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Instructors: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ruth Zimmerling
Event type:
hybrid: Seminar
Displayed in timetable as:
Sem.John Locke
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 30
Priority scheme: Senatsrichtlinie
Requirements / organisational issues:
This seminar is taught in English.
It is valid particularly for Module 4 (Politics in Europe: S Political Philosophy) in the MA European Studies, as well as for the modules on political theory in the other MA programmes. (For the full list, see the German page.)
Contents:
When Johne Locke returned to England after half a decade of exile in Holland, at that time "the asylum in Europe for those who failed to find civil and religious liberty in their native country", as A. C. Fraser remarks in his Preface to the Essay Concerning Human Understanding (xxxiv), he published the works on "individual liberty – religious, civil, and intellectual" (ibid., xxxviii) that would later make him famous practically all at once, in 1689/90. But even as free a thinker as Locke still thought it prudent not to put his name on the cover of his political works, the "Two Treatises on Government" and the "Letter on Toleration".
In the seminar, we will read and discuss these works. Are Locke's ideas on civil liberty still – or perhaps: again, unfortunately – instructive for students of 21st century politics? Can we at least still understand what may have been so scandalous about them 300+ years ago? Does the assessment of Locke as the first liberal democrat withstand critical scrutiny? To what extent, and in what aspects, has the theory of democratic liberalism today gone beyond Locke's early insights? These are some of the questions we will attempt to find answers to in the seminar.
Recommended reading list:
+ Locke's works are available online at the university library.
+ However, a copy of the "Two Treatises on Government" (or at least the "Second Treatise") and the "Letter on Toleration" should be part of any serious political scientist's personal library (convenient inexpensive editions are available).
+ A list of secondary sources will be made available in due time on the course platform (lms.uni-mainz.de: registered seminar participants will have automatic access).
Additional information:
Term papers for this seminair can be written in English or German.
Digital teaching:
The Summer Semester 2021 will be yet another (hopefully the last pandemic-induced) digital semester.
All course materials will be made available on the Moodle platform (lms.uni-mainz.de).
Weekly seminar sessions will be held online, at the regularly scheduled time (Tue 14-16 CEST). Please make sure you schedule any other commitments accordingly!
If at all possible, we will try to organize at least one session "in presence", for those participants who will be in Mainz and able to attend (non-obligatory).
Participants should count on getting periodical assignments, in order to prove the active participation necessary to receive credits for the course.
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