This is a course in the history of political thought. It focuses on selected writer from Plato to Aristotle, Machiavelli, Locke, Hobbes, Marx, Mill, Arendt and others. It examines classical political questions, such as what citizens owe the state and when they can or should rebel against it. How should polities be organized so as to further the goals of freedom and equality? Each of the thinkers discussed has made a significant contribution to the tradition of western political theory; however, the course also examines the way that these classical thinkers have excluded certain people (women, racial and ethnic minorities, etc.) from their conceptions of politics. Spring (Group I) Writing Option