Politics and Social Theory 1
MA In Social and Political Thought
Robert Fine
Outline
Week 2 From the philosophy of right to social theory: Kant and Hegel
Week 3 The cosmopolitan point of view: Kant and Habermas
Week 4 Grounds of the liberal state: Hobbes, Koselleck, Schmitt
Week 5 The will of the people: Rousseau, Constant, Arendt
Week 6 Reading week
Week 7 On revolution: from Lenin to Hegel
Week8 Class struggles and social revolution: Marx and Weber
Week 9 Pathologies of civil society: Ferguson, Hegel, Arendt, Habermas
Week 10 Modernity and catastrophe: Foucault, Bauman, Arendt
Reading List
You are required to read the key texts and then supplement it with your own choice of reading. You are
required to write one essay of around 5000 words, to participate in seminars and to present a paper in
at least one of them.
Week 2
From the philosophy of right to social theory: Kant and Hegel
Key reading:
Kant ‘Metaphysics of Justice’ in Immanuel Kant, Political Writings, ed. Hans Reiss, (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1991) ‘The Metaphysics of Morals’
Georg Hegel Elements of the Philosophy of Right, edited by Allen Wood (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1991), Preface.
Possible background reading
Katrin Flikschuh Kant and Modern Moral Philosophy (Cambridge: CUP 2000).
Howard Williams Kant’s Political Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983).
Paul Guyer (ed) The Cambridge Companion to Kant, (Cambridge: Polity, 1992).
Robert Fine Political Investigations: Hegel, Marx, Arendt (London: Routledge 2001), chs.1 and 2
Allen Wood Kant’s Ethical Thought (Cambridge: CUP 1999).
Ernst Cassirer Rousseau Kant Goethe
Steven Smith Hegel’s Critique of Liberalism: Rights in Context (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1991), chapter 5.
Manfred Riedel Between Tradition and Revolution: The Hegelian Transformation of Political Philosophy,
trans. Walter Wright (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984).
Herbert Marcuse Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory (Boston: Beacon Press,
1979).
Charles Taylor Hegel and Modern Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979).
Steven Houlgate Freedom, Truth and History: An Introduction to Hegel’s Philosophy (London: Routledge,
1991).
Week 3
The cosmopolitan condition: Kant and Habermas
Key reading
Immanuel Kant, Political Writings, ed. Hans Reiss, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)
‘Perpetual Peace’.
Jürgen Habermas ‘Kant’s idea of perpetual with the benefit of two hundred years hindsight’, in James
Bohman and Matthias Lutz-Bachman (eds) Perpetual Peace: Essays on Kant’s cosmopolitan ideal (MIT
Cambridge Mass, 1997) esp. pp. 113-154
Possible background reading
Daniele Archibugi ‘Immanuel Kant, Peace and Cosmopolitan Law’ Review of International Studies, 16:3
(1995).
Allen Wood ‘Kant’s Project for Perpetual Peace’ in Pheng Cheah & Bruce Robbins (eds.) Cosmopolitics:
Thinking and Feeling Beyond the Nation (London: University of Minnesota Press, 1998).
Robert Fine Cosmopolitanism, Routledge 2007 ch. 2 ‘Kant and Hegel’ and chs on Habermas
Week 4
Grounds of the liberal state: Hobbes, Koselleck, Schmitt
Key reading
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Cambridge UP, ch.s 13-18
Reinhart Koselleck, Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the Pathogenesis of Modern Society, Berg,
ch.s 1 and 2
Carl Schmitt, The Leviathan in the state theory of Thomas Hobbes, Greenwood Press, 1996, ch1
Possible background reading
Bob Fine, Democracy and the Rule of Law, Blackburn Press, 2002, ch.1 ‘Classical jurisprudence’, pp. 1027.
David Held, Models of Democracy, Polity, 1997, pp 75-78
Quentin Skinner, ‘The Ideological Context of Hobbes’ Political Thought’, Historical Journal 9, 1966
Ian Hampshire-Monk, A History of Modern Political Thought, Blackwell, 1992, chapter 1
Week 5
The will of the people: Rousseau, Constant, Arendt
Key reading
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (Second part) and Social Contract, (Book
11, chapters 1-4) in Social Contract and Discourses, London: Dent
Arendt, Hannah On Revolution Penguin ch.2 ‘The social question’ and final chapter on ‘The
revolutionary tradition and its lost treasure’.
Constant, Benjamin Political Writings, Cambridge University Press 1998 ch. On Rousseau
Background reading
Colletti, Lucio 'Rousseau as critic of civil society' From Rousseau to Lenin, Verso, 1972
Fine, Robert Democracy and the Rule of Law Blackburn Press pp 27-37
Fine, Robert Political Investigations: Hegel, Marx, Arendt Routledge 2001 pp 63-71 and ch. ‘Arendt and
revolution’
Berman, Marshall The Politics of Authenticity: Radical individualism and the emergence of modern
society Atheneum 1970
Jim Miller Rousseau: Dreamer of Democracy, London: Yale, 1984
Ernst Cassirer, The question of Jean Jacques Rousseau Indiana 1967
Maurice Cranston The noble savage: Jean Jacques Rousseau 1754 – 1762 Penguin 1991, ch 11 ‘Two
Social Contracts’
Wellmer, Albrecht (2000) ‘Arendt on revolution’ in Dana Villa The Cambridge Companion to Hannah
Arendt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Week 6
Reading week
Week 7
On revolution: From Lenin to Hegel
Key readings
Lenin State and Revolution
David Held, Models of Democracy, (Cambridge: Polity, 1997), chapter 4 ‘Direct democracy and the end
of politics', pp. 121-154.
Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit ‘Absolute freedom and terror’
Hegel Philosophy of History ‘Modern Times’ section on the French Revolution
Background reading
Ritter, Karl (1982) Hegel and the French Revolution: essays on the Philosophy of right, Cambridge, Mass,
London: MIT
Rose, Gillian (1981) Hegel Contra Sociology, London: Athlone.
Herbert Marcuse Reason and Revolution
Week 8
The rise, fall and re-emergence of civil society: Ferguson, Hegel, Arendt, Habermas
Key reading
Ferguson, Adam An Essay on the History of Civil Society, section 6 ‘of corruption and political slavery’
Georg Hegel Elements of the Philosophy of Right, edited by Allen Wood (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1991), Part 3, Section 2: ‘Civil Society’.
Arendt, Hannah The Origins of Totalitarianism, ‘The classless society
Additional reading
Steven Smith Hegel’s Critique of Liberalism: Rights in Context (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1991), chapter 5.
Manfred Riedel Between Tradition and Revolution: The Hegelian Transformation of Political Philosophy,
trans. Walter Wright (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), ch. On civil society .
Herbert Marcuse Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory (Boston: Beacon Press,
1979).ch on civil society
Weeks 9
Class struggle and social revolution: Smith Marx, Weber
Seminar reading
Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations (sections to be decided)
Karl Marx The Communist Manifesto
Max Weber Political Writings, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), ‘Socialism’ (extracts) and
‘The profession and vocation of politics’ (extracts)
Background reading
Robert Fine, Democracy and the Rule of Law, (London: Blackburn, 2003) ch.2.
Hal Draper, Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution, Volume One, State and Bureaucracy, MRP, 1977, Part 2,
‘The theory of the state'.
Ralph Miliband, ‘Marx and the state’, Socialist Register, 1965.
Hal Draper, ‘The death of the state in Marx and Engels’, Socialist Register, 1970.
Max Weber, The Russian Revolutions, (Cambridge, Polity, 1995), ‘Bourgeois democracy in Russia’
David Beetham., Max Weber and the Theory of Modern Politics, (Cambridge: Polity, 1974).
Wolfgang Mommsen, Max Weber and German Politics, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, [1959]
1974), ch.3
Wolfgang Mommsen. The political and social theory of Max Weber. Collected Essays, (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1989).
Anthony Giddens Politics and sociology in the thought of Max Weber, GB, Macmillan, 1972.
Charles Turner Modernity and Politics in the Work of Max Weber (London: Routledge 1992).
Week 10
The 20th century catastrophe: Arendt and Bauman
Key texts
Bauman, Zygmunt (1991) Modernity and the Holocaust, Cambridge: Polity, intro and ch1.
Hannah Arendt: Origins of Totalitarianism Harvest 1994, ‘Total domination’
Background reading
Elliott, Anthony (ed) (2007) The Contemporary Bauman, London: Routledge.
Fine, Robert and Hirsh, David (2000) ‘The Decision to commit a crime against humanity: a critique of
Bauman’ in Margaret Archer and Jonathan Tritter (eds) Rational Choice Theory: Resisting Colonisation,
London: Routledge.
Jacobsen Michael (ed) (2008) The Sociology of Zygmunt Bauman: Challenges and Critique, London:
Ashgate.
Smith, Dennis (1999) Zygmunt Bauman: Prophet of Postmodernity, Cambridge: Polity.
Tester, Keith (2004) The Social Thought of Zygmunt Bauman, London: Palgrave.
Hannah Arendt Essays in Understanding: ‘Understanding and Politics: The Difficulties of Understanding’,
pp. 307-327.
Bernstein, Richard (1996) Hannah Arendt and the Jewish Question Cambridge: Polity.
Canovan, Margaret (1994) Hannah Arendt: A Re-interpretation of her Political Thought, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, especially ch2 'The origins of totalitarianism'.
Fine, Robert (2001) Political Investigations: Hegel, Marx, Arendt, London: Routledge, ch.6
‘Totalitarianism and the rational state’.
Fine, Robert (2000) ‘Hannah Arendt: Politics and Understanding after the Holocaust’ in R Fine and C
Turner (ed.s) Social Theory after the Holocaust, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Hansen, Phillip (1993) Hannah Arendt: Politics, History and Citizenship, Cambridge: Polity, especially ch4
'Totalitarianism'.
Isaac, Jeffey (1992) Arendt, Camus and Modern Rebellion, New Heaven: Yale, especially ch2
'Totalitarianism and the intoxication of power'.
Lefort, Claude (1998) ‘The Concept of Totalitarianism’, Warwick Papers in Social Theory.
Villa, Dana (1999) Politics, Philosophy, Terror: Essays on the thought of Hannah Arendt, Princeton:
Princeton University Press, especially ch.1 ‘Terror and radical evil’.