This course looks primarily at the way empire has figured in the works of dominant 17th, 18th and 19th century social and political thinkers mostly of Western Europe from primarily the 17th to the 19th century. The works of such figures as Kant, Herder, Hegel, Locke, Marx, Mill, Diderot, Wollstonecraft, Burke, Du Bois and Tocqueville among others are examined. Students will historically contextualize and analyze many of the reflections and positions of these figures on race, civilization, gender, progress, modernity and science in relation to imperialism and colonialism, and make a critical assessments of the discursive, ideological and theoretical features of their selected works. Other issues discussed include the canonical formation of European cultural, social and political thought at work in the authorship of modernity. Of particular significance in the course is an eye on some of the implications of the critical treatment of empire found in (often classic) works of the ‘Western’ 20th c. via ongoing reference to debates over various forms of colonialism and imperialism in contemporary societies.