CHAPTER SIX
Political Philosophy
General Overview:
As we leave behind those questions concerning economic prosperity, leisure,
entertainment, the nature of being and the existence of God, we now enter a realm
that has faced philosophers since the time of Plato’s Republic. That is, what are the
political implications of all this philosophical thought?
As interesting as these subjects may be, this chapter does not deal with
politically partisan debates on local, national or international issues; rather, it
allows the student the opportunity to focus on historically important political
theorists, their philosophies, and their underlying assumptions about human nature,
morality and the ideal system of social organization. From Plato’s Republic in
which the individual was considered a communal being within the state, to
Hobbes’s grim commentary on the state of nature and his theory that the Leviathan
will finally put an end to medieval concepts of the state being part of a Christian
synthesis, to Locke’s Social Contract theory in which free individuals enjoy their
inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property, to Marx’s intuitive theory of
dialectical materialism.
Class Suggestion:
After the students have completed the “Know Thyself” (6.1): My Political
Outlook self-diagnostic, ask them to form into groups of five or six people. Once in
their groups, have them collaborate in a SimCity-type exercise in which they are to
develop a model of what they think is an ideal form of government or system of
social organization. Have them explain to the other members of the class the
political philosophies they used to develop their model, and detail why they think
their model would work best.
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CHAPTER SIX
Political Philosophy
Introductory Descriptions of Political Philosophies
Plato’s Aristocracy
Plato believes in “rule by the best.”
• One person/one vote democracy is abandoned in favor of rule by expert
aristocratic elite (Guardians).
• Each social class accepts their particular role.
• One earns the right to govern through appropriate character education.
Hobbes’s Commonwealth
War is the ‘natural state’ of society.
• To have peace and order, we give up individual rights to “Leviathan” –
a coercive power compelling individuals to live by rules of a ‘social
contract.’
• The “Leviathan” is human creation brought into existence to enable
individuals to achieve egoistic goals.
Locke’s Consensual Democracy
Political system based on God-created “Natural Law.”
• No one may harm the life, liberty or possessions of another – all
individuals have rights to self-preservation, self-defense and personal
liberty.
• Primary right is right to property – primary function of government is
to protect this fundamental right.
• Government is servant to the people – they assume authority by consent
of all people and accept decisions by democratic rule.
Marx’s Communism
Atheistic Materialism represents a classless society, the final stage of a long
evolutionary history of social class struggle between oppressors and
oppressed.
• Moral basis of communism: “From each according to his ability; to
each according to his needs.”
• Market forces and competition are largely absent – workers will enjoy
greater dignity, and a greater number can enjoy the fruits of their
productivity.
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• With abolished competitive marketplace, people learn to cooperate,
work for the good of the state, and feel less ‘competitive’ toward their
neighbors (less alienation).
Political Philosophy vs. Politics and Political Science
1) Political Philosophy is the theoretical basis for political action – pays
attention to assumptions about human nature, reality, and value that are
claimed to justify the patterns by which human beings govern themselves.
2) Politics is generally used in the context of elections and political campaigns.
3) Political Science is a type of factual inquiry regarding the structure and
workings of political institutions and political behaviors of groups and
individuals.
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Questions of Political Philosophers
1. What is the ultimate justification of the existence of any form of
government?
2. What should be the proper limits of government over the members of
society?
3. Why should anyone obey the law?
4. Why should anyone pay taxes?
5. How do we harmonize governmental authority with human rights and
individual freedoms?
6. Under what conditions is it legitimate to replace those who currently
rule?
7. Should we allow political power to be concentrated in the hands of a few
leaders or should it be widely distributed among the members of society
at large?
8. Should politicians vote according to personal conscience or in a way
that represents the wishes of their constituents?
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Plato’s Republic
Greek city-states had their own autonomous governments – most were under
constant state of war.
Plato’s aim was to establish a society that would defend against external
enemies, and free itself from defects that would lead to internal disruptions.
• In contrast to our concepts of democracy, he thought the ideal
government would be ruled by the best, not by the “ignorant masses.”
The Individual and the State
The state is neither inherently evil, nor obstructionist with respect to the
attainment of individual goals.
• In small units (i.e., city-state/polis) the state is not something which is
unquestionably reduced, minimized, and dispensed with whenever
possible.
• Human beings (individuals) are not entirely self-sufficient – our
‘natural desire’ is to live in communities.
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There are parallels between the individual and the state -- e.g., Plato’s elements
of the soul and the three types or classes of people within society.
• Just as there is organic harmonious balance within individual soul, the
state can achieve a harmonious hierarchy of purposes among its
citizens.
• However, like reason ruling the appetite and spirit, so too must the
Guardians rule over the other classes in society.
Plato’s Class System
Ideal Society corresponds to three parts of soul.
1) Artisans: driven by 'appetites.'
• Craftsmen, artisans, and traders (i.e. workers, consumers, and business
class).
• Are to show self-discipline by displaying due obedience to the order of
ruling class – however, not to be exploited by ruling class.
Virtue in this class is obedience, moderation and self-discipline.
2) Auxiliaries: driven by the 'spirit.'
• They are the police, militia, and civil servants who preserve internal
state order – sub-group of guardian class.
• Should not own property because of its ‘temptations’ to be corrupt.
Virtue in this class is courage.
3) Guardians/Philosopher Kings: driven by ‘reason.’
• They are the most highly trained members of an elite guardian class -the 'philosopher-kings' are temperate and are not enslaved by physical
appetites or material desires (cannot be corrupted).
Virtue in this class is justice.
Imperfect Societies
Imperfect societies directly parallel corrupt character types:
timocracy, oligarchic state, democracy, and tyrannical society.
• Just as imperfect character types are ruled by something other than
reason, so too imperfect societies are governed by classes drive by spirit
and appetite.
Plato’s prescription to end injustices is to establish an aristocracy where
carefully trained philosophers become rulers (hierarchal meritocracy).
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Women, Marriage and Family in the Republic
In recognition of women’s intellectual and moral equality, guardian women
were to be given the same education as men.
• Those who passed same moral test as men would be further trained as
guardians of the state – the rest, part of auxiliary class.
Guardian women, like their male counterparts, were not allowed to have
families and normal marriage relations.
• In their service to the community, the guardians would constitute one
large extended family – the guardian herd.
• They were allowed multiple mating opportunities established by
‘contrived lotteries’ – mating the best with the best.
• The best progeny would be trained as guardians, the children not suited
for this role would be disperse among the artisans and nurtured by
them.
Class placement was not a birthright – one was required to earn one’s position
in society.
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Social Contract Theorists: Hobbes and Locke
Social Contract Theory: by means of an agreement, covenant, or contract,
individuals are brought together in a society to form some sort of formal
governmental structure upon which they can all agree.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): State of Nature
Raised during a period of political upheaval (England’s Civil War), he
considered it unrealistic to assume that people are naturally capable of virtue
and wisdom.
• Altruism is not a natural emotion – we are driven by egoistic desires to
survive and gain pleasure.
• Not all people possess the same equal qualities – individuals who are
deficient in one respect can make up for this in other ways.
• We should all have the equal hope of achieving our life goals, but
competition can lead to mistrust, signs of contempt, and even war.
The human condition is a condition of chaotic warring enemies – a
hypothetical natural state where there are no moral distinctions between right
and wrong, good or bad, justice or injustice, only chaos, disorder, opposition,
and wish for self-preservation.
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• In this lawless condition of natural equality, there can be no security for
anybody – everyone is mistrustful of ‘other.’
• Individuals own what they can hold by force.
Hobbesian Laws of Nature
Reason dictates that we must get out of the natural condition of war and into a
position of personal security (rational self-preservation).
• Egoistic rule of prudence dictates that we must sometimes deny rights to
ourselves in order to maintain a peace so that we can continue doing
that which is in our own best interest.
• We must make a covenant with each other, and we must obey the
covenant or we will return to chaos.
The Commonwealth
Assuming that human beings are vain and greedy, Hobbes concludes that
there must be a coercive power to compel individuals to follow any social
contract.
• The Leviathan, or assembly of men, would transform multiple wills into
a single, sovereign will and judgment to judge all citizens – self-interest
will lie at the basis of it.
The Social Contract
Safety, security and peace for all citizens depend on a social contract.
• Implicitly, or explicitly, we all agree to transfer our rights to the
assembly, or Common-Wealth, for the utilitarian purpose of peace,
protection, and the pursuit of prosperity.
The sovereign body has to be indivisible and absolute – change would only
lead to chaos or anarchy.
• Limiting sovereignty would be illogical, since it would then create
opposing and warring parties – something over which the sovereign was
to have absolute authority. Absolutism becomes logical consequence of
government by consent.
Subjects are absolved of their duty to obey the sovereign if (a) they relinquish
their sovereignty; (b) if the commonwealth is torn apart internally and the
sovereign no longer has effective power, (c) if the sovereign is conquered in
war and surrenders to the victor; then the citizens become subjects to the
latter.
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John Locke (1632-1704): State of Nature and the Natural Law
People should be free to ‘order their actions’ and ‘dispose of their possessions’
within the bounds of the law of nature – the moral law (law of nature) is
promulgated by human reason as ‘it reflects on God and His rights, on man’s
relation to God and on the fundamental equality of all men as rational
creatures.’
• Individuals living together are guided by the law of nature – the natural
state is one in which human beings live together in peace, good-will and
mutual assistance.
Property Rights
Property is a natural right that precedes society – this right is not created by
society.
The peaceful state of nature can be disrupted when someone threatens the
self-preservation of another.
The violation of ‘property rights’ must be protected, as property is necessary
to preserve life.
• The act of theft or destruction of property is like an attack on the
individual.
• Property includes life, liberties, and estates.
• Property belongs to the individual once they have ‘labored or worked
that property.’
• Individuals are entitled to as much property as they can use without
‘spoilage.’
Political Society and Government
Impartial and disinterested judges are the only individuals that should
intervene in process of natural law – they are to adjudicate conflicts and issue
punishment.
• Political society must create laws consistent with the law of nature and
enforce them for the good of all – the state must work for the benefit of
citizens.
• The precepts issuing form the law of nature, which buttress civil society,
are concerned primarily with the preservation of individual rights.
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Locke’s Social Compact
Social compact uses consent as its rational foundation.
Contract is between citizens themselves, not between individual citizens and
state.
• Consent must be freely given -- citizens may go elsewhere is they do not
wish to belong to ‘civil society.’
We give direct consent when we enter into a social compact to form a society,
or we give tacit consent if we enter into an existing society.
• Tacit consent occurs when we accept the benefits of an existing civil
society and fulfill our responsibilities of citizenship.
• Consent also involves acceptance of majority rule.
Limits on Government
Ultimately, natural law overrides civil law.
• In this context, civil law must be properly promulgated, and applied
equally to all groups and classes.
• Government can only raise taxes with full consent of the people or their
deputies.
• Government is like a ‘glorified secretary,’ entrusted to do only those
things we find inconvenient or impossible to do ourselves.
Divisions of Power
Locke envisioned a governmental system of checks and balances with different
levels of government wielding its own power:
1. The legislative branch makes the laws – it also makes sure the executive
branch does not exceed its mandate.
2. The executive branch does not make laws, but has judicial powers to
make sure laws are followed – it also makes sure the legislative branch
operates according to the laws of the state.
3. The federative branch was given power to make war and peace, alliances
and treaties, and conduct all transactions outside the commonwealth.
Dissolution of Government
Unlike Hobbes, Locke allows government rule to be questioned and replaced
if necessary -- governments are not absolute and eternal entities.
• Society and government are not synonymous -- governments can be
dissolved with societies remaining intact to establish new governmental
structures.
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Karl Marx (1818-1883): Revolutionary and Anti-Philosopher
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Marx believed that his work was scientific in the sense that he was uncovering
the structure and dynamics underlying social-historical change.
• Communist revolution was not an ideal, but a developmental necessity.
• Understanding human nature and the physical universe could solve the
most significant of our social problems.
In contrast to most philosophers, Marx maintained that ‘it is not the
consciousness of men that determines their being but…their social being that
determines their consciousness.’
Marx’s Metaphysics and Dialectical Materialism
Marx borrowed from Hegelian metaphysics a worldview known as absolute
idealism - ‘the real is the rational and the rational is the real.’
• Reality is a reflection of Absolute Mind or Spirit (could be God).
• God, who is total reality and truth, reveals Himself to our limited minds
through a diversity of components comprising the larger reality.
• Our job is to realize that the ‘ultimate truth is the whole in its
interconnectedness’ - we must identify all of the dimensions of reality
and show how they are interconnected.
Hegel believed that the dialectical process of thesis-antithesis-synthesis moves
ever forward revealing Absolute Mind:
1) An idea presents itself as a thesis.
2) The idea is challenged by an opposite position called an antithesis.
3) Out of the conflict emerges the synthesis - a combination of both 1 & 2.
4) In time, the synthesized idea becomes its own thesis challenged again by
a new antithesis.
Marx used the notion of the Hegelian dialectic process to explain historical
evolution and change, but influenced by Ludwig Feuerbach, concluded that
the source of conflict was in the material world itself, and not some idea
descending from heaven.
• Any given era was the accumulation of actual, concrete material
conditions of the time - not some abstract ‘spirit of the age.’
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Marxian Class Conflict
All historical change is the product of class conflict and economic struggle
(Dialectical Materialism).
From each epoch’s struggle emerges a new economic structure:
1) Primitive/communal (no division of labor - no division of
exploiters/exploited)
2) Slave (division of labor - exploiters/exploited)
3) Feudal (division of labor - exploiters/exploited)
4) Capitalist (division of labor - exploiters/exploited)
5) Socialist/communist (no division of labor - no division of
exploiters/exploited)
With the development of more sophisticated productive forces, Marx sees a
history of class struggle between the minority oppressors and the majority
oppressed (e.g., bourgeois capitalist vs. proletarian workers).
• When a set of productive relations becomes outmoded (thesis), it
becomes overthrown by revolution (antithesis) - a new system comes
into play (synthesis) and will become, in turn, outmoded (new thesis) and
the cycle continues.
The final synthesis of historical development culminating in communism
would require the abolition of private property - basic needs would be met
enabling all people to live a dignified, meaningful life.
Alienation as a By-Product of Capitalism
Marx was not just concerned with disparities in income between rich and
poor – more concerned with alienated labor and how the capitalist system
degrades workers and reduces them to saleable commodities.
• The nature of the capitalist system alienates (Entfremdung in German)
the worker, it creates a perception that one is not comfortably immersed
in reality - the workers feel a disengagement from a world that they are
not freely and actively engaged in.
Idolatry/Fetishism of Commodities
People can be alienated from many things, i.e., from nature, themselves, other
people.
• Capitalism ‘plays’ on alienation and allows for a kind of idolatry of
lifeless material things endowed with power over living subjects - for
example, we talk about the ‘almighty dollar’ when we make money our
god, or we talk about cars being ‘sexy’ or life-changing (capitalistic
consumerism).
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Division of Labor
Specialization of labor has led to a disconnect from ‘community with a
common purpose.’
• ‘In handicrafts and manufacture, the workman makes use of a tool; in
the factory the machine makes use of him.’
• The product of labor becomes objectified, as does labor itself.
• The more one produces, the less he or she is worth - labor becomes
alienated ‘cheap labor.’
In a capitalistic market-economy, the future is in the hands of uncontrollable
market forces and subject to whims of factory owners, shareholders, and
corporate presidents.
• Workers are ‘robbed of their freedom and the opportunity for creative
self-fulfillment,
• Workers only feel comfortable during leisure time, and feel alienated
during work – work is no longer viewed as voluntary but imposed,
forced labor/work is no longer a satisfaction of a need, but only a means
for satisfying other needs.
Marx: After Capitalism
Basic mode of production within society will not be competitive, but
cooperative and by association.
• Production will be brought under the control of workers in a rational
and unalienated way.
• Socialism allows for the actualizing of human potentiality and creates
conditions necessary for living in a truly free, achieveable, rational and
independent fashion.
• Socialism will destroy the ‘false idols’ and meet the true needs of
humankind.
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