COURSE: GREAT THINKERS IN POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC THOUGHTS


TIME: Tuesdays 12,30 – 13,50 (political part) & Wednesday 15,30 – 16,50 (economic part)


The lecturers reserves the right to alter the programme during the course of the term if necessary



SEMINAR PROGRAMME:


1.  WEEK

12/2 Ancient Jewish and Greek political thought: Moses, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

13/2 The meaning of being political economist

2. WEEK

19/2 Medieval Christian political thought: Augustinus Aurelius, St. Thomas Aquinas

20/2 Adam Smith I.

3. WEEK

26/3 Reformation (Calvin, Luther) and counter-reformation (Scholastics of Salamanca)

27/3 Adam Smith II.

4. WEEK

4/3 Classical political thought in a contradistinction to modern political thought

5/3 NO CLASS

5. WEEK

11/3 Renaissance and Machiavelli

12/3 German Liberalism

6. WEEK

18/3 Thomas More, English enlightenment, Hobbes and Locke

19/3 Wilhelm von Humboldt

7. WEEK

25/34 Jean Bodin, French enlightenment, Montesqueie and Rousseau

26/3 Ordo-Liberalism

8. WEEK

1/4 Run-up to political ideologies: Scottish Enlightenment, Kant, Hegel

2/4 Karl Marx


9. WEEK

8/4 Conservative and liberal thinking of the 19th Century: Burke, early Liberalism, J. S. Mill,
Disraeli

9/4 Mises, Hayek and the calculation debate

10. WEEK

15/4 French revolution and its aftermath in reflections of Alexis de Tocqueville

16/4 Coase, Ostrom and the problem of governance

11. WEEK

22/4 Resurgence of democracy: Popper, Schumpeter

23/4 Rothbard and analytical anarchism

12. WEEK

29/4 Communitarian critique of liberal democracy

30/4 Hayek revisited: A liberalism for the 20^th century II.


ASSIGNMENTS:


POLITICAL PART:

Final test (60%): open questions only.

Paper or presentation (20%): This assignment is optional and you can opt for either a paper (2-3
thousand words) or the presentation in the class (10 minutes maximum). For a topic & time of your
presentation consult please Karel Müller (karel.muller@vsci.cz). The topic & time need to be
settled within the first three weeks of the term.

Quality participation in the class (20%).


ECONOMIC PART:

Class Participation and Preparation (50%)

Final Students Presentation and Project Discussion

For a topic & time of your presentation consult please Dan Ravick Fiala (dan.fiala@vsci.cz)