Political Science 60628 - Machiavellis Political Thought (CRN 28312) "Machiavellian" politics are usually understood to be manipulative and self-interested, if not simply evil. Yet Machiavelli himself was a loyal officer of the Florentine Republic. How did he get his reputation? What sort of politics did he actually recommend? We will read his two most comprehensive works, The Prince and his Discourses on Livy, in an attempt to find out.
Spring and Fall Semesters 2008
Professor Zuckert has been awarded a 2007-08 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanitites to write a book-length study of "Machiavelli's politics."
Past Courses Taught
History of Political Philosophy; Introduction to Political Philosophy; Ancient Political Philosophy; Modern Political Philosophy; Postmodern Political Thought; The Philosophical Foundations of Feminism; Sophistry, Philosophy and the Politics of Difference; Plato's Trilogy; Machiavelli; Montesquieu; Nietzsche and Heidegger; Heidegger and Derrida; Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche; Marx and Marxism; The Problem of Education in a Liberal Democracy-Rousseau, Tocqueville and the American Pragmatists; The Socratic Turn; The New Science and Humanity; The Philosophy of Social Science; The Poetics of the Divine; American Political Thought; The Novel as a Form of American Political Thought; Tocqueville's Democracy in America; Liberal Democracy and Social Democracy; Introduction to American Government; Private Interests and Public Policy; Smith and Keynes; American Constitutional Law; Women and Law; Introduction to International Relations, Politics; Poetry and Philosophy in Ancient Greece; Plato’s Laws; The Problem of Socrates; Theories of War and Peace.
