John Holzwarth
Assistant Professor with Term
Tuesday and Thursday 1:5 PM - 3:20 PM, & by appointment
Academic Credentials
BA Political Science and English, Colgate University, 1993
PhD Politics, Princeton University, 2004
Teaching
Spring 2025 Courses:
POLS 311: Pillars of Western Political Thought: Revolution and the Social Contract
TTH 01:50PM - 03:20PM
What makes state authority legitimate? What, if anything, can warrant revolution as a means of political, social, or economic change? This course examines the origins of liberalism in
early modern ideas of legitimacy, rights, and obligations, with primary emphasis on foundational thinkers from the crucial period between 1648 and 1848. Readings may include Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, and Martin Luther King Jr., among others.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
POLS 313: Global Justice
TTH 11:30AM - 01:00PM
Normative issues in international politics, including such topics as national sovereignty,
just war theory, international intervention, human rights, cultural rights, secession and
self-determination, the competing ethics of patriotism, nationalism, and cosmopolitanism.
Historical approaches through such thinkers as Thucydides, Hobbes, Kant, Mill, followed by
contemporary readings, including such authors as Rawls, Walzer, Kymlicka, Rorty, Nussbaum.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Junior standing required.