This module provides a unique opportunity to study the ideas and influence of Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), the famous jurist, philosopher, and...

Jeremy Bentham and the Utilitarian Tradition (LAWS0051)

This module provides a unique opportunity to study the ideas and influence of Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), the famous jurist, philosopher, and reformer.

Despite concentrating on the thought of one person, the module is surprisingly wide-ranging, since Bentham made significant contributions across a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, law, politics, and economics. Bentham’s ideas are related to the social, political, and intellectual context of his own time, and an assessment made of their significance for the contemporary world.

This module, while offering an in-depth discussion of Greek religion and religious phenomena in the Hellenistic period, focuses upon the shaping of the...

Lived Ancient Religion in Hellenistic Greece (HIST0439)

Lived Ancient Religion in Hellenistic Greece (HIST0438)

This module is for half-year affiliate students only. Please see the 30-credit full-year version, HIST0067, for the full module description.

Please be aware...

American History in Hollywood Film Affiliate (HIST0677)

This module is for half-year affiliate students only. Please see the 30-credit full-year version, HIST0067, for the full module description.

Please be aware that you will only be covering half of the module content described in the full module description (content covered in Term 1 or Term 2, depending on your time with us).

If you require any further information, please contact the History Taught Programmes Team.

For affiliate students only

This module examines the European tradition of political thought from the fifteenth century until the twentieth century through...

The History of European Political Ideas A (SESS0056)

For affiliate students only

This module examines the European tradition of political thought from the fifteenth century until the twentieth century through close study of significant works by key thinkers. This means looking at: the contractarian tradition of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau; the enlightenment thinker, Kant; ‘ambivalent modernists’ such as proto-sociologist, Montesquieu, and the champion of liberty, J.S. Mill; political realists like Renaissance thinker, Machiavelli, and the Nazi jurist, Carl Schmitt; Hannah Arendt whose thought tries to revive the promise of the polis in modern times; and the genealogist of morals, Nietzsche.

The module's approach is both contextualizing and analytical. That is to say, it sees the ideas of these thinkers in the context of the times in which they lived and wrote, but it also encourages students to think analytically about key concepts in political philosophy and political science such as sovereignty, obligation, freedom, equality, change, morality and progress. Learning happens through a combination of lectures and seminars.

The module places a great deal of emphasis on close engagement with original texts.