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Introduction to the History of Modern Political Thought

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Introduction to the History of Modern Political Thought Istvan Hont Introduction to the History of Modern Poiiticai Thought: L From Locke to Hume Michelmas Term 1990, first four weeks Mondays and Wednesdays 10.00 History Faculty, West Road, (For History Trlpos Part I, Paper 19; Part II, Paper 3; and SPS Tripos Part II, Paper 17) [Part II of this course, 'Rousseau and Smith' will be given on Mondays and Wednesdays 10:00 In the second four weeks of Michaelmas 1990, Part III, 'From Kant to J.S. Mill' In Lent Term 1991, on Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:00] Schedule of lectures: 1./ 15 October, Monday: Introduction: The Idioms of Modern Political Thought 2./ 17 October, Wednesday: Locke: Property, Civilisation and Consent 3./ 22 October, Monday: Locke: The Legitimate Polity 4./ 24 October, Wednesday: Locke: Trust, Toleration and Resistance 5./ 29 October, Monday: Hume: Justice as an Artflclal Virtue 6./ 31 October, Wednesday: Hume: The Politics of Commercial Society 7./ 5 November, Monday: Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws and the Principles of Government 8./ 7 November, Wednesday: Montesquieu: Despotism, Civilisation and Doux Commerce Texts on which questions will be set in Section A of the Trioos papers: John Locke, Two Treatises of Government David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature. Book III. Montesquieu, The Soririt of Laws, trans, A. Cohler, B. Miller and H. Stone Past TriPOS Questions addressed to these texts f 1985-90): Locke Were Locke's Two Treatises self-contained and self-explanatory? What do Locke's argument for toleration tell us about his general political theory? 'One of the clearest legitimations of revolution In English political thought'. How far can this be said of Locke's Two Treatises^ What were the limits on revolutionary activity In the Two Treatises^ Can we elucidate Locke's arguments In the Two Treatises by studying his other works? What were the grounds for revolutionary activity In Locke's Two Treatise^ Why did Locke lay so much emphasis on the distinction between society and governmental power? Why did Locke make property so central to the argument of the Second TreatiseR Consider Locke's Two Treatises as an Intervention In the 'Exclusion Controversy'. Do you find Locke's elimination of consent from the explanation of the origin of Individual property convincing? Hume 'What corresponds In Hume's politics to his dislike of religion Is a distaste for all forms of political enthusiasm'. Discuss. 'Hume simply replaced the social contract with social conventions'. Discuss. What effect did Hume's atheism have on his political theory? What Is sceptical about Hume's political thinking? What Is the significance of Hume's claim that 'politics may be reduced to a science'? 8 Forbes, Duncan, 'Natural Law and the Scottish Enlightenment', in R.H.Campbell and A.S.Sklnner (eds.), ThQ Origins ami Nature of the Scottish Enlightenment. (Edinburgh, 1982), pp.186-204, Moore, James, 'The Two Systems of Francis Hutcheson: On the Origins of the Scottish Enlightenment' in M.A. Stewart (ed.). Studies In the Philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment (Oxford, 1990), pp. 37-59. Haakonssen, Knud, 'Natural Law and the Scottish Enlightenment' in D. Jory and J.C. Stewart-Robertson (eds.), Man and Nature/ L'homme et la nature, vol. 4 (1985), pp. 47-80. Haakonssen, Knud, 'Natural Jurisprudence in the Scottish Enlightenment: Summary of an Interpretation' in D.N. MacCormick (ed.). Enlightenment. Rights and Revolutions (Aberdeen, 1989), pp. 36-49. Pocock, J.G.A., 'Virtues, rights, and manners: A model for historians of political thought' in Pocock, Virtue. Commerce and Libertv: Essavs on Political Thought and Historv. Chieflv in the Eighteenth Centurv (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 37-50. Pocock, J.G.A., 'Cambridge paradigms and Scotch philosophers: a study of the relation between the civic humanist anbd the civil jurisprudential interpretation of eighteenth-century social thought' in I. Hont and M. Ignatieff (eds.). Wealth and Virtue: THe Shaping of Political Economv in the Scottish Enlightenment (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 235-52. Mackie, J.L., Hume's Moral Theorv. (London, 1980), Chs. 4-7. Norton, David Fate, David Hume: Cpmmon Sense Moralist. Sceptical Metaphyalcian, (Princeton, 1982), Chs. 1-3, 5-6. Wright, John P., The Sceptical Realism of David Hume (Manchester, 12983), Ch. 5. Ardai, Pdll S., Passion and Value in Hume's "Treatise" (Edinburgh, 1966), Chs. 6-8. Livingston, Donald w., Hume's Philosophy of Common Lifa (Chicago, 1984), Chs. 7- 12. Phiilipson, Nicholas, 'Hume as a Moralist: A Social Historian's Perspective' in S. Brown (ed.). Philosophers of the Enlightenment (Hassock, Sussex, 1979), pp. 140- 61. James T. King, 'The Place of the Language of Morals in Hume's Second "Enquiry" in D.W.Livingston and J.T.King, Hume: A Re-Evaluation, (New York,1976), pp. 343- 61. Moore, James, 'Hume's Theory of Justice and Property', Political Studies 24(1976), 114-19. Harrison, Jonathan, Hume's Theorv of Justice. (Oxford, 1981) Whelan, Frederick G., Order and Artifice in Hume's Political Philosoohv (Princeton, 1985), Chs. 4-5. Cottle, Charles E., 'Justice as Artificial Virtue in Hume's "Treatise'". Journal of the Historv of Ideas. 40(1979), 457-66. Castiglione, Dario, 'Hume's conventionalist anaiysis of justice', Annali delia Fondazione Luiqi Einaudi. 21(1987), 139-73. King, James, 'Hume's Classical Theory of Justice', Hume Studies. 7(1981), 32-54. Gauthier, David, 'David Hume, Contractarian', Phiiosoohicai Review. 88(1979), 3-38. Hayek, F.A., 'The Legal and Political Philosophy of David Hume', In V.C.Chappell (ed.), Hume. (Garden City, N.J., 1966), pp.335-360 Dickinson, H.T., Libertv and Property: Political Ideoloqv in Eiqhteenth-Centurv Britain (London, 1977) Robertson, John, The Scottish Enlightenment and the Militia Issue (Edinburgh, 1985), Chs. 2-4. Wolin, Sheldon 8., 'Hume and Conservatlvism', in D.W.Livingston and J.T.King, Hume: A Re-Evaiuatlon. (New York, 1976), pp. 239-56. Adair, Douglass, '"That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science": David Hume, James Madison and the Tenth "Federalist"', in D.W.Livingston and J.T.King, Hume: A Re- Evaluation. (New York, 1976), pp.404-417 Pocock, J.G.A., 'Hume and the American Revolution: The Dying Thoughts of a North Briton', in Pocock, Virtue. Commerce and Liberty: Essays on Political Thought and History. Chieflv in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 125-142. Teichgraeber, Richard F., 'Free Trade' and Moral Philosophy: Rethinking the Sources of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" (Durham, N.C., 1986), Ch. 3. Davie, George, 'Berkeley, Hume, and the Central Problem of Scottish Philosophy', in D.F.Norton, N.Capaidi and W.L.Robison (eds.), McGili Hume Studies. (San Diego, Austin Hill, 1979), pp.43-62 Popkin, Richard H., 'David Hume: His Pyrrhonism and His Critique of Pyrrhonism', in V.C.Chappeli, Hume. (Garden City, N.J., 1966), pp. 53-98 Barfoot, Michael, 'Hume and the Culture of Science in the Early Eighteenth Century' in M.A. Stewart (ed.). Studies in the Phiiosophv of the Scottish Enlightenment (Oxford, 1990), pp. 151-90. Popkin, Richard H., 'Hume: Philosophical Versus Prophetic Historian' in K.R. Merrii and R.W. Shahan (eds.), David Hume: Manv-sided Genius (Norman, Oklahoma, 1976), pp. 83-95. Haakonssen, Knud, The Science of a Legislator: The Natural Jurisprudence of David Hume and Adam Smith (Cambridge, 1981), Ch. 2. Miller, David, Philosophy and Ideology in Hume'g Political Thought, (Oxford, 1981) Mossner, E.C., The Life of David Hume (Oxford, 1970) Montesquieu Shkiar, Judith N., Montesquieu (Oxford, 1987) 10 Keohane, Nannerl O., Philosophy and the State in France: The Renaissance to the Enlightenment (Princeton, 1980), Ch. 14. Hirschmann, Albert O., The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph (Princeton, 1977). Berlin, Isaiah, 'Montesquieu' in Berlin, Against the Current: Essavs in the History of Ideas (Oxford, 1981), pp. 130-161. Plamenatz, John, 'Montesquieu' in Plamenatz, Man and Society, vol. 1 (London, 1963), pp. 253-298. Cranston, Maurice, 'Montesquieu' in Cranston, Philosophers and Pamphleteers: Political Theorists of the Enlightenment (Oxford, 1986), pp. 9-35. Shackleton, Robert, Montesquieu: A Critical Biography (Oxford, 1961) Pangle, Thomas L., Montesouieiu's Philosophy of Liberalism: A Commentary on 'The Spirit Of the Laws'(Chicago, 1973). Baker, Keith M., 'Public Opinion as Political Invention' in Baker, Inventing the French Revolution: Essays on French Political Culture inb the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 167-99. Ellis, Harold E., 'Montesquieu's Modern Politics: "The Spirit of the Laws" and the Problem of Modern Monarchy in Old Regime France', History of Political Thought 10(1989), 665-700. Keohane, Nanneri O., 'Virtuous Republics and Glorious Monarchies: Two Models in Montesquieu's Political Thought', Political Studies 20(1972), 383-96. Price, E.H., 'Voltai re and Montesquieu's Three Principles of Government', Publications of the Modern Language Association 57(1942), 1046-52. Richter, Melvin, 'Despotism' in P.H. Wiener (ed.). Dictionary of the History of Ideas, vol. 2 (New York, 1973), pp. 1-18. Richter, Melvin, 'Montesquieu, the Politics of Language, and the Language of Polities', Historv of Political Thought 10(1989), 71-88. Hundert, E.J. and Nelles, P., 'Liberty and Theatrical Space in Montesquieu's Political Theory: THe Poetics of Public Life in "The Persian Letters'", Political Theory 17(1989), 223-46. Riley, Patrick, The General Will Before Rousseau: The Transformation of the Divine into the civio (Princeton, 1986), ch. 4. Althusser, Louis, 'Montesquieu: Politics and History' in Aithusser, Politics and Historv: Montesquieu. Rousseau. Hegel and Marx, trans. B. Brewster (London, 1972), pp. 9-109. Manicas, P.T., 'Montesquieu and the Eighteenth-Century Vision of the State', Historv of Political Thought 2(1981), 313-17. Huiiiung, Mark, Montesquieu and the Old Regime (Berkeley, 1976). Waddicor, Mark H., Montesquieu and the Philosophy of Natural Law (The Hague, 1970). 11 Baum, Alan, Montesquieu and Social Theory (Oxford, 1979) Rosow, Stephen J., 'Commerce, Power and Justice: Montesquieu on International Polities', Review of Politics 46(1984), 346-66.
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