The Modern Political Tradition: Hobbes to Habermas 01-06
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 03:13
?Political philosophy
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 05:46
?Political continuuum hypothesis:
Between any two political positions or theories, another can be invented
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 08:06
Politics (comes from the Greek word,?polis): Social decision making; making and enforcing decisions for and about society
Philosophy: The most general form of inquiry; the attempt to say what is true and why
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 09:03
Political science: descrptive claims
Political scientists?describe different political systems, analyze voting behavior, and describe political facts about the real world
Political philosophy/theory: normative claims
Political theorists/philosophers claim what should our political be like, what is the best political system, what is the nature of justice,?and what ought to be not merely what is
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 10:43
democracy: Free, equal, self-ruling society
Republic: Society in which the political authority of the government flows from the people isntead down from queens or kings, or at least popular sovereignty (citizens).?Republicanism was?to oppose?royalism
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 13:02
democracy and republic are connected by different. democracy means rule by the people, and in practice it has to mean majority rule, which usually Appears among citizens in the republic. democracy refers to direct, egalitarian?power of the majority of people.?Republic is a broader term, and there are nondemocratic alterations to democracy inside a republic
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 13:37
Republican Limits on democracy:
Representative rather than direct democracy
Constitutional limits on power
Guarantees of individual rights
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 14:44
Liberal: Republic with a high degree of individual liberties and a free-market economy. Classic liberalism?requires limits on government power and on the majority's ability to restrict the individuals freedom
Liberalism and democracy are actually in tension. democracy wants to give all power to the people, whereas liberalism wants to limit the amount of power that anybody can have
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 15:48
One way to?guarantee?liberalism to believe in natural rights. For Jefferson, natural rights are given by God, not the product of human agreement. And Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill argued against natural rights
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 17:00
Kings of Equality:?
Equal political power
Equality before?the law
Equal opportunity
Equal holdings or equal wealth?
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 17:59
Distributive justice: What distribution of wealth among citizens is just?
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 18:55
Moral realism: The?morality or immorality of acts has an objective status we can know
Moral relativism: Good and evil are relative to who is judging them or the society of the judge?(subjective taste or?social convention)
Philosophical relativism: The truth, moral goodness, or political rightness of a statement or act is relative to something other than what it's about
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 26:43
History of Liberal Republicanism:
Formation (1570-1900): Machiavelli, social contract theory, American and French Revolutions, maturation of liberal republicanism and nationalism, challenge of socialism, changes in capitalism, leading to progressivism
Greatest challenge (1900-1950): Crisis Years from?1914 to?1945: World War 1 and 2, Great Depression, and challenges from communism and fascism
Triumph and growing pains (1950-Present): Cold War and international communist movement, high degree of economic success, ongoing problems, distributive justice, extent of personal liberties, disenfranchised citizens, competing political movements, re-emergent nationalism, changing nature of warfare
01 Origins and Conflicts of Modern Politics P1 - 31:28
Values of Modern Republicanism:
Popular self-governance
Individual liberties
Equality
Communal or national preservation
Economic and material modernization
If you emphasize one?aspect?over others?,
self-governance → Civic republican, populist, or participatory democrat
Individual?liberties and rights?→ Libertarian, neoliberal, or natural rights theorist
social equality?→ Progressive, social democrat, or socialist
Material progree?→ Utilitarian
Preservation of community life?→ Conservative
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 00:13
Plato (427-348 BCE)
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
Roman Republic
Christianity
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 00:57
The development of ancient political organization
Plato and Aristotle, the first western political theorists
Medieval feudalism and medieval philosophy
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 01:52
?Division of Labor and Class/Caste (Ernest Gellner)
Those who work, agrarian workers
Those who fight, warriors and landowners
Those who pray, clerical scribes who can read the ancient text
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 03:37
?Plato (428/427-348/347 BCE)
Republic
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 05:41
?Plato's Five Regimes:
Aristocracy or monarchy: Seekers of wisdom, experts who know; rational
Timocracy: Honor-seeking guardians, warrior-civil servants; "spirited" (thymos)
Oligarchy: The wealthy; driven by necessary or stable Appetites
democracy: The many or the poor; driven by unnecessary or unstable Appetites
Tyranny: An evil monarch; driven by bestial Appetites
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 07:41
?Organic (organismic) metaphor: Organization of the state in the manner of a person or organism
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 09:30
?Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
Aristotle's Levels of Human Association
Family: Natural association for necessary daily needs in a household
Village: Association of families for non-daily necessary needs
Civil society (koinonia politike): Association for living excellently or virtuously
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 11:00
?Political society: self-rule among equals
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 11:38
?Eudaimonia: "Well-being"
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 12:25
?Good Government:
Monarchy: rule by one
Aristocracy: rule by the few
Polity: rule by the many
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 13:12
?The source of power of government is separate from, and more fundamental than, the type of government
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 13:57
?Aristotle's Vicious Alternatives
Tyranny
Oligarchy
democracy
democracy is bad and polity, or in modern sense, republic is good. democracy would continue to retain its connotation of mob rule.
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 17:03
?Fiefs: parcels of land granted to noble vassals in return for military service
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 17:58
Primus inter pares: "First among equals" (King is the first or the most powerful among the aristocrats)
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 18:34
?Values of Medieval Society:
Christian virtues of benevolence, equality, and guilt
Greco-Roman aristocratic virtues of pride, honor, and shame
Central/northern European local tribal structures
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 19:15
Charlemagne (747-814)
Saint Augustine (354-430)
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1224/25-1274)
Scholasticism: Merger of Aristotelian thought and Christianity
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 21:27
?Natural law: Application of God's eternal law or will to human nature; distinct from what we know from revelation and from positive human law
Natural law is in Between God's eternal revealed law in the scriptures and societies-made-up laws, which is naturally knowable from natural reason
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 22:31
?Just war theory
Holy war tradition (almost defunct): The war is justified by a duty to God or church
Pacifism (immoral): All violence, even defensive war, is immoral
Political realism (amoral): Warfare is a reality in relations among political communities; ethical standards of morality cannot be Applied to warfare
Just war (can be moral): Some wars are just and some are not
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 25:33
?Principle of Jus and ad Bellum ("Justice in Going to War") The decision to go to war must be
Made by legitimate authority—a state or alliance of states
For a just cause—the enemy state morally deserves attack
As a last resort—after negotiation
With right intention—to advance good or punish evil, not to profit
With proportionality—more good than evil will come from war
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 26:08
?Principles of Jus in Bello ("Justice in Waging War") Each act of war must satisfy
Portionality—expected good exceeds evil
Discrimination—only combatants may be targeted
02 Ancient Republics, Empires, Fiefdoms P2 - 26:24
Law of double effect:
A foreseen but unwanted secondary effect on civilians does not render a military strike immoral
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 00:18
?Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
The Prince (1532)
Discourse on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy (1531)
?Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498)
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 01:59
?Machiavelli's Roles in Florence
Head of chancery
Organized the militia
Went on diplomatic missions
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 02:07
?Cesare Borgia (1475/76-1507)
?Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492)
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 05:17
?"Ends justify the means"
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 06:29
?Virtu: "Excellence"
Fortuna: Luck
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 07:29
?Political realism: Warfare is a reality in relations among political communities; ethical standards of morality cannot be Applied to warfare
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 07:39
Melian Dialogue: Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 09:34
?Raison d'état: "Reasons of state", national interest in state behavior cannot be subjected to normal or civic moral standards
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 09:57
?"War is hell"
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 13:27
?Institutions in Rome:
Assemblies or councils elected by patricians and by commoners
Elected magistrates, who produced legislation
Plebeian tribunes, who proposed legislation to the Senate
Patrician Senate, which oversaw the assemblies
Consul, presided over the Senate
Dictator, Appointed in time of crisis
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 14:14
Jus privatum: civil law
Jus publicam: criminal law
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 14:59
?Societas civilis (Aristotle's koinonia politike):
"civil society"
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 15:42
?Civic republican tradition (warrior aristocrat, martial virtue, properties-owned citizens are capable of self defense) against Christianity
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 16:23
?Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)
Mugaddimab (Prolegomenon or Prolegomena)
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 23:05
?"Dirty hands" problem: Is politics such that one inevitably acts immorally?
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 24:23
?Moral consequentialism: An act is good when its good results outweigh its bad results
Utilitarianism: Moral right acts are those that provide the greatest benefit to the greatest number
03 Machiavelli’s New Order P3 - 26:19
?Does politics demand behavior that is ethically immoral?
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 00:15
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
Leviathan (1651)
?Jean Bodin (1530-1596)
The Six Books of Commonwealth (1576)
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 02:46
?Huigh de Groot (Hugo Grotius; 1583-1645)
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 04:55
?Great Rebellion (1642-1651)
?"Glorious" Revolution (1688)
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 07:26
?Materialism: All worldly reality, including human beings, is matter in motion
?Mechanism: Like all things, the human being is a machine
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 08:51
?Social contract theory: A just regime would be chosen by rational, self-interested individuals in a pre-social state of equality.
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 10:00
Description of the state of nature
Formation of a social contract among individuals to leave the state of nature; each gives up a right or liberty
Political community formed by the contract
Selection of a government to rule the political community
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 10:45
?All "voluntary" human action is motivated by passions (divided by Appetite and aversion, pulled by Appetite and pushed by aversions); reason is a means for adjudicating passions and achieving social ends
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 12:47
?All have the right to whatever they judge necessary, including the lives of others
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 14:27
?"the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 14:53
?Natural jus ("rights"): Each is free to preserve himself
Natural lex ("law"): One has an obligation not to destroy oneself
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 15:19
?General rule of reason:
Seek peace as far as can be hoped
If peace fails, defend the self by any advantages of war
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 17:15
?Free individuals (give up some natural rights) → Political community (offers security)
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 18:16
?Forms of the Sovereign
Monarchy (Hobbs preferred it)
Aristocracy
democracy
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 19:60
?No covenant exists Between the sovereign and the people. (Sovereign is not bound by the law and cannot be since the sovereign is the legitimation of the law. Sovereign is the one who draws the line Between what citizens should and should not do and nobody can object to how he does it)
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 20:34
?There is no great crime than to presume to judge the sovereign. (cannot be mad since you all have agreed to it in the social contract)
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 21:04
Sovereign power cannot be divided. (sovereign is the sole judge and division weakens power)
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 21:30
?freedom is "the silence of the law" (as long as the sovereign does not forbid it, you are allowed to do)
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 30:03
?Judith Shklar 1928-1992
"Liberalism of fear"
04 Hobbes, Natural Law, the Social Contract P4 - 30:48
A design or structure not base on the virtues of rulers but on the self interest of citizens and a structure to express and limit that. The justice of Hobbesian society comes from the structure that selfish citizens impose on themselves, leaving behind unnecessary virtues. Justice is the structure that rational animals rightly cage themselves.
05 Locke on Limited Government and Toleration P5 - 00:18
?John Locke 1632-1704
Second Treaties on Civil Government (1860)
A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)
Glorious Revolution (1688-1689)
?The "Political Century" (1688-1789), brought modern republicanism into being
?Absolute monarchy
Louis XIV (The Sun King) 1638-1715
?Robert Filmer 1588-1653:?The theory of "divine" right of kings
?Charles II 1630-1685
Tories
Whigs
05 Locke on Limited Government and Toleration P5 - 05:52
?An Essay Concerning the True Origin, Extent, and End of Civil Government
Magistrate: any official
Classic limited government
?Locke's law of nature:
"No one ought to harm another in his life, liberty, or possessions"
05 Locke on Limited Government and Toleration P5 - 10:27
?Violation of natural law:
Seeking absolute power over another; creates a state of war
Insecurity of the state and unjust reparation lead to social contract Between individuals
05 Locke on Limited Government and Toleration P5 - 11:59
In joining the social contract, all rational individuals choose to give up the right to execute the law of nature (which includes judgement on reparations) to the community (not the sovereign)
?State of Nature → Giving up rights in the contract → Community → Government
05 Locke on Limited Government and Toleration P5 - 13:30
?"The great and chief end, therefore, of men's uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property."
"All this to be directed to no other end, but the Peace, Safety, and public good of the People."
Property and public good is the same according to Locke.
05 Locke on Limited Government and Toleration P5 - 15:19
?Function of Government
Legislative (supreme power)
Executive
Federative (foreign relations)
05 Locke on Limited Government and Toleration P5 - 16:57
?Supreme power (legislative) is "only a Fiduciary Power to act for certain ends"
05 Locke on Limited Government and Toleration P5 - 17:48
?Four sources limit community and power:
Government and community only have those powers given up in the contract
Government must use them for the common good or protection of property
Community and government must always obey Natural Law
Government has a series of legal, technical restrictions; it can only act through public standing laws (not ex facto laws)
05 Locke on Limited Government and Toleration P5 - 20:26
?Locke's claims about the separation of Civil Authority from Religion:
The political order is not concerned with the truth on ultimate matters, such as salvation
There is no fair and accurate method for enforcing religious edicts
Religious membership and civic membership are different
Intolerance will someday be used against orthodox, as well as the unorthodox
The truth as to which church is correct is "irresolvable"
There is no such thing as a "Christian commonwealth"
05 Locke on Limited Government and Toleration P5 - 25:49
Unlike Hobbs, Locke feared government power rather than neighbors or factions is the biggest thereat to individual power or liberty. Locked believed the government should not violet individual liberty without consent. And Locke has a optimistic and benign view of human beings. Reason has a moral structure in it. Locke is not a moral relativist like Hobbs. Therefore Locke granted individuals the liberty to overthrow or illegitimate a government or a king. In another word, Revolution is morally legitimate
05 Locke on Limited Government and Toleration P5 - 29:11
"Proto-liberal"
martial concern with honor and traditional republicanism is being replaced by property sense of responsibility
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 00:14
?Age of Enlightenment, 18th century
?Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778, canonical egalitarian and communitarian version of republicanism
?"Noble savage"
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 02:31
?Denis Diderot 1713-1784
David Hume 1711-1776
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 02:53
Discourse on the Sciences and Arts (1750)
Progress in arts and sciences didn't lead to progress in morals or hAppiness.
?Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men (1755)
It is Better to live in a primitive conditions than the modernized society. Primitives are more independent, self-sufficient and equal, hence morally politically Better off.
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 05:43
?"Progress means greater dependence. "
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 06:44
?"The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say 'this is mine', and found people simple enough to believe him... that was the true founder of civil society."
Private property and the subsequent inequality are evil.
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 07:13
?Amour de soi: love of self
Amour propre: love of self as it is seen by others; hence, the source of envy and inequality
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 08:36
?The Social Contract (1762)
The task is to recapture the independence and equality of primitive society, which is our nature state, and to bring it into a modern form.
?"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 09:59
Rousseau's social contract:
Free individuals (gives up natural rights) → Political body (offers security)
Each person gives up all rights to the community of equals of which he or she is a member
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 10:49
?Common moi: common "self"
Volonté générale: "general will"; by definition, aimed at what is best for the community as a whole
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 11:36
?The Will of Each Citizen
Private (self interest)
Corporate (interest of the group of which I am a member)
General (When the society is virtuous, the will of all correctly coincides with general will.)
Voting should predict what is the general interest. The threat is inequality, faction or political associations. Every citizen should act independently not in parties.
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 12:44
?Representative legislation: "indirect democracy".
Rousseau rejects this idea.
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 14:04
?"When among the hAppiest people in the world, bands of peasants are seen regulating their affairs of state under an oak tree, and always acting wisely, can one help scorning the refinements of other nations, which make themselves illustrious and miserable with so much art and mystery?"
He is the original populist.
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 14:57
Citizens act as sovereign to make laws based on the general will.
Citizens act as subjects to obey the laws.
The government is the intermediary Between sovereign and subject, therefore solely judiciary and executive.
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 17:07
?For Rousseau, the best form of government is elected aristocracy, congress or parliament. He also justifies the right to revolt.
?Tribuneship:?Institutions to protect the laws from encroachment by either citizens or government.
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 20:28
?Additional Governmental Institutions
Legislator: proposes crafted laws to the people for their vote
Dictator: Appointed in times of crisis; able to silence the laws and "suspend" the sovereign
Censor: act as the "minister" of public opinion
Civic religion: must be acknowledged by all
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 22:20
?Deism: monotheism without any further doctrine
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 24:15
?"Forced to be free"
Once someone is forced to obey, that obedience is freedom.
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 24:52
?Modern Western Notion of freedom:
Absence of coercion: "freedom from"; negative notion of liberty (Anglo-American notion of freedom)
Self-determination: "freedom to"; positive notion of liberty (Rousseau's legacy)
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 25:38
?Is the rich junky free?
Your true higher self rather than desire-driven self controls your actions. Rousseau favored the self-determination of freedom and identified a person's true self with the community or the general will.
True freedom: Obedience to the general will
06 Rousseau’s Republican Community P6 - 29:24
?Communitarian: insisting on the individual's loyalty to the community will
Rousseau also embodied the egalitarian streak in liberal republicanism.
He is the purist democrat among the classical founders of republican tradition,?closest to Jefferson and thought there should be a Revolution every generation.
He is also close to socialism, particularly anarch socialism, Proto-Maxist, valuing equality over individual equality.
