Understanding the Political Philosophers: From Ancient to Modern Times

This lively and engaging guide invites you to climb inside the heads of the major political philosophers, as it were, and to see the world through their eyes. Organised historically - beginning with Socrates and concluding with post-Rawlsian theory - Alan Haworth presents the key ideas and developments with clarity and depth. Each chapter provides a concentrated study of a given thinker or group of thinkers and together they constitute a broad account of the main arguments in political philosophy. There are chapters on Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, the Utilitarians, Marx, and post-Rawlsian developments. This updated and revised second edition also includes a new chapter on the relationship between Rawls and Habermas. Understanding the Political Philosophersis a superb survey of the topic, and is the ideal introductory text for students taking courses in political philosophy or political theory.

Alan Haworth is a Senior Research Associate of the Oxford Uehiro Center for Practical Ethics, and a Senior Fellow of London Metropolitan University's Institute of Human Rights and Social Justice. He is the author of Anti-Libertarianism: Market Philosophy and Myth. (1994) and Free Speech (1998).