ABSTRACT

This clear and thorough introduction provides students with the skills necessary to understand the main thinkers, texts and arguments of political philosophy and thought. Each chapter comprises a brief overview of a major political thinker, followed by an introduction to one or more of their most influential works and an introduction to key secondary readings.
Key features include:
* exercises
* reading notes
* guides for further reading
The book introduces and assesses: Machiavelli's Prince; Hobbes' Leviathan; Locke's Second Treatise on Government; Rousseau's Social Contract; Marx and Engels' German Ideology (Part 1); Mill's On Liberty and The Subjection of Women. Reading Political Philosophy requires no previous knowledge of philosophy or politics and is ideal for newcomers to political philosophy and political thought.

chapter 1|67 pages

Niccolò Machiavelli

The Prince

chapter 1.1|9 pages

‘The Adviser to Princes'

chapter 1.3|16 pages

‘The Originality of Machiavelli'

chapter 1.4|9 pages

‘Dirty hands'

chapter 3|50 pages

John Locke

Second Treatise of Government

chapter 4|53 pages

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Social Contract

chapter 4.1|8 pages

‘The General Will'

chapter 4.2|4 pages

‘The Public Interest'

chapter 4.3|3 pages

‘Legislator'

chapter 4.4|7 pages

‘Two Concepts of Liberty'

chapter 5|66 pages

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels

The German Ideology (Part 1)

chapter 5.1|9 pages

‘Playthings of Alien Forces

Karl Marx and the Rejection of the Market Economy'

chapter 5.2|8 pages

‘Marx's Early Critique of Liberalism'

chapter 5.3|10 pages

‘Forces and Relations of Production'

chapter 5.4|7 pages

‘Alienation'

chapter 6|64 pages

John Stuart Mill

On Liberty and The Subjection of Women

chapter 6.1|6 pages

‘Freedom of Expression'

chapter 6.3|15 pages

‘Paternalism'

chapter 6.5|6 pages

‘The Hope of Friendship'