Undergraduate Course: Intellectual History from Montesquieu to Marx (HIST10257)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course introduces students to some of the most important texts in western moral and political thought in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The authors examined include Montesquieu, Rousseau, Hume, Smith, Burke, Kant, Hegel, and Marx. |
| Course description |
This course aims to introduce students to some of the most important texts in western political and moral thought in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, namely those of Montesquieu, Rousseau, Hume, Smith, Burke, Kant, Hegel, and Marx. It will examine theories of government, social inequality, freedom, political economy, and the social contract. At all times, it will situate the ideas in their historical contexts, showing how they are both constrained by and instrumental in shaping events. As with the other intellectual history courses, this course is distinctive in engaging students with close textual analysis of primary sources.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass or passes in 40 credits of first level historical courses or equivalent and a pass or passes in 40 credits of second level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, PTs are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Administrator to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503780). |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 History courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. Applicants should note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course **
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| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, command of the body of knowledge considered in the course;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to understand, evaluate and utilise a variety of primary source material;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, the ability to develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence;
- demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers.
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Reading List
A. O. Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests. Arguments for Capitalism before its Triumph (Princeton, NJ, 1977; 2nd ed. 1997).
I. Hont, 'The Luxury Debate in the Early Enlightenment', in M. Goldie and R. Wokler (ed.), The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 379-418.
N. Phillipson, David Hume: the philosopher as historian (London, 2011).
F. C. Beiser, 'Hegel and Hegelianism', in: G. Stedman Jones (ed.), The Cambridge
History of Nineteenth-Century Political Thought (Cambridge, 2011).
Gareth Stedman Jones, The Young Hegelians, Marx and Engels, in Gareth Stedman
Jones (ed.), The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Political Thought (as above).
(Cambridge, 2011), pp. 556 ' 600.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Montesquieu to Marx |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Thomas Ahnert
Tel: (0131 6)50 3777
Email: Thomas.Ahnert@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Diane Knowles
Tel: (0131 6)50 3781
Email: diane.knowles@ed.ac.uk |
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