S0715 Political Philosophy of the Enlightenment

Since Thomas Hobbes, the modern political thinking is starting, that means that the state is not still an aim in itself but has to serve the individuals, to secure their lives and their property.

Now the state needs a rational legitimation, that could not recur simply to a divine creation.

Therefore the political philosophy looks for an anthropology for contractualism and for a structure of the state, that reduces its absolute power in the 18th century.

The course will start with a view to mediaeval political thinking, to show, what is new in the political philosophy of the enlightenment. Then the course will show the different concepts of contractualism and rationality of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Kant.