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ideas
1st lecture. Introduction. Ideas of
Classical Antiquity
Lecturer: Marosn, Bence
We stand today at a crossroads: One path
leads to despair and utter hopelessness.
The other leads to total extinction. Let us
hope we have the wisdom to make the
right choice.
Woody Allen
Division of the semester
1st lecture: Introduction and Classical Antiquity.
2nd lecture: Political ideas of the Middle Ages. Church and state
in medieval Europe. The investiture controversy.
3rd lecture: Political ideas of early Modern Age. Separation of
Church and State. The Separation of powers, and the importance
of institutions. Machiavelli, Hobbes, Montesquieu.
4th lecture: Political ideas of 19th century. Birth of modern
streams of political thinking. Liberalism, conservativism and left-
wing movements, (Marx and Marxism).
5th lecture: Political movements, thinkers and ideas in the 20th
century. Neoliberalism, Social democracy, Neomarxism,
Neoconservativism.
Main features of a political theory
A political theory treats the principles, guide-lines, norms and values
according to which (in the thinkers opinion) the society has to
organize its institutions, functions, structures, hierarchy and its general
way of working.
The aim of a political theory is to find the best way of running a
society and a state.
The political thinker in question has to argue for his or her ideas, so
for his or her opinion according to which she/he finds some values to
be the best for a society.
She or he has to fix the most basic values according to which the
society or the state has to organize itself, and its particular way of
functioning. So: she or he has to say what she/he thinks to be the
most important in regard of a society: the preserving the traditional
values of a nation (conservativism), guaranteeing the invulnerability of
sphere of personal, individual freedom (liberalism), social justice and
the defense of the rights of the needy (left-wing movements, Social
democracy).
F. Fukuyama:
The end of history thesis