Module POL1026 for 2018/9
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POL1026: Early Modern Political Thought
This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
1) Machiavelli’s ideas on states, politics and republics;
2) Hobbes’s science of politics and conceptions of the state of nature, contract and sovereignty;
3) Locke’s ideas on the law and right of nature, property, the limits of obedience and the right to rebellion;
4) Rousseau’s critique of modern society, account of inequality, and ideas on liberty, sovereignty and contract;
5) Burke’s critique of the French Revolution and defence of conservatism.
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 essays and exam |
| Guided Independent study | 50 | Reading for tutorials |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
ELE – http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/
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.
Primary sources:
Wootton D. (1996) Modern Political Thought: Readings from Machiavelli to Nietzsche , Cambridge, MA: Hackett.
Paine, T. *Kuklick , B. ed. (2000) Political Writings, Cambridge University Press
Wollstonecraft M., Botting, E. H. ed. (2014) A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, (New
Haven: Yale University Press
Secondary reading:
Hampsher-Monk, I. (1992) A History of Modern Political Thought: Major Political Thinkers from Hobbes to Marx , Oxford: Blackwell.
Ball, T. Reappraising Political Theory: Revisionist Studies in the History of Political Thought (Oxford, 1994).
Ryan, A. On Politics (Penguins, 2014)
