 Hi. Welcome to Sailor Network's course on Western political thought. My name is Sean. I'm the archivist for the Sailor Foundation and today I'm here to introduce you to this political theory course. Now Socrates, the old Greek philosopher, had an innocent enough question. How should we govern? Now he was executed. Political thought, it turns out, is kind of complicated. So we ask questions like what form should government take? What duties does government owe its citizens? And what do those citizens have to do in return? Now how does government fail? If it does, it should be overthrown. We'll look in this course at some of the major people and ideas in the history of political thought from classic to modern times. We'll look at how events in human nature, as we suppose it to be, shapes the design of governments. And the names you'll hear, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Tocqueville, Marx, all these people were responding to different times and they brought to the table very different ideas about people, laws, and government. This course has three units. The first deals with the polis. It's Greek word. We use it to talk about the political community. And that unit will examine the works of early political thinkers. The second unit explores modern states and constitutional government. And the third unit looks at various views of democracy, its critics, and governments role in the economy. Before you begin the course, just a few notes. First, the entire course should take you about 128 hours to complete. That includes readings, lectures, review of your notes, and so on. So do take notes and take your time. Second, our materials come from a variety of sources. So most of our lectures are from Professor Stephen Smith at Yale University. Many of our readings are from MIT and we've included our own activities to help you reinforce your learning. Third, there will be a test at the end of each unit, as well as a final multiple choice exam. That exam determines your whole grade for the course and you'll get your results as soon as you click submit. And keeping good notes throughout is going to be a great help for the test. And finally, keep in mind that Aristotle was once a student of Plato and Plato a student of Socrates. Their political theories are extensions of and reactions to what they were taught and what was occurring in the world around them. So how will you react to these ideas? How will you change them and push them further? Keep it open and bearing mind. And good luck.