Macquarie University
Department of Politics

Politics, Philosophy and Medieval Studies

(pages on the history of political philosophy and related topics)

John Kilcullen

 

Australian politics

A First Reading Of The Australian Constitution 
Democracy in Australia | Liberal Democracy | An Australian Bill of Rights? | A comparison of Australian, British and US political systems |
Improving our political system | Submission to JSC on Electoral Matters 2007 ElectionSubmission 2004 Election | Survey of 2004 SubmissionsFactionalism

Epistemology, Religion, Ethics and Political Philosophy

In progress: Philosophy and Religion  | Religion and Politics  | Separation of Church and State  

Free Enterprise and Its Critics 
The Ethics of Belief
(from Sincerity and Truth: Essays on Arnauld, Bayle and Toleration (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988))
Reciprocity Arguments for Toleration (from Sincerity and Truth)
Sincerity and Being Right (from Sincerity and Truth)
Utilitarianism and Virtue (Ethics, 93 (1983))
Mill on Duty and Liberty (Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 59 (1981))
Two papers for the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies: Medieval and modern concepts of rights: how do they differ? | Self-determination and the right to establish a government
Three essays: The Medieval Concept of Heresy; Medieval Theories of Natural Law; Medieval Theories of Natural Rights.

History of political thought

Thucydides | Thucydides (continued)
Plato | Plato (continued) | Plato Gorgias | Plato Statesman | Plato Phaedrus
Aristotle's Politics | Aristotle's Ethics
Augustine, The City of God
Thomas Aquinas | Marsilius of Padua | William of Ockham
Thomas Hobbes | John Locke | David Hume
Adam Smith: Reading Guides, The Theory of Moral Sentiments | Wealth of Nations| Lectures: Moral Sentiments | The Wealth of Nations
J.S. Mill: Representative Government | Utilitarianism | Logic | Sociology
Marx: Capitalism | Reading Guide to Capital | Historical Materialism
The Marginalist Theory
Max Weber: BureaucracyCapitalism | Reading Guide to Weber
Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy | Reading guide to Schumpeter  | Michels, Political Parties
Charles Darwin on the Moral Faculties | Huxley: On the Pigeon-fancier's Polity | Reading Guide to Darwin, Huxley, Dawkins 
John Rawls: The Original Position | Decisions in the Original PositionLiberty | Reading Guide to Rawls, Theory of Justice 

Some reflections

Other Teaching Materials On Political Thought

Medieval and early modern intellectual history

Medieval Political Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Medieval Political Theory (Handbook of Political Theory, ed. Gaus and Kukathas (Sage Publications 2004))
Documents relating to the Franciscan idea of poverty
The Origin of Property: Ockham, Grotius, Pufendorf, and some others
Philosophy, religion and political thought in medieval islam
John Buridan, Commentary on Aristotle's Ethics book X, Latin text | John Wyclif, De civili dominio, chapters 1-10, Latin text
(Translations of Buridan and Wyclif: The Cambridge Translations of Medieval Philosophical Texts, McGrade, Kilcullen, Kempshall)
Antoine Arnauld on Philosophic Sin (from Sincerity and Truth: Essays on Arnauld, Bayle and Toleration (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988))
Arnauld on Freedom and Necessity (from Sincerity and Truth)
Pierre Bayle on the Rights of Conscience (from Sincerity and Truth)
Pierre Bayle, A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23, "Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full" (ed. Kilcullen and Kukathas)
Locke on Political Obligation ( The Review of Politics, 45 (1983), pp.323-344.)

Other studies in medieval and early modern intellectual history

William of Ockham as political thinker

William Of Ockham, Dialogus, edition and translation | Analysis of the argument: 1 Dial. 1-5 (on heresy and heretics);  3.1 Dial. (on the power of the pope);  3.2 Dial. (on the relationship between Church and Empire). | Working files | Classical Text Editor | VBA Procedures for file transformations |
Ockham and the Dialogus
Ockham's Political Writings (from P.V. Spade (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ockham (Cambridge, 1999))
Ockham and Infallibility (from The Journal of Religious History, 16 (1991))
Ockham and Early Christianity
Introduction to Ockham, The Work of Ninety Days
Natural Law and Will in Ockham

Ockham: A short discourse on the tyrannical government usurped by some who are called Highest Pontiffs (McGrade and Kilcullen),
Ockham: A Letter to the Friars Minor and other Writings (McGrade and Kilcullen)
Ockham: The Work of Ninety Days (Kilcullen and Scott)
For electronic searching: Ockham Translations

Medieval philosophy

Medieval Philosophy: An Introduction
Greek Philosophical Background | Philosophy from Aristotle to Augustine | Christianty and Greek Philosophy
Reading Guide to V.J. Bourke, The Essential Augustine
Reading Guide to Boethius, Consolation
Anselm's Monologion
Anselm's Proslogion and Cur deus homo
Reading guide to Anselm's De concordia [on God's foreknowledge and predestination, and human freedom]
Al Ghazali and Averroes 
Peter Abelard 
Thomas Aquinas on God
Nominalism, Realism, Conceptualism: Duns Scotus on Universals | Ockham on Universals | Ockham on Relations
Scotus and Ockham  on Free Will
Medieval elements in Descartes | Medieval elements in Berkeley, Locke and Hume

Other Teaching Materials On Medieval Philosophy

University of Sydney teaching materials

The Medieval Intellectual Tradition
Augustine on Freewill and Predestination: download, listen
Predestination in the 14th Century: download, listen
14th century theories on predestination and grace (continued): download, listen

 

Email: John.Kilcullen@hmn.mq.edu.au