This introduction to political philosophy explores the history of ideas and ways of thinking about society. Beginning with Plato's "Utopia", Cohen goes on to discuss political philosophies from Niccolo Machiavelli's "Psychology of the State" through to Hobbes' "Wicked World".

This introduction to political philosophy explores the history of ideas and ways of thinking about society. Beginning with Plato's "Utopia", Cohen goes on to discuss political philosophies from Niccolo Machiavelli's "Psychology of the State" through to Hobbes' "Wicked World", John Locke, Adam Smith, Rousseau, Marxism, Italian Fascism, Maoism and beyond. Theory is set within the social context of a historical narrative, in what amounts to a history of civilization, encompassing a range of philosophers from Plato and the Enlightenment humanists to Hayek and Fukuyama.

Prologue - the story of human society
key text - Plato's republic
Niccolo Machiavelli and the psychology of the state
key text - the discourses
Hobbes' "Wicked World"
key text - the Leviathan
John Locke - the true end of civil government
key text - essay concerning the true, original extent and end of civil government
Jean Jacques Rousseau - inequality or freedom?
key text - discourse of inequality
Adam Smith's inquiry into the wealth of nations
key text - an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations
Marx and Engels - the communist manifesto
key text - the communist manifesto
the principles of political economy - J.S. Mill and the limits of government
key text - the principles of political economy
positivism and the science of society
key text - social rituals and sacred objects
behold the man!
the deceptive appeal of power - Hegel, Nietzsche and the fascists
key text - Ecce Homo
Maoism
key text - the Red Book
the end of history?.