introductory Readings. Indiana: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
ELE – http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/