Professor Richard Bourke
The Foundations of Modern Thought: Introduction to Intellectual History'
Friedrich Nietzsche
Course Organiser: Professor Richard Bourke
HST4601
Level 4, 15 credits
This is a course in the history of ideas that introduces students to important shifts in the ways in which history, society and politics have been thought about from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. The course will cover key figures in the history of political thought and philosophy, including Machiavelli, Rousseau, Marx and Nietzsche, and will address influential debates about such issues as the relationship between politics and morality, the determinants of historical change, the causes of social inequality, the origins of Christianity, and the rise of capitalism. Attention throughout will be focused on a careful scrutiny of primary sources. By the end of the course, students will have deepened their understanding of some of the critical issues that have dominated modern history.