POL 737 Seminar: Historicity and Ethics of Politics
Does the emphasis on the historical nature of human existence, as in Burke, Hegel, Croce, and later historicists, undermine the notion of moral universality? If there are universal "values" or "principles," do we need to heed history and tradition? The seminar reconsiders the meaning of "universality" and "transcendence," exploring the possibility of synthesis as well as tension between universality and particularity.
The implications for political morality are examined with particular reference to Platonic "idealism," Machiavellian "realism," and the distinction between the things of God and the things of Caesar.