The Conception and Use of the Family in Political Theory

FAIN: FT-10738-69

Richard A. Chapman
University of Montana (Missoula, MT 59801-4494)

Study of the concept of family in the political theory of major writers from classical Greeks through Marx and Engels (Plato, Aristotle, Bodin, Hobbes, Filmer, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Marx). Much concern among behavioral social scientist about the role of the family in political and cultural socialization but little study has been make of the roles that political theorist have attributed to the family. Fellow's dissertation, Leviathan Writ Small: Thomas Hobbes on the Family, dealt with Hobbes' conception of the family as an instrument of education and as an anaology to the state.