Readings on Politics

A political theory (or conception of politics) explains (1) the basis of political-legal authority and also (2) the proper functions of government, among other things. Keep in mind that authority is the ability to create duty or obligation; coercion or force is the ability to create only obedience. Also remember that the ground or basis of authority must be (1) divine, (2) natural (cosmic), or (3) human—that is, “convention,”—or some combination of these. What do these writing say about the source of political, governmental, legal authority and about the proper functions of government? Read them closely and compare.

1. The ancient or mytho-poeic attitude.

Thorkild Jacobsen, excerpts from “Mesopotamia: The Cosmos as a State & The Function of the State,” in The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man. 

2. Epicurean conceptions of politics and the case for convention as the source of authority.

c. Please review this previously assigned reading from Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, V. 1011-1028, 1105-1160.

d. Hobbes, Leviathan, excerpts from chapters 16, 17, 18, and 20. Use these study questions to help you get through the chapters. Be sure to review the previously-assigned chapter 13 for Hobbes’s explanation of the motivation and the perceived need for government, the “common power” that makes life bearable. When reading chapter 18 on the sovereign’s rights, consider this article on contemporary Jordan. 

c. Locke, Second Treatise,§§ or ¶¶ 2-8, 87-90, 95-99, 123-130, 134-135. The logical consistency of Locke’s natural law of rights and obligations with the metaphysics that he espouses in his major work, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Some have argued that his natural law is simply an expression of Christian influence on his ethical thought. Regardless, in ¶95 and elsewhere in the paragraphs cited above, he presents his version of the social contract which seems to reach beyond a purely conventional source of authority. 

d. Rousseau, excerpts from Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and The Social Contract. Clearly, Rousseau’s understanding of human nature is much different from Hobbes’s, and Rousseau criticizes just this point of disagreement with Hobbes. His view that human nature is essentially good and that one’s social and political environment corrupts that goodness is diametrically opposed to Hobbes’s view that human nature is naturally predatory, aggressive, and selfish and the social and political environment must restrain that nature and enforce “good” behavior. In Book One of his Social Contract, Rousseau also proposes a version of the social contract, affirming his agreement that all ethical and political norms are conventional, not natural or divine.

3. The Classical conception of politics and the case for nature as the source of authority. 

a. Aristotle, Politics: includes Nicomachean Ethics, I. 1 & 2 (relation of ethics to politics); Politics, I. 1-2 (the nature of the polis); III. 1 (citizenship) & 4 (when is the good man a good citizen); IV. 1 (choosing the appropriate constitution). See also Nicomachean Ethics, VI. 8 (political wisdom) and X. 9 (relation of ethics to politics).

b. Alternate readings. From Aristotle's Politics, Book I, Chapters 1 and 2, and Book III, Chapters 1, 3 & 4, 6-8, and Book IV, Chapters 1-4; Book VII, Chapters 1-3, 13-14.

c. Excerpts from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Politics that show the relationship between his conceptions of ethics and politics can be found in this set of excerpts.

d. Plato, Republic, Book V, 471c to 480a. After sketching a “city in speech” for the purpose of defining “justice,” Plato is asked by Glaukon whether the guardian-ruled city in speech is a blueprint for an actual government. Socrates’s response points to a “philosopher-king” as an attainable but elusive possibility. Plato's theory in the Republic assumes that the philosopher is one who has mastered the highest knowledge described in the divided line and Myth of the Cave accounts discussed earlier in the study of epistemology. Aristotle did not directly prescribe government by a philosopher-king but by the aristoi, the best men, the serious, prudent men (spoudaios phronemos). Aristotle’s idea of those best able to govern is also based directly on the ideas of happiness and virtue that we discussed earlier in the semester. On the main web page, in the list of Western Political Concepts readings and links, there is a link to some helpful questions to consider as you read the Plato assignment.

e. Compare the Epicurean view of political function and authority to the Aristotelian view of political function and authority: please read Locke, Second Treatise, ch. VIII, ¶ ¶ 95-99; Hobbes, Leviathan, chapters 16 & 17; and Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book I, chapters 1-3, and Politics, Book I, chapters 1 & 2. Looks like a lot, but is actually less than twenty pages.

4. The Classical-Christian conception of politics and the case for considering the divine roots of political authority.

a. St. Augustine, City of God, Book XIX. 14, 15, 17, 24, 26. Study questions on Book XIX are available here.

b. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, "Treatise on Law,” (including excerpts from Question 91 (Of the Various Kinds of Law) and Question 95 (Of Human Law). You may also want to take another look at Question 94 (Of the Natural Law) linked on the “Ethics” page, in order to better understand Question 95.

c. Consider the contrasting views of Judaism and Islam on the question of the proper source of political authority.

d. Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium, Introduction and chapter 1. Please read the handout on apocalyptic and millenarian eschatologies. This is definitely not “Classical-Christian” theology, but it does reflect a deeply-rooted theme in Christian (and Jewish and Muslim) religion up to the present time. In reading the assignment, pay attention to the following:

·         the essential characteristics of the millenarian picture of “salvation”

·         the paradigm or central phantasy of revolutionary eschatology

·         the basic plot or scenario that is reflected in the Jewish and Christian millenarian myths or phantasies

·         the plot variants represented by the non-Biblical myths or phantasies popular in the Middle Ages

·         the meaning of terms such as millenarian, apocalyptic, eschatology, the Anti-Christ, the Emperor of the Last Days, Messianic

·         what St Augustine thought about this whole subject

5. The Esoteric conceptions of politics.