Module description
This module explores the history of social and political thought, focusing on an alternating set of formative texts and their authors. Global early modernity and the 'Age of Discovery' saw the rise of various imperial powers, within and beyond Europe, as well as rapid economic transformation. The onset of modernity and the 'Age of Enlightenment' further strengthened the secular state and witnessed the sustained critique of inherited political and moral ideas. These developments spawned new works of political, moral and social philosophy that often became famous in their own day and have intrigued intellectual historians and philosophers ever since. The main purpose of this module is to investigate selected texts in order to ascertain their conceptual significance, but also to attempt to understand the historical circumstances in which they were born, and which they themselves influenced.
Assessment details
90-minute examination (70%); 600-word gobbet coursework (30%)
Educational aims & objectives
• To introduce students to select key texts of political thought, that also have strong ethical and religious dimensions, from the Renaissance and early modern periods.• To facilitate understanding of the importance of those texts via detailed historical contextualization. For example, Machiavelli’s The Prince and Luther’s work on Temporal Authority are analysed in relation to processes of state formation, which became bound up with the Reformation, while More’s Utopia is evaluated against the background of Renaissance Humanism.• To foster understanding of the different interpretations of these texts advanced by contemporariesand by modern intellectual historians.• To encourage students to improve their analytical, argumentative and presentational skills, bothorally and on paper, as appropriate to a Level 4 module.• To provide a foundation of conceptual and historical knowledge for students taking other modules.
Learning outcomes
Generic skills:• The capacity to plan and execute research to a standard appropriate for a Level 4 module.• The capacity to engage critically with the selected texts and with secondary sources.2• The capacity to present well-reasoned and well-structured arguments, expressed in clear English, that are convincingly supported by relevant evidence.Module-specific skills:• The ability to explain convincingly, in an informed way, the contents, contexts and significances of the texts chosen for analysis.• The ability to criticize some scholarly interpretations of the selected texts.• The ability to appreciate the nature of intellectual history, feeding into both broader historicalstudies and philosophical inquiry.
Teaching pattern
1 two hour lecture weekly