New seminar and lecture

Literature as Political Philosophy: The Oresteia’, seminar 45 hours, Jonathan Price, Phd, Tuesday, 17.10-20.00, room 209 (since 12.03.2019)

This seminar series will demonstrate the power of great literature to serve as political philosophy. All major themes of ancient and modern political philosophy will be touched upon. Standard readings in political philosophy will be made use of on an ad-hoc basis (e.g., Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Tocqueville, Marx, Mill, et al.) However, the chief work used for the seminar series shall be Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, in English translation. It contains more than enough political philosophy for reflection, and anticipates much of what follows in the political thought of the ancient Greeks and those whom they influenced.

Contract, Covenant, Polis & Person – themes for a normative philosophy of law’, lecture 30 hours, Jonathan Price, Phd, Tuesday, 15.00-16.55, room 209 (since 12.03.2019)

How the two constitutions, the political one in which positive law functions, and the personal one in which the law of conscience reigns, connect will be examined in these seminars by way of philosophical enquiry into questions surrounding natural and contractual obligations. Many examples will be drawn from literature, both secular and sacred.