Moral Foundations of Politics
- Free
- Paid certificate
Moral Foundations of Politics is Ian Shapiro's Coursera course asking when governments deserve our allegiance and when they should be denied it. Its eight modules open with a welcome and a survey of Enlightenment political theory, then take utilitarianism in its classical and neoclassical forms, Marxism and its legacy, two modules on the social contract tradition, anti-Enlightenment politics and, finally, democracy; each theory is introduced in its historical setting and then brought to bear on current debates. The course is self-paced with a flexible schedule and includes recorded office-hours sessions. Coursera lists it as free, and Yale Online lists the fee as free or $49 for the Coursera certificate, with pricing that varies by location; the shareable certificate is the only paid element.
Financial aid is available. Yale also posts the lecture videos on YouTube. The course was formerly hosted on Open Yale Courses and has since moved to Coursera.
What you’ll learn
- Summarise the Enlightenment political theories the course starts from
- Compare classical and neoclassical utilitarianism
- Explain Marxism, its failures and its legacy
- Trace the social contract tradition from its classical forms to contemporary debates
- Describe anti-Enlightenment politics and the case for democracy
- Connect political theory to disagreements in politics today
Who it’s for
Readers who want a structured introduction to modern political theory and how it bears on today's arguments, with no prior study assumed.
Syllabus
8 sections as listed on coursera.org, 46 h 17 min in total.
- Welcome to Moral Foundations of Politics 41 min
- Enlightenment Political Theory 3 h 40 min
- Utilitarianism: Classical and Neoclassical 7 h 20 min
- Marxism, Its Failures and Its Legacy 7 h 28 min
- The Social Contract Tradition I 8 h 52 min
- The Social Contract Tradition II 3 h 48 min
- Anti-Enlightenment Politics 5 h 17 min
- Democracy 9 h 11 min
Instructor
- Ian Shapiro Sterling Professor of Political Science and Henry R. Luce Director, The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, Yale University
Course details
- Skills covered
- Social Justice
- Law, Regulation, and Compliance
- Political Sciences
- Economics
- Governance
- Includes
- 8 modules · 7 assignments
- Subtitles
- 22 languages
On coursera.org
Rated 4.9 out of 5 by 6,117 learners; 260,971 enrolled, as shown on the course page on 20 Oct 2026. These are coursera.org’s own figures, not ours.
Source: Yale Online (opens in a new tab) · Verified · Report a change
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