HON 327 - Revolution and Philosophy

Prerequisite, acceptance to the University Honors Program, or consent of Honors Program Director. Often inspired and preceded by great thinkers, revolutions shape the thinking of those who watch the flames. This course examines, in turn, four of the world’s great political revolutions - the English Revolution of 1640-1660 that unleashed the modern revolutionary in the personality of the Puritan zealots, the American Revolution sparked by civic republican ideas about civic virtue and corruption, the French Revolution of 1789, which, after being inspired by Rousseau, resulted in the Rights of Man, the terror and the rise of Napoleon, and the Russian Revolution of 1917 which could not have taken place without the writings of Marx and leadership of Lenin. (Offered as needed.) 3 credits