I never received formal education in the subject and I want to learn about it so that I may have a better understanding of the philosophy of our political tradition. I’d appreciate any suggestions on materials to get an introduction to the topic.
I never received formal education in the subject and I want to learn about it so that I may have a better understanding of the philosophy of our political tradition. I’d appreciate any suggestions on materials to get an introduction to the topic.
plato.stanford.edu is a useful reference. Entries are written by Western academics so they have a particular bias and flavor to them, but philosophy students more or less have to bookmark this site.
Don’t take it as gospel, and know that he’s grinding all sorts of axes, but Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy. Every single-volume history of philosophy is going to have its problems, but this one is extremely readable and frequently funny. It will give you enough familiarity with the course of the tradition to know where to go next.
Some intellectual historians who can give good background to particular time periods you might be interested in - Paul Hazard, Karl Löwith, Will Durant. Edmund Wilson’s To The Finland Station covers socialist thought from Jules Michelet to the Russian Revolution.
Hang out in the JC section of any library that uses the Library of Congress classification system; that’s where they keep political theory.