The Greatest Political Thinkers in History The Ideas that Shape our World
Power over People: Classical and Modern Political Theory
offers 16 audio or video lectures by one of America’s most prominent scholars
Why is the world the way it is? What is the best that has been thought and said about government, power, and the individual in society? Are human beings fundamentally equal or unequal?
Illuminating Comparisons
Now there’s a way for you to fill the gaps without putting your life on hold. Power over People: Classical and Modern Political Theory is a cross-cultural exploration of 2,500 years of political philosophy tailored for continuing learners like you. If you spend just 45 minutes a daywhile commuting, relaxing at home, or even exercising—you’ll learn a surprisingly large amount about the minds and ideas that have shaped our time, and in little more than two weeks!
Professor Dennis Dalton’s course is focused, accurate, and relevant; you will enjoy intellectual stimulation of the highest order. Professor Dalton is that rare teacher who combines erudition, fluency, and the ability to awaken others’ passion for learning.
In this course, he invites you to examine some of the fundamental questions that have shaped Western political thought since its inception, together with some of the most influential answers that political theorists have proposed.
Professor Dalton’s wide-ranging exploration of power and its use is kept focused by his masterful use of comparisons—he contrasts Plato’s idealism with Aristotle’s realism, Marx’s optimism with Freud’s pessimism, and Hitler’s exclusionism and exaltation of violence with Gandhi’s inclusionism and insistence on nonviolence.
You’ll take a fascinating journey that prompts you to think more deeply about yourself, the standards that guide you, and your ties to society.
About Your Professor
Dr. Dennis G. Dalton, (Ph.D., University of London) is the Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. Professor Dalton has been honored with several scholarships and grants including two Fulbright Scholarships.
About The Teaching Company
We review hundreds of top-rated professors from America’s best colleges and universities each year. From this extraordinary group we choose only those rated highest by panels of our customers. Fewer than 10% of these world-class scholar-teachers are selected to make The Great Courses. We’ve been doing this since 1990, producing more than 2,000 hours of material in modern and ancient history, philosophy, literature, fine arts, the sciences, and math ematics for intelligent, engaged, adult lifelong learners. If a course is ever less than completely satisfying, you may exchange it for another or we will refund your money promptly.
Lecture Titles
1. The Hindu Vision of Life 2. Thucydides and The Peloponnesian War 3. Law and Rule in Sophocles’s Antigone 4. Socrates and Socratic Quest 5. Plato—Idealism and Power, Part I 6. Plato—Idealism and Power, Part II 7. Aristotle’s Critique of Plato’s Republic 8. Machiavelli’s Theory of Power Politics 9. Rousseau’s Theory of Human Nature and Society 10. Marx’s Critique of Capitalism and Solution of Communism 11. Freud’s Theory of Human Nature and Civilization 12. Thoreau’s Theory of Civil Disobedience 13. Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor 14. The Idea of Anarchism and the Example of Emma Goldman 15. Hitler’s Use of Power 16. Gandhi’s Use of Power
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