Enseñar teoría política: ¿qué criterio adoptar en la elección de los autores? Una nota de trabajo

Abstract

This paper briefly deals with a debate which is not easy to resolve. It concerns the selection criteria to be used when building a standard course program of political theory or history of political ideas. Is it better to adopt a comprehensive criterion, which will include a broad number of authors and books? Or, instead, is it better to apply a selective criterion, which focuses on a few and meaningful names and titles to be analyzed in depth, and not only superficially? The paper supports the second criterion, because it seems to support better some of the main goals of higher education: acquisition of intellectual abilities and of a well-trained critical spirit.