German Political Philosophy in the 20th Century

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

German political thought is more rooted in philosophy than the Angloamerican tradition; at the same time it was involved in, and reacted to, the most horrific experience of 20th century totalitarianism, National Socialism. We will read books by the three greatest political theorists of the Weimar republic, Hans Kelsen, Hermann Heller, and Carl Schmitt, study Martin Heidegger's rectorate speech, look at Hannah Arendt's totalitarianism theory, and read two political philosophies from the Federal Republic, Habermas' Between Facts and Norms and my own Morals and Politics.