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Is the state a natural institution, an organic part of society with necessary functions? Or is it an artificial construct that only exploits society? Or is it something else entirely?
Great scholars have contributed to the philosophy of politics since the ancient world, each making a contribution for or against the idea of liberty, an idea that is both ancient and modern.
In this week-long seminar, intellectual historian
David Gordon explains the thought of all the greats and deals with that of unknowns, as well. The seminar will consist of two primary lectures per day for five days, and discussion time with the professor. Registration takes place Monday morning, 9:30 - 10:00. Morning sessions are 10:00 - 11:30 Central Time and afternoon sessions are 2:00 - 3:30, Monday through Friday, with a pizza party on Thursday afternoon at 4:00. The Mises Institute will provide a shuttle that departs from the front of Cambridge Dormitory Monday through Friday at 9:30 a.m. Central Time, going to the Mises Institute, and returning each afternoon at 4:00. On Thursday, the shuttle will return to the dorm at 5:00 p.m., after the pizza party.
SCHEDULE
1. Plato [day 1, morning]
2. Aristotle [day 1, afternoon]
3. Thomas Aquinas [day 2, morning]
4. Thomas Hobbes [day 2, afternoon]
5. John Locke [day 3, morning]
6. Jean-Jacques Rousseau [day 3, afternoon]
7. Immanuel Kant and G. W. F. Hegel [day 4, morning]
8. John Stuart Mill, Lysander Spooner and Herbert Spencer [day 4, afternoon]
9. John Rawls [day 5, morning]
10. Robert Nozick and Murray Rothbard [day 5, afternoon]
SUGGESTED BACKGROUND READINGS
1. Plato
Plato: Republic and Laws
2. Aristotle
Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics and Politics
3. Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas: Treatise on Law
4. Thomas Hobbes
Hobbes: Leviathan
5. John Locke
Locke: Second Treatise on Government
6. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rousseau: The Social Contract
7. Immanuel Kant and G. W. F. Hegel
8. John Stuart Mill, Lysander Spooner and Herbert Spencer
9. John Rawls
Rawls: A Theory of Justice
10. Robert Nozick and Murray Rothbard
For a general survey, see Eric Voegelin, History of Political Ideas, Vol. 1-8.
Registration is $195 for non-Members. Registration includes daily boxed lunches, refreshment breaks, closing pizza party, transportation between the dorm and the Institute each day, and the use of Mises Institute research libraries and computers.
You may register online.
Dormitory rooms are available for $35 per person per night double-occupancy or $45 per night single-occupancy. For other Auburn accommodations, go here. For Atlanta-Auburn airport shuttles, see Express85.
Students may also apply for travel grants and dormitory scholarships by submitting the online application form along with a copy of student ID and an informal transcript copy. This information can be mailed to Gordon Scholarship Committee, Mises Institute, 518 West Magnolia Avenue, Auburn, Alabama 36832, or faxed to 734-448-8148, or emailed to pat@mises.org.