The Modern Political Tradition: Hobbes to Habermas

By: Lawrence Cahoone, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Lawrence Cahoone

Length: 18 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Without even realizing it, we all use the fruits of political philosophy. From liberty to democracy to community, the terms and concepts originated by political philosophers are ingrained in our global consciousness. Yet many of us have an incomplete picture of how these ideas developed and, quite possibly, a skewed perception of their intentions and implications.

This highly relevant course sheds light on the labyrinth of Western political and social theory, as well as its influence on modern history. Guided by an award-winning professor of philosophy and author, these eye-opening lectures reveal how political philosophers, in responding to the societal problems and changing conditions of their day in revolutionary ways, created virtual blueprints of action for leaders. You'll gain not only the tools to comprehend the omnipresent language of politics, but a thorough understanding of the wellspring of thought that has emerged over centuries of political philosophy and the intellectual origins of major historical movements and events.

Throughout, questions of democracy, freedom, and distributive justice are addressed, and revolutionary figures who have left an indelible mark on history - from Niccolo Machiavelli to Ayn Rand - are encountered.

By the conclusion of lecture 36, you will have the context necessary to appreciate the evolution of a myriad of political ideas, including hot-button topics of today such as libertarianism, neoconservatism, feminism, and environmentalism.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2014 The Great Courses (P)2014 The Teaching Company, LLC

Amazing objective and descriptive analysis .

Great narration.
Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Some comcepts were difficult but it's worth researching.
Will go through one more time.
Will recommend to others.

Great Foundation in Modern Political Philosophy

A great intro course for Modern Political Philosophy. Providing lectures on a wide range of notable thinkers such as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant. Smith, Montesquieu, Burke, Paine, Clausewitz, Hegel, Marx's, Schmitt, Hayek, Rawls, and others. The information in these lectures is almost essential to understanding much of modern political ideas and development. Beyond the first few lectures the timeline runs mid 17th century to the modern age.

Although professor Cahoone's delivery can be slightly monotone at times, for the most part its easy to stay engaged and understand the material even if you have no background on the subject or political philosophy in general.

An essential lecture serie for thinking people

Even more essential than an American Civics class, this lecture series should be studied by any concerned citizen of any nation and anyone concerned with the "ideal", " practical" or good society. I highly recommend it. My only wish is that it would have had 45 minute lectures (and thus another 9+ hours). It was too short!

This is a great course

Excellent, very informative, and expansive. I enjoyed every minute of this course and I'm sad that it's over. I'm happy that it went all the way up to the present day and that I was able to get a good refresher on some college courses and personalities taught about in my major. I highly recommend this course, definitely one of the best ones I have gotten through.

brilliant synopsis of political philosophy

he covers a host of controversial topics from fascism to veganism without having an aparant bias and presenting their argument from their own point of view.

He takes a deep dive into the history of political philosophy and applies various philosophical models to a broad spectrum of political topics.

Favorite Great Courses book

Everything was amazingly well done, from the vast exhaustive content to the conversational narration by the professor. Highly recommend this entertaining yet enlightening series.

Lawrence Cahoone Rocks!

I was a big fan of his lectures "The Modern Intellectual Tradition: Descartes to Derrida"
This was another excellent work. Well paced, well researched and engaging

As with The Modern Intellectual tradition, I'll be re-listening several times to soak up more.

Understanding political chaos

I have listened to this course three times and continue to get a deeper understanding of the timeline of political ideas in the modern era. The real value for me is that the professor identifies and discusses with a neutral bias. All political swings, including unpopular or discredited movements, are discussed in an objective and rational manner. The course has really helped me sort through, organize and articulate my own beliefs. Great course!

An Excellent Survey of Western Political Thought

This is an excellent survey of the philosophical foundations of Western political thought. It covers not only the foundations of Western political thought (Plato and Aristotle) but also recent developments in western political thought (the animal rights movement and feminism). The explanations are clear, objective, and without a lot of philosophical jargon. At a certain point the standard becomes Liberal Republicanism and it is against this standard that other alternate theories are measured. That privileging of Liberal Republicanism seemed unnecessary to me. Yet when alternate theories are presented their critiques of Liberal Republicanism are presented as well. I will most certainly be listening to this book again. It's worth it.

Listen to this before talking politics with me

I hate talking politics. Most political discussions are void of thought. The espoused values of the individual are determined by anecdotal observations taken out of context or by emotionally processed feelings about how we observe the real world. Our understanding about the world around us is based on our feelings that we have of the world but our feelings are determined by how we perceive the world we live in. Liberty and equality (or equivalently we can say 'justice' and 'fairness') will always conflict. Everybody at one time or another has said or thought 'that is not fair' or 'can you just leave me alone'. Liberal Democracy grows out of this conflict and this lecture delves into how to think about the paradoxes inherent within any system more complex than a family.

I would love it if people who want to talk politics with me had first listened to this lecture and would base their mundane quotidian political arguments based on the principals from this lecture. I shouldn't really use the word principals because in the world of political theory that implies a deontological structure based on Kantian metaphysics in contrast to a utilitarian (Bentham, J.S. Mills), invividualist (Rawls or Nozick) or communitarian structure. This lecture puts all of these stray schools together and gives the context for how they fit coherently within themselves and how they relate between each other. I think my political conversations with others would be way more edifying if the person I was forced to talk politics with had this kind of rudimentary background in their conversational repertoire.

I usually don't read topical books, but I did read "Age of Anger" available here at audible. I like the book, but I faulted it because it didn't always give context to the person he was talking about. This lecture covers most of the same players (Burke, Karl Schmidt (sp?), Tocqueville, Strauss, et. al. ), but within this lecture I always got a context that filled in the blanks. An essence of Fascism beyond the 12 or so bullet point characteristics itemized in text books is the embracing of a spirit of the nation which transcends the nation itself and as summarized by Mussolini a 'real man' must have a war or be willing to sacrifice himself completely for the state (the community) in some fashion. The lecturer also has a lecture concisely summarizing Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit" and how he fits in to political thought through recent history. One does not need to have read the original works of the political thinkers in order to agree or disagree with that school of politics, but it would help to know where somebody is coming from. The lecture really helped me tie together how to understand our current politics in the USA.

Politics is just a character that ties this lecture series together. For me, at the heart of this lecture was something much more. It gave me insight into how to think about myself within the world. I can give you a hint on why I thought that. Take his lecture on Leo Strauss of the Frankfurt school. Strauss influenced Saul Bellow and Alan Bloom. Two authors who I have read previously. They don't like the modernity which came out of the enlightenment and like Nietzsche's post-modernity even less. They despise relativism and think truth must be around albeit not always knowable, they reject nihilism because ultimate value must exist in order for life to have meaning (according to them), and that some things beyond life itself must be the cause of itself such as conscience, morality, duty or obligation. All of those beliefs will lead to a political system of some kind (ultimately they morph into neo-conservatism of the 1960s but not the 2000s kind), but when one can understand the premises that are assumed, one can understand the political argument such that one can refute it or embrace it with firmer convictions.

The enlightenment, Nietzsche, Plato and Aristotle, and Kant are all mentioned in this lecture series, but aren't covered in detail. Most of the lectures within this lecture and each of the previously mention items are also in "Great Minds of the Western Tradition", but for the same cost you also will get about half of the lectures in this series and more in depth lectures on topics that help give this lecture even more depth. I recommend both lectures, but if you can only afford one I would recommend the "Great Minds" since you get most of this lecture and many lectures in addition.