Continental Political Thought
Covers leading European political theories from the 18th through the 21st centuries and their application to contemporary questions of democratic theory.
Summary
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 3.50 GPA, 73.7% A/AB (n=19 letter grades).
What you’ll be able to do
Demonstrate familiarity with the major European political theorists since the 18th century through written essays, quizzes and class discussion.
Practice critical reading and writing skills through analysis of sophisticated philosophical texts in written essays.
Identify and categorize the vocabulary and content of contemporary political theory debates through quizzes and written essays.
Analyze and assess the theoretical roots of contemporary political conflicts in written essays.
Assess and compare the arguments for and against different kinds of political systems in written essays and class discussions.
Source: UW Guide
Grade history
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Prerequisites
Course mapPOLI SCI 160
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Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
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Student experience
the class
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 3.50 GPA, 73.7% A/AB (n=19 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
No workload feedback recorded.
Topics
- Human freedom, nature of reason and language, relationship between politics/reason/culture, political effects of language/technology, models of political freedom.
- French and German writers in the 19th and early 20th century.
- Application to contemporary questions of democratic theory.
Skills
- Critical reading and writing skills through analysis of sophisticated philosophical texts.
- Assessing and comparing arguments for and against different kinds of political systems.
- Analyzing and assessing the theoretical roots of contemporary political conflicts.
Grades
Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
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Catalog & offerings
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Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
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Model & dataset provenance
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