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Revision 1 closed April 23, 2008, replaced by current version.
Delivery mode: Individualized study or grouped study.
Credits: 3 - Social Science
Prerequisite: None
Centre: Centre for State and Legal Studies
POLI 355 has a Challenge for Credit option.
Course website
POLI 355: Political Philosophy: Plato to Machiavelli provides an overview of classical political thinking about the best life for humankind and the best ways to live together as a community in which members share similar aspirations. The course is divided into two parts; seven units form Part 1 and six units make up Part 2. Part 1 addresses the main similarities and differences in the political ideas of Plato and Aristotle, and forms two-thirds of the course content. These thinkers, arguably, have been the most intellectually significant as well as the most influential philosophical thinkers then or since. Part 2 discusses a handful of philosophers who embroidered in interesting ways on some of the earlier ideas about politics.
POLI 355 comprises thirteen units in two parts as described below.
Part 1: Perspectives on Political Philosophy
Unit 1: Perennial Questions and Political Philosophy
Unit 2: Plato on Philosophical Inquiry and the Good
Unit 3: Plato on Education
Unit 4: Plato on Decay and Corruption
Unit 5: Aristotle on Human Association and Happiness
Unit 6: Aristotle's Typology of Constitutions
Unit 7: Aristotle on Education, the Ideal State and Revolution
Part 2: Medieval to Modern Political Philosophy
Unit 8: St. Augustine
Unit 9: Hildegard of Bingen
Unit 10: St. Thomas Aquinas
Unit 11: Machiavelli on the Sources of Political Power
Unit 12: Machiavelli on Successful Political Leadership
Unit 13: Conclusion: Changing Answers to Perennial Questions
To receive credit for POLI 355, you must achieve a mark of at least 60 per cent on the final examination and obtain a course composite grade of "D" (50 per cent) or better. The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:
Assignment 1 | Assignment 2 | Assignment 3 | Final Exam | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|
20% | 20% | 20% | 40% | 100% |
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.
Aquinas, Thomas. St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics. Trans. and Ed. Paul E. Sigmund. New York: Norton, 1988.
Aristotle. The Politics and The Constitution of Athens. Ed. Stephen Everson. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996.
Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. New edn. Trans. George Bull. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1999.
Plato. Republic. Trans. Robin Waterfield. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1993.
The course materials also include a study guide, student manual, a reading file, and forms.