Foundations of Western Political Thought is an energetic, engaged and lucid account of the most important political and social thinkers and the enduring themes of the last two and a half millennia. Written for the undergraduate and graduate students of political science, the book traces the development of political thought from Socrates to Marx. It focuses on individual thinkers and texts and offers original views of theorists and by highlighting those which may have been unjustly neglected. It develops the wider themes of political thought and relations between thinkers over time. Each chapter is intended to present a coherent political theory derived from the works of a classical thinker. All chapters share a common organizational structure, a feature that should facilitate comparison, accentuating the distinctive ways of looking at political reality for understanding and evaluating political possibilities. Although each of the subsequent chapter can stand by itself, none should be considered a substitute for reading the original work of a great political thinker. Professor B N Ray has presented a fascinating history of Western political thought in a witty, confident and sometime extermely poetic style. It will inform, challenge, provoke and entertain in what people have had to say about politics in the last two half thousand years.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Chapter 1: Study of Classics and the Problem of Interpretation, The Historical Approach, The Textual Approach, The Linguistic Approach, Hermeneutics, Contextualism, Quentin Skinner’s Method Chapter 2: Socrates, Life and Time, The Craft of Living, The Gadfly’s Ignorance, Virtue as Knowledge, The Unity of Virtues Chapter 3: Plato, Life and Time, History and Social Structure, The Emergence of Democracy, Justice: Traditional, Radical, Pragmatist, Communism, Education, Philosopher-King, Popper’s Critique of Plato, The Republic-Utopia or Reality?, Conclusion Chapter 4: Aristotle, Life and Time, Aristotle’s Criticism of Plato, Reason-Theoretical, Practical, Instrumental, Ideal State, Slavery, Women and Children, Property, Revolution, Conclusion Chapter 5: St. Agustine, Life and Time, The Problem of Evil, Free Will, The Two Cities, Women and Sexuality, Conclusion Chapter 6: Thomas Acquinas, Life and Time, An Aristotelian Approach to Ethic, Natural Law and Human Behaviour, State and Church, The Mixed Constitution, Conclusion Chapter 7: Niccolo Machiavelli, Life and Time, Machiavelli and the Renaissance, Statecraft, Machiavelli’s Republicanism, Religion and Politics, Machiaveli and the Modern Prince, Conclusion Chapter 8: Thomas Hobbes, Life and Time, Human Nature, State of Nature, The Laws of Nature, The Commonwealth and the Sovereign, Hobbes’s Individualism, Political Obligation, Prisoner’s Dilemma, Conclusion Chapter 9: John Locke, Life and Time, State of Nature, Citizenship and the Constitutional state, Natural Rights in Locke, Property, Locke and the Foundation of Liberalism, Conclusion Vol 2 Chapter 10: Rousseau, Life and Time, Human Nature and Civil Society, The State of Nature, The General Will and Moral Freedom, Rousseau: Totalitarian or Democrat?, Conclusion Chapter 11: Edmund Burke, Life and Time, Critique of the French Revolution, State, Theory of Representation, Burke’s Conservatism, Conclusion Chapter 12: Jeremy Bentham, Life and Time, The Hedonic Calculus, Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number, The Principle of Asceticism, The Principle of Sympathy and Antipathy, Utility and Motives, Law, Conclusion Chapter 13: John Stuart Mill, Life and Time, Utililtarianism, Revision of Utilitarianism, Liberty, Democracy, Socialism, Imperialism, Feminism, Conclusion Chapter 14: Thomas Hill Green, Life and Time, Green and German Idealism, Positive Freedom, Political Obligation, The Individual and Society, The Moral Foundation of Law, The Idealist Revision of Liberalism, Conclusion Chapter 15: Immanuel Kant, Life and Time, Kant and the Enlightenment, Kant’s Ethics, Kant’s Politics, Kant on Peace, Conclusion Chapter 16: Hegal, Life and Time, Human Consciousness, Dialectics, Master-Slave Dialectic, Ethical Life and Overcoming of Alienation, Civil Society, Freedom, Conclusion Chapter 17: Karl Marx, Life and Time, Hegal and Marx, Feuerbach and Marx, Alienation, Historical Materialism, Class Struggle and Revolution, State, Conclusion