Political Theory Graduate Student Reading List
Ancient / Medieval
1. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War
2. Plato, The Apology, Crito, Phaedo, The Republic
3. Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, Politics
4. Augustine, City of God, On Free Choice of Will
5. Thomas Aquinas, selections from On Kingship, Summa Theologica
Modern
1. Niccolo Machiavelli. The Prince, The Discourses
2. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
3. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Letter on Toleration
4. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, The Social Contract
5. Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of Practical Reason,
Perpetual Peace
6. J. S. Mill, On Liberty, Utilitarianism, On the Subjection of Women, On Representative
Government
7. G. W. F Hegel, Reason in History, Philosophy of Right
8. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto, Capital, Economic and
Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
9. Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals
Contemporary (select three)
1. Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition
2. Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History, What is Political Philosophy?
3. Eric Voegelin, New Science of Politics
4. John Dewey, The Public and Its Problems, Liberalism and Social Action
5. Jurgen Habermas, Between Facts and Norms
6. John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Political Liberalism
7. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, Power/Knowledge
Recommended Authors and Texts:
Ancient
00Homer, The Odyssey, The Iliad
00Tragedians00ophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides
00Cicero, selected writings from The Republic, The Laws, On Duties, The Second
Philippic against Antony
Modern
00Martin Luther, On Secular Authority
00John Calvin, Institution of the Christian Religion
00Baron de Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws
00Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations
00Federalist - Anti-federalist
00Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
00Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of Rights of Women
00David Hume, Treatise on Human Nature
00Jeremy Bentham / James Mill, The Principles of Morals and Legislation,
"Government"
00Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
00Auguste Comte, A General View of Positivism
00Max Weber, Protestent Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism, " Politics as a Vocation, "
"Science as a Vocation"
00Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents,
Contemporary
Other prominent contemporary "schools of thought":
Atlantic
00Liberal: Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper, Friedrich Hayek, Robert Nozick
00Communitarian: Charles Taylor, Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Sandel, Michael
Walzer, Jean Bethke Elshtain
00Pragmatist and Neo-Pragmatist: William James, Al ain Locke, G. H. Mead,
Richard Rorty, Richard Bernstein, Cornel West, etc.
00Deliberative Democracy: Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson, John Dryzek,
Joshua Cohen, Seyla Benhabib, Jurgen Habermas, etc.
00Conservative: Michael Oakeshott, Leo Strauss, Allan Bloom, Carl Schmitt
Continental
00Hermeneutics: Hans Georg Gadamer, Paul Riceour,
00Phenomenology: Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Simone Weil
00Existentialism: Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Maurice Merleau-Ponty,
00Critical Theory / Frankfurt School / Neo-Marxism00ntonio Gramsci, Max
Horkheimer, Theodore Adorno, Hebert Marcuse, Ernesto Laclau & Chantal
Mouffe, Louis Althusser
00Post-structural: Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Judith Butler
00Post-colonial Theory: Givarti Spivak, Hhomi Bahba, Partha Chatterjee, Edward
Said, Franz Fanon, C. L. R. James
00Feminist Theory: Simone de Beauvior, Judith Butler, Nancy Fraser, Drucilla
Cornell, Seyla Benhabib, Carol Pateman, Susan Moller Okin, Iris Marion Young,
Mary Dietz, Jean Bethke Elshtain
download Political Theory Graduate Student Reading List Ancient / Medieval
