Method and Practice in the History of Political Thought and Intellectual History

Professor Andrew Fitzmaurice (QMUL) and Professor Georgios Varouxakis (QMUL)

The core course offers an advanced programme of instruction in both historiographical method and interpretative practice in the history of ideas. The course is divided into two semesters. During the first, students analyse and assess competing methodological approaches derived from the humanities, which have a bearing on the study of the political thought and intellectual history. In the second semester, seminar classes focus on key figures, periods and modes of thought in the history of political ideas. The core course is convened each year by one of the MA programme directors, but several members of the MA’s academic staff also make additional specialist contributions throughout the year. Specific topics and figures covered by the core course include: hermeneutics, ideology critique, the contextualist method in intellectual history, natural law, enlightenment, socialism, Aristotle, Hobbes, Marx, Nietzsche.