POL101Y1 Lecture Notes - Averroes, Washington Consensus, Authoritarianism
19 Sep 2013
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Aristotle : man is by nature a political animal and he who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god . Politics is about power, justice, violence and peace. Big themes of class : democracy dictatorship, war and peace. The point of social science is to try to make sense of the world we live in. By simplifying, by focusing on what matters and ignoring what doesn t. It s not just one thing happening after another. Not kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, or celebrities: they steal ideas, big ideas. When you see a war, what you are seeing is eople dying but what s really happening out there is a clash of ideas. Industry, economy, religious practices are material manifestation but what are really going on are the ideas that inform those practices. Really big ideas are those that organize human society.
