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FINAL RESEARCH PAPER TOPIC AND BIBLIOGRAPHY INSTRUCTIONS
Provide a few sentences describing a political theory topic for the Final Research Paper. This initial
proposal will serve as a basis for communication with the course instructor about the final topic, which must
be approved before proceeding.
In your topic proposal and eventual Final Research Paper, you must use at least three of the political
thinkers from the course: one must come from the Classical Body Politic (Plato, Aristotle, or Cicero); one
must come from one of the Christian Bodies Politic (Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, or Calvin); and one must
come from the one of the Modern Bodies Politics or Diseased Bodies Politic (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau,
Marx, Nietzsche, Bentham, Mill, Dewey, or Rawls). Your finished Final Research Paper, due at the end of
Week 7, must contain at least one full page on each of your three chosen thinkers.
Also, list at least 3 peer-reviewed sources, such as academic journal articles or books published by
university presses, that you plan to include in your research. The course text, which must also be used in
the Final Research Paper as part of your total 7 sources, does not count toward these 3 sources.
This assignment ensures that you know what types of sources are permissible and where to find them.
Examples:
Cornford, Francis Macdonald. The Republic of Plato. London: Oxford University Press, 1945.
Dobbs, Darrell. “The Piety of Thought in Plato’s Republic, Book 1.” The American Political Science Review
88 (1994): 668–83.
Submit your Final Research Paper Topic and Bibliography by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Monday of Module/Week
1.