This course aims to provide an overview of the foundational texts of modern social and political thought. By reading selected passages from Machiavelli, Hobbes, Hume, Smith, Marx and Weber, in particular, the course will attempt to identify the main philosophical threads within contemporary social and political discourse.Selections from the key writings of 6 major thinkers in the history of modern social and political thought. These are Machiavelli, Hobbes, Hume, Smith, Marx and Weber. In addition, the course will also consider very briefly the ideas of Spinoza, Locke, and Rousseau. The central themes that run through the course are liberty, virtue, state, civil society, empiricism, impressions and ideas, value and justice.