Tyranny and the Tyrant: Pivotal Writings in Political Theory

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course will employ eastern and western, classical, medieval, and modern sources to familiarize students with the theoretically apprehensible features of the phenomena that are universally described under the heading of tyranny. The syllabus will include both writings intended for tyrants and would-be tyrants, and writings intended for citizens and subjects. Altogether, students will learn (1) about the ways in which tyrannies have been theorized to come to be and pass away, (2) about the observed characteristics of tyrannical and despotic regimes, (3) about the attitudes and practices recommended by a wide range of political thinkers toward regimes and states of the relevant kind, (4) both the necessary and the frequently observed characterological features of the figure of the tyrant. This course will also, as it reaches the more modern parts of the syllabus, deal with related concepts such as authoritarianism and totalitarianism.