Description: |
PSC 210 Marx, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, and Freud: For convenience, scholars often divide the history of philosophical thought into historical epochs: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern thought. So in one sense this course is a survey of some of some major thinkers of a particular historical period. But this course will treat “modernity” not just as a historical period, but also as the principle underlying western society and its forms of political thought. These preoccupations include the meaning and prospects of human freedom given the tremendous social changes that come with the growth of industrialization, the ideas of progress, the possibility of meaning in an increasingly secular world, and the meaning and value of morality. Using Marx, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, and Freud as our guides, we will explore these questions and the political implications that arise these theorists’ efforts to address them |