POLI 2630 Savage Beginnings: The State of Nature and the Social Contract in Modern Political Philosophy

The course introduces the idea of the " state of nature" as it emerges in modern political philosophy and becomes a cornerstone of " social contract" theory. Focusing on Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawls, we explore how each thinker uses reflections on pre-political conditions to illuminate questions about the origins of political authority, individual rights, and the legitimacy of government. The course draws out both the surprising continuities and the sharp disagreements among these thinkers, showing how their competing portraits of a pre-political condition forged the modern vocabularies of freedom, legitimacy, and justice.