POL101Y1 Lecture Notes - Authoritarianism, Francis Fukuyama, Islamic Fundamentalism
21 Oct 2013
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Document Summary
Man is by nature a political animal and he who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god - aristotle, politics. The point of social science is to try to make sense of the world we live in. How do we make sense of it: by simplifying, by focusing on what matters and ignoring what doesn"t. Francis fukuyama fall of berlin=end of history. Hegel history is understandable, there is a structure to history, the way that it unfolds beginning, middle, and end: the history of the big ideas=philosophy, human capacity of understanding the world. Not kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, or celebrities: they steal ideas, big ideas. The clash of ideas: when you see war, what you are seeing is people dying but what"s really happening out there is a clash of ideas.
