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The book Political Philosophy: Text and Context is an energetic and engaged exercise to have correct understanding of a thinker. This book has been written to help students see how political philosophy connects and negotiates diverse aspects of human life in ways most people do not realize. It can be used in conjunction with primary sources but it can also stand on its own as an introduction to political philosophy. It aims to discuss consciously the views of major twenty-four western political philosophers, from Plato to Judith Butler, to demonstrate how their views about politics and society are critical to understand the politics of our time. This comprehensive collection of essential selections of political philosophy, from the ancient world to the contemporary, is presented in chronological order and grouped by period. Each reading is accompanied by a brief biographical sketch of the philosopher and each period is prefaced by general historical overview.

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Leo Strauss; Plato; Aristotle; Cicero; St. Augustine; Thomas Acquinas; Niccolo Machiavelli; Thomas Hobbes; John Locke; Jean Jacques Rousseau; David Hume; Edmund Burke; Mary Wollstonecraft; Immanuel Kant; G.W.F. Hegel; John Stuart Mill; Karl Marx; Friedrich Nietzsche; Herbert Marcuse; Michel Foucault; John Rawls; Robert Nozick; Jurgen Habermas; Judith Butler; Bibliography; Index.