STORIA DELLE DOTTRINE POLITICHE
Academic Year 2018/2019 - 1° YearCredit Value: 9
Scientific field: SPS/02 - History of political thought
Taught classes: 63 hours
Term / Semester: 2°
ENGLISH VERSION
Course Structure
The course is structured in lectures and seminars with the use of PPT presentation, classroom readings of the main classics of political thought (in some cases with visual audio support) and class discussion.The assessment of learning is through an interview that will focus on the whole course program, providing a minimum of two general questions and two more specific ones, up to a maximum of five questions. Students will have to demonstrate that they have acquired the basic notions of the history of modern and contemporary political thought, learning to use the first basic lexical and conceptual tools for the understanding of the theoretical aspects that characterize individuals and society in the various forms of government.
Detailed Course Content
The course aims to provide a broad and general framework of the issues related to the history of political thought in modern and contemporary age. The main concepts of the lexicon of politics will be examined, such as "State", "Sovereignty", "Freedom", "Democracy", to better understand how these conceptual categories vary in the thought of the main interpreters of the history of ideas at different times. Students will be able to understand the historical and theoretical roots of modern democracies, gaining greater awareness of the problems related to the democratic life of the states.
| The doctrine of absolutism | 1. J.J Chevallier, Le grandi opere del pensiero politico | |
| Machiavelli | 1. J.J Chevallier, Le grandi opere del pensiero politico | |
| De Principatibus | 2. N. Machiavelli, Il Principe | |
| Jean Bodin and the theory of Sovereignty | 1. J.J Chevallier, Le grandi opere del pensiero politico | |
| Thomas Hobbes and the "Leviathan" | 1. J.J Chevallier, Le grandi opere del pensiero politico | |
| The political thought of John Locke | 1. J.J Chevallier, Le grandi opere del pensiero politico | |
| Montesquieu and "The spirit of laws" | 1. J.J Chevallier, Le grandi opere del pensiero politico | |
| Sovereignity and liberty in Rousseau | 1. J.J Chevallier, Le grandi opere del pensiero politico | |
| Tocqueville and democracy | 1. J.J Chevallier, Le grandi opere del pensiero politico | |
| "On Libety" by John Stuart Mill | 3. J.Stuart-Mill, Saggio sulla libertà | |
| Democracy and its contradictions | 4. G. Orsina, La democrazia del narcisismo |
Textbook Information
1. J.J CHEVALLIER , Le grandi opere del pensiero politico, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1998/ A. Ryan, On Politics: A history of political thought from Herodotus to the present, Liveright, 2012.
2. N. MACHIAVELLI, Il Principe, ed. consigliata a cura di Giorgio Inglese, ET, Einaudi, 2014/ N. Machiavelli, The Prince, chap. 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 15, 18, 25.
3. J. STUART MILL, Saggio sulla libertà, Il Saggiatore, 2014/ J. STUART MILL, On Liberty,
4. G. ORSINA, La democrazia del narcisismo, Marsilio, Venezia, 2018, chap. 1 and 2