A survey of major themes, thinkers, and schools in the Western tradition, from pre-Socratics to the early moderns. A survey of the major themes, thinkers, and schools in the modern and contemporary periods. A study of the major Oriental philosophical and religious traditions, including Yoga, Jainism, Vedanta, Buddhism, Lamaism, Taoism, and Zen Buddhism. Attention will be paid to the contrast and continuity with the Western tradition. Special emphasis will be placed on one particular culture in order to determine the role played by ethnicity in modern political life.
Emphasis is placed on the value system from which the differing political solutions emerged.
An examination of the political thought that seeded the modern nation-state. The political crises of the contemporary world and the proposed political solutions by theorists from the seventeenth through the twentieth century are focuses of consideration. Topics examined from a variety of sources include the theories of punishment, legal responsibility and obligation, civil disobedience, law-morality interaction, and the nature of law. This course encourages students to take up some of the most interesting and fundamental questions which have been raised concerning not only the purpose and meaningfulness of human life but also the notion of existence itself. Some of the answers which have been given in history to such questions are considered, in an optimism that understanding comes sometimes from historical answers and sometimes from the very asking of questions.