Liberal Politics, Philosophy, and Us
Taught by Ryan Doto
Ryan Doto is a host of things, including an obsessive learner, an omnivorous reader, a technophile, and an overall closet nerd. His professions include philosophy PhD student, professional Starcraft II player, and creator of two daily podcasts. If he could merge a book and a computer (and not the way the Nook or Kindle have), he would never, ever go outside.
This will be a crash course on the background, development, and thoughts of some of the greatest Western liberal thinkers the world has seen.
We will touch on the break from monarchies, the development of democracy, and the arrival of socialism, Marxism, neo-Marxism, and other contemporary liberal philosophies and thoughts. We'll race through an exciting history of radical thinkers who pushed boundaries and opened doors that we all take for granted today, and those whose ideas have not quite made it into the mainstream. We'll learn what socialism, democracy, and other commonly thrown around concepts TRULY are, not just what we are fed by politicians, and we will compare these theoretical jumping off points to what our society looks like today.
If you have any interest in politics, are a liberal who wants to know more about the birthplace of your ideologies, or a conservative who wants to learn about other ideas and argue, sign up! I can promise that at the very least you will be witness to some passion, some satire, some jokes, some stories, some history, and (hopefully) a lot of fun!
