Minerva's owl : the tradition of western political thought / Jeffrey Abramson.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-375) and index.

Introduction: The canon of political thought -- Plato's Republic: the debate over justice begins -- The students revolt against Utopia -- Out of the cave and into the light-and back again? -- Beyond Plato's tragic republic -- Aristotle's ethics: the habits of virtue -- Aristotle's politics: severed hands and political animals -- Augustine and the problem of evil -- Machiavelli's dirty hands -- Hobbes and the kingdom of means -- Locke, liberalism, and the possessive life -- Rousseau and the rustic -- Rousseau and the political -- Kant's crooked timber -- John Stuart Mill and the demands of individuality -- Hegel, Marx, and the owl of Minerva -- The revival of political theory -- Conclusion: The passion for politics.