“Succinct and challenging, Arnhart treats his readers well.” — Anthony Brunello, Eckerd College

“I’m impressed with the question format of the chapters. This will help to focus students’ attention and, in so doing, allow them to come to the theories in a manner that emphasizes why they are important and relevant.” — Peter Lindsay, Georgia State University

“This text shows how political theory and political philosophy can be combined. It is well organized, insightful, and full of wisdom. It is excellent for undergraduate as well as graduate teaching. The Fourth Edition continues to confront the basic issues of political philosophy with an eye for what is fundamental, but now he has intensified and extended his examination. It is an excellent textbook for advanced undergraduates.” — Douglas Rasmussen, St. John’s University

“Arnhart is a master and students need to deal with his never-ending deconstruction of arguments.” — Michael Loughlin, Ohio Northern University

“Students love the way Arnhart brings the profound thinkers into the modern world—demolishing their preconceptions about ‘old’ ideas.” — Laurie Bagby, Kansas State University

“I am enthralled with the author’s approach—seeking to answer political questions in like fashion as the philosophers pursued questions of equality, liberty, and justice. Bravo Larry Arnhart!” — Jane Sabes, Andrews University

Introduction: From the Declaration of Independence to Political Philosophy
1. Political Knowledge and Political Power: Plato’s Apology, Crito, and Republic
2. Political Science as the Study of Regimes: Aristotle’s Politics
3. The Political Realism of Christian Theology: Augustine’s City of God
4. Natural Law: Thomas Aquinas’s “Treatise on Law”
5. Power Politics: Machiavelli’s The Prince and Discourses
6. Liberal Rationalism: Descartes’s Discourse on Method
7. Individual Rights and Absolute Government: Hobbes’s Leviathan and Behemoth
8. Classical Liberalism: Locke’s Second Treatise of Government and Letter Concerning Toleration
9. Participatory Democracy: Rousseau’s First Discourse, Second Discourse, and The Social Contract
10. Morals and Markets in the Commercial Society: Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations
11. History and the Modern State: Hegel’s Philosophy of Right and Philosophy of History
12. Socialism: Marx’s Communist Manifesto
13. The Death of God and the Will to Power: Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy; Human, All Too Human; Thus Spoke Zarathustra; and Beyond Good and Evil
14. Relativism and Natural Right in the Crisis of Liberalism: Strauss's Persecution and the Art of Writing and Natural Right and History
15. The Social Justice of Equal Liberty: Rawls’s A Theory of Justice
16. The Classical Liberalism of Declining Violence: Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature
Epilogue