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Reading and Secondary Literature for Essays

Lectures, Reading, Seminars and Essays:
The course is designed around the delivery of a lecture each week and seminars every week. Since the objective of the course-unit is to expose you to the history of ideas in context, lectures will focus on providing conceptual maps through the works we are studying.

There is no doubt that many of you will feel apprehensive about plunging into reading Plato, or Aristotle or Rousseau: this is perfectly natural. The lectures, then, will highlight the key issues, summarise the debates about the works, and outline a way of approaching the writings.

The key point to emphasise is that the purpose of the course is for you to develop (1) your own opinion about the works you read, and at the same time for you to develop (2) a sensitivity to historical ideas and ways of understanding historical documents. Since the purpose of the course is for you to form your own opinions about the ideas we study it is crucial for you to read the set texts: it is very difficult to form your own ideas from the secondary sources. I would rather have you develop your own highly eccentric theories about any (or all) of the texts, than have reproduce the arguments of established scholars: unlike many other types of historical writing at undergraduate level, this course encourages and empowers you to plunge into the original records: your views upon first reading Plato or Rousseau are as significant and interesting as any other historian.

Seminars will be constructed around a series of inquiries about the major themes within and between pairs of the texts we study: they will be your place to articulate your thoughts, doubts, insights, misunderstandings and opinions. The essays will be the place for written expression: unlike many other forms of historical writing, essays in the history of political ideas are ideally short, succinct and full of arguments. Because you will have the opportunity to engage with the 'problems' prompted by a particular work (or collection of writings) you will be encourage to express your own views by marshalling the evidence of the studied text.

Assessment:

Always leave the most important thing to the last, is probably the standard rule of thumb with advice books. This course has both formative and summative ambitions. That is, is wants you to develop your own ideas in a supportive and critical context (formative), but at the end you will undertake an exam which will give you an assessment of the standard you have reached (summative). The way the course is structured intends to deliver the skills, attitudes and methods that will enable you to take the examination in your stride. If you attend the lectures, read the books, participate in the seminars, and think, then you will actively enjoy and look forward to the examination. This final form of assessment will be a written exam (2 hours duration) of two parts: (1) commentaries on short extracts, and (2) a standard written essay on either a thematic subject, or the thought of an individual thinker. There is specific guidance on these matters below, under seminars, and essays.