 Western political theory studies a conversation across time among seminal thinkers and canonical texts from the West. We want to understand our current political institutions and values and their evolution, along with those ideas that history and practice have left behind. We aim to understand alternative conceptions of justice. What is it? Why does this political value matter so much? We use the term fairly often, but it's meant a lot of different things over time. We also want to evaluate frameworks of power and legitimacy, considering the political institutions and justifications for various governing structures. In addition, the course materials will encourage us to understand other fundamental political questions related to the distribution of wealth and the state's role in emulating, encouraging, and even enabling moral behavior. The course is divided into two parts, the ancients and the moderns. We read long excerpts from foundational texts, such as those by Sophocles, Plato, Machiavelli, and Hobbes. We talk about those texts and their contemporary significance via wikis, discussion forums, and weekly webinars. We also write short reflection papers that address questions raised by these texts to help organize our thinking and communicate our ideas. By the end of the course, we hope to be familiar with primary texts representing a Western tradition. We want to know how these ideas, the good and the bad, have affected and continue to shape our world.