Modern Conceptions of Freedom
MIT's Concourse program offers this course on how freedom is defined in modern political thought and what obligations come with it. Readings move through Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Burke and Montesquieu, tracing how each thinker grounds liberty in different accounts of human nature and government. The course then turns to the American founding, examining the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Federalist Papers to ask which conceptions of freedom actually shaped the United States. Materials include a syllabus, reading assignments drawn from primary texts, and discussion questions used in MIT's small-seminar Concourse format, which pairs humanities study with science and engineering coursework. There are no video lectures, but the course provides a full set of readings and assignments through MIT OpenCourseWare, free to access, with no certificate offered.