Infamous Writings: Controversies and Receptions in the History of Political Thought in Early Modern Europe
Peter Schröder
Machiavelli, Hobbes, Spinoza and Mandeville are probably the most notorious writers of the early modern period. This course will analyse the key arguments of their writings and some of the prominent contemporary responses to them. The underlying aim of this course is to re-establish some of the main features of the political and philosophical discourses of the early modern period which foreshadowed the Enlightenment. Some sources for class discussion are only available in French, therefore a good reading knowledge of French is indispensable for this course. It is also highly desirable that students have already studied early modern European History at undergraduate level, and ideally they should also have some knowledge of the history of political thought.