Political Ideas of the Enlightenment

3 credit hours · Undergraduate

A critical examination of the political ideas and theories that grew out of the modern European Enlightenment. Special attention is paid to Immanuel Kant’s understanding of the nature, role and effects of “public reason” and to his assessment of the conditions necessary for international cooperation and peace. Other thinkers to be discussed may include John Locke, the Baron of Montesquieu, David Hume, G.W.F. Hegel, Harriet Taylor and John Stuart Mill.