Political Questions: Political Philosophy from Plato to Rawls

Incorporates new material relevant to issues in the political debates of today—subjects such as women’s rights, the “end of history,” and the future of socialism. The book is organized around a series of enduring and provocative political questions that are designed to illuminate issues in American politics, inducing students to examine the nature and substance of their own political beliefs. Featured are the works of twelve philosophers ranging in scope from antiquity to the present: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, and Rawls. Ideas from the natural and social sciences—including sociobiology, game theory, cultural anthropology, and developmental psychology—are introduced and applied to classic philosophical texts. Detailed notes provide references and sources.