The 20th
century witnessed significant changes in conceptions of politics:
the growth of the state, the rise and fall of ideologies and totalitarianisms,
the ascendancy of democratic theory, technology and social organization,
and beneath it all, a deep sense of crisis. This class traces the
beginnings of that crisis in the thought of Nietzsche and follows
it through to the advent of postmodernism. The nature and extent
of state power, the role of technology, and the prospects for democracy
will also be prominent themes in the course, and the reading will
focus on writers such as Nietzsche, Camus, Habermas, Gadamer, Derrida,
Hayek and others. Cross-listed with Philosophy 343.
