Political theory focuses on the nature and purpose of human association.
Human beings are, as Aristotle says, political animals. Not only must we cooperate in order to survive, but our moral and intellectual faculties can develop only in association with other people. By studying the history of political theory we encounter the variety of views on political association the Western tradition has produced. Reading Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas on the possibility of a perfect political order exposes us to a variety of different starting points. In grappling with their questions, the thinkers covered in this course have carefully worked out the implications of their particular premises.