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.