Political Science Application Essay

Thank you for providing me the space to explain why I want to pursue my PhD in Political Science. In this brief statement I will explain my major research interests, why I believe those areas are both academically and politically significant, and why I would like to attend your program. In my graduate studies I would like to pursue research on the role and influence of ancient political thought on early modern political thought and how that has shaped our contemporary political context. I am interested both in how the ideas of ancient philosophy influenced the development of political thought in the west and in how the idea of the ancients was used by thinkers to develop their own political programs. In the vast topic of ancient and early modern …show more content…
One example of how I have used the history of political thought to address pressing political issues in the past is in my honors thesis. In that paper I focused on the role of myth and religion in the justification for political authority. I relied on Plato’s Republic to formulate a critique of Carl Schmitt’s concept of Political Theology and to look for an alternative role for myth or religion in foundations of political authority. Ernst Cassirer’s work, Myth of the State, argued that Plato’s Republic formed the foundation of the Legal State, or a movement against myth as a foundation for State authority. Cassirer’s history of political thought, much liked Schmitt’s, was a story of secularization of state power. I argued rather that the Republic offered an alternative means to use the power of myth and religion to justify political authority without the authoritarianism of Schmitt. I found that by reconstructing a history of political thought contrary to Cassirer’s I was able to show an alternative solution to Cassirer and Schmitt’s conflict over the proper role for theological concepts in justifying state