Western Political Thought: From Plato to Marx

Cover
Western Political Thought
Copyright
Contents
Preface
Introduction
	Reading Classical Texts of Political Thought: Methodological Issues
		The Textual Method
		The Social Context Method
		Alternative Approaches
		Conclusion
		Notes
The Greek City-State: Democratic Institutions in Athens
	Democracy in Athens
	Political institutions of Athenian Democracy
	The Sociological Basis of Athenian Democracy
	Notes
	Reading List
	Central Themes
Plato (427–347 BCE): Justice and Reason
	Socrates and the Eudaemonist Axiom
	The Socratic Elenchus
	Plato’s Political Theory
	Platonic Rationalism
	Plato’s later Political Dialogues
	Moving Beyond Plato
	Notes
	Reading List
	Central Themes
Aristotle (384–322 BCE): Moral Action and the Best Constitution
	A Theory of Moral Action
	From Moral Theory to Political Philosophy
	The Polity and Aristotle’s Classification of Constitutions
	Aristotelian Teleology
	Problems in Aristotle’s Political Theory
	Notes
	Reading List
	Central Themes
Augustine and Thomas Aquinas: Christian Political Thought in the Middle Ages
	Saint Augustine
	Thomas Aquinas
	The Place of Politics in Christian Thought
	A Conception of Law
	The Conciliar Movement
	Notes
	Reading List
	Central Themes
Machiavelli (1469–1527): Humanism and Republicanism
	The Republican city-States of Italy
	The Intellectual Context
	Princely Virtu and Fortuna
	Civic Virtu and Liberty
	Civic Virtu and Religion
	Problems with Machiavelli’s Political Theory
	Notes
	Reading List
	Central Themes
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679): Contract as the Basis of Political Obligation
	The Historical Context
	The Economic Conflict
	The Religious Conflict
	The Political Conflict
	Hobbes on Human Nature
	The State of Nature
	The Laws of Nature
	The Social Contract and the Creation of the State
	Sovereignty
	Hobbes on Liberty
	Hobbes’s Theory of Political Obligation
	Some Problems in Hobbes’s Theory
	Notes
	Reading List
	Central Themes
John Locke (1632–1704): Theological Premises and Liberal Limits on Government
	Paternal Authority and Political Power
	Freedom and Equality in the State of Nature
	Private Property in the State of Nature
	Civil/Political Society
	The Limits on Government
	The Philosophical and Religious Basis of Limited Government
	The Right to Resistance
	The Limits of Locke’s Liberalism
	Notes
	Reading List
	Central Themes
Rousseau (1712–1778): The General Will and Moral and Political Liberty
	Rousseau and Romanticism
	Natural Differences and Social Inequalities
	Social Institutions and Moral Man
	The General will
	Rousseau’s Paradoxes
	The Social Contract Tradition
	Notes
	Reading List
	Central Themes
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832): Representative Government as the Maximizer of Utility
	Utilitarian Principles
	Bentham’s Political Philosophy
	The Panopticon: Surveillance and Choice
	Problems with Bentham’s Theory
	Notes
	Reading List
	Central Themes
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873): The Benefits of the Liberty of Men and Women for Society
	An Equal Freedom for Women
	The Importance of Individual Liberty
	Representative Government
	Beyond Utilitarianism
	Fault Lines
	Notes
	Reading List
	Central Themes
G.W.F. Hegel (1770–1831): The Social Conditions for a Non-Contractual Theory of Freedom
	The Consciousness of Freedom
	The Embodiment of Freedom
	Critical Responses to Hegel
	Notes
	Reading List
	Central Themes
Karl Marx (1818–1883): The State and Class Struggle
	Marx on the Human Species
	Marx’s Theory of Alienation
	From Alienated Labour to Commodity Fetishism
	Marx’s Theory of Exploitation
	Historical Materialism
	Marx’s Theory of Class Struggle
	Marx’s Theory of the State and Revolution
	Marx in the New Millennium
	Notes
	Reading List
	Central Themes
Afterword
About the Author
Index