This text is a one-volume library of political philosophy which covers the major works commonly taught in university-level
courses in Political Philosophy or Political History. It could also serve as a supplement to an introductory course
in Political Science.
This text introduces students to original works such as Plato's Republic, Machiavelli's The Prince, and Hegel's
Philosophy of Right.
Table of Contents
Preface to the First Edition (1989).
Preface to the Second Edition (1997).
Preface to the Third Edition.
PLATO. The Republic.
Book I: Cephalus and Thrasymaechus.
Book II: The Question Restated.
Book III: Selection of Rulers.
Book IV: Guardians and Virtues.
Book V: Philosophers as Kings.
Book VI: Four Stages of Cognition.
Book VII: The Allegory of the Cave.
Book VIII: Decline of the State.
Book IX: Justice Benefits.
Book X: The Myth of Eros.
ARISTOTLE.
The Nicomachean Ethic.
Book One: The Goal of Human Life.
Book Five: Justice and Injustice.
Book Eight: Kinds of Friendships and Politics.
The Politics.
Book 1: The City and the Household.
Book 2: Views Concerning the Best Regime.
Book 3: The City and the Regime.
Book 4: Types of Regimes: What Preserves and Destroys Them.
Book 5: What Preserves and Destroys Regimes.
Book 7: Education and the Best Regime.
ST. AUGUSTINE.
The City of God.
The Earthly City.
Fallen Nature and the Two Cities.
True Justice: Not of This World.
Development of the Two Cities.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.
Summa Contra Gentiles. Summa Theologica.
Part I: The Existence of God.
Part II (First Part): Significance of the State.
Treatise on Law.
The Various Kinds of Law.
Just War.
Resisting Tyrannical Government.
Right to Property.
Property Useful to Human Life.
Need and Charity.
Usury.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI.
The Prince.
Dedicatory Letter: Niccol Machiavelli to His Magnificence Lorenzo de'Medici.
Chapter V: How one should govern cities or principalities that, before being conquered, used to live under their
own laws.
Chapter VI: New principalities acquired by one's own arms and ability.
Chapter VII: New principalities acquired through the power of others and their favour. Chapter VIII: Those who
become rulers through wicked means.
Chapter IX: The civil principality.
Chapter XI: Ecclesiastical principalities.
Chapter XII: The different types of army, and mercenary troops.
Chapter XIII: Auxiliaries, mixed troops and native troops.
Chapter XIV: How a ruler should act concerning military matters.
Chapter XV: The things for which men, and especially rulers, are praised or blamed. Chapter XVI: Generosity and
meanness.
Chapter XVII: Cruelty and mercifulness; and whether it is better to be loved or feared. Chapter XVIII: How rulers
should keep their promises.
Chapter XXI: How a ruler should act in order to gain reputation.
Chapter XXV: How much power fortune has over human affairs, and how it should be resisted.
Chapter XXVI: Exhortation to liberate Italy from the barbarian yoke.
THOMAS HOBBES.
The Leviathan: Or the Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiasticall and Civil.
Author's Introduction.
The First Part: Of Man.
The Second Part: Of Commonwealth.
JOHN LOCKE.
Two Treatises of Government: The Second Treatise-An Essay Concerning the True Origin, Extent and End of Civil
Government.
Book II.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU.
Second Discourse: Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men.
First Part.
Second Part.
On the Social Contract.
Book I. Book II.
Book III. Book IV.
GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL.
The Phenomenology of the Spirit.
Master and Servant.
Introduction to the Philosophy of History.
I. Original History.
II. Reflective History.
III. Philosophical History.
The Philosophy of Right.
Ethical Life.
Civil Society.
JOHN STUART MILL.
On Liberty.
Chapter I: Introductory.
Chapter II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion.
Chapter III: Of Individuality, As One of the Elements of Well-Being.
Chapter IV: Of the Limits to the Authority of Society Over the Individual.
Chapter V: Applications.
Utilitarianism.
Chapter II: What Utilitarianism Is.
Chapter III: Of the Ultimate Sanction of the Principle of Utility.
Chapter V: On the Connection Between Justice and Utility.
KARL MARX.
Friedrich Engels: Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx. Karl Marx: Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts.
First Manuscript: Alienated Labour.
Third Manuscript: Private Property and Communism.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: The German Ideology. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Manifesto of the Communist Party.
I. Bourgeois and Proletarians.
II. Proletarians and Communists.
Karl Marx: A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Karl Marx: Capital.
Commodities: Use-Value and Exchange Value.
The Rate of Surplus Value.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE.
On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense. The Gay Science. The Gay Science: Book V. Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
Zarathustra's Prologue.
The Genalogy of Morals.
First Essay: "Good and Evil," "Good and Bad."
Second Essay: "Guilt," "Bad Conscience," and the Like.
Third Essay: What is the Meaning of Ascetic Ideals.
