Core Autumn Course - 946M1
30 credits
Convenor: Gordon Finlayson

Go to the Study Direct site for this course (available to Sussex students)

This course introduces students to a number of key figures in social and political thought from the early modern period to contemporary postcolonial theorists. It is taught by a number of tutors from different disciplines and the approach taken in the individual sessions may vary, but all will focus on four central aspects of social and political thought: the nature of human association, the grounds of political legitimacy, the nature of political obligation, and conceptions of the self. The material is arranged chronologically, and as term progresses, we will increasingly look for the critical reception of earlier ideas by later writers. It is designed to be exemplary, rather than exhaustive.

Course outline 2011

Text and Critique in Social and Political Thought

Week 1:   Introduction
Week 2:   Aristotle (Gordon Finlayson)
Week 3:   Hobbes (Richard Whatmore)
Week 4:   Rousseau (Richard Whatmore)
Week 5:   Hegel (Andrew Chitty)
Week 6:   Marx (Andrew Chitty)
Week 7:   Georg Simmel (Darrow Schecter)
Week 8:   Critique of Everyday Life: Lefebvre and Castoriadis (Darrow Schecter)
Week 9:   Jürgen Habermas: Democracy and Legitimacy (Gordon Finlayson)
Week 10:  Giorgio Agamben: Homo Sacer and the State of Exception:  (Gordon Finlayson)

Preliminary reading
Hampsher-Monk, I. (1992) A History of Modern Political Thought