This extended format (year-long) political philosophy tutorial initially meets twice a block during the fall semester with a discussion of our common texts; during the spring semester, the focus shifts to developing and writing a paper on the themes of the tutorial. Students have in the past also taken the tutorial as an upper-level course. Here is the theme this coming year’s tutorial: In this tutorial, we will begin to examine the claim –forcefully maintained by thinkers as diverse as Tocqueville, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Strauss – that we are living in the midst of a revolutionary transformation of human life. This revolution was initiated by a certain way of thinking – modern rationalism – and the massive technological, scientific, political, economic, and cultural changes at which it aimed, and which increasingly seem to escape human control and to strip away the foundations of our most profound moral convictions. The aim of our readings and discussions will be to reflect on the meaning and far-reaching implications of this transformation.