Describe how, according to Hobbes, civil society comes to be and is sustained out of his version of the state of nature. However, while modern political thought has been built upon the Machiavellian notion of the artificiality of the state, the moderns disagreed on how people behaved and on the degree of a government's strength and pervasiveness necessary to properly govern citizens. As you watch, remember that in the Apology, Socrates faces a trial not only in a court of law, but also in the court of public opinion. Watch this lecture, which demonstrates the contradictions and problems with the neoclassical utilitarian framework through theoretical examples and case studies. The lectures provide a great tour de force of the key questions in political philosophy and a chronological development of contemporary notions of democracy, individual liberties and the role of the state. Moral Theory: General Remarks [1] Ethics linked intimately to politics. Read Book VI of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. We give you historical, social, and cultural context to relate to contemporary political society. 1. Watch this lecture. Shefali Jha, (2010) Western Political Thought: From Plato to Marx, Delhi: Pearson, 4. On the contrary, Reading political philosophy Consider the pre-Enlightenment views of the ruling classes in European countries as compared to the United States, which theoretically had an open and free political system in which all were able to participate. He rejects the notion that a citizen must live out a public existence with displays of patriotism, nobility, and devotion to the state. We will conclude this course by discussing various conceptualizations of political and social equality and addressing ways that political thought shifted away from a belief in the primacy of the sovereign state and the legitimacy of elites. Hard copies will not be dispatched. This concept would be used in both Alexis de Tocqueville's examination of government in young America and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' critique of political liberalism as the ideology of the rich. Completing this unit should take you approximately 39 hours. (Cross-listed as PHIL 0042.) As you might recall, Socrates mentions a "writer of comedies" in reference to the playwright Aristophanes. Is this convincing, and how so? What are these classes, and what does he believe are their proper roles? He prefers to die rather than live outside of the law or in a fashion that would undermine the law. Hopefully, this course will allow you to put yourself within an historical, social, and cultural setting so you may relate to contemporary political society. Watch this lecture. In defending how such a lifestyle could come into being and be sustained, Socrates introduces the notion that the only possible way for the ideal society to exist is if the rulers are philosophers - his concept of the "philosopher-king". Read this text. Handbook of Political Theory, London: Sage Publications Ltd. pp. We will also discuss how Jean-Jacques Rousseau developed the notion of participatory democracy, the egalitarian view that constituents should be directly involved in the direction and operation of political systems. Why does he consider friendship to be a critical component of the good life? Aristotle's famous claim that "man is by nature a political animal" captures his belief that a natural order between the individual and the community exists as both a power struggle and a distribution of resources, which has as its own end the good held both individually and in common. Whereas political science assumes that these concepts are what they are, political thought asks how they have come about and to what effect. • Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Guwahati. Also pay attention to the distinctions between civil, natural, and moral freedoms as portrayed by Rousseau. Involuntary Action, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: "Book III", The Preconditions of Virtue: Voluntary vs. Post your response in the discussion forum, and check back to see what some of your classmates have written. How do you think Locke reconciled his beliefs with his actions regarding slavery? He argues that the nature of a society's economic structure depends upon the degree of development of the productive forces or means of production, meaning human labor conjoined with technology. The form of Plato's account - a series of dialogues among friends - is important to Plato's thought. The focus remains on the Apology as a symbol for the violation of free expression, with Socrates justifying his way of life as a philosopher and defending the utility of philosophy for political life. This first unit deals with the origins of Western thinking on the polis, which is the Greek word for city-state. Watch this lecture, which explains the tension between Mill's principle of liberty and his version of utilitarianism. His research interests are - political thought in comparative perspective particularly Indian and Western political thought, political theory, Indian politics especially language and related issues of state formations in modern India. Western political philosophy is a line of related philosophical thought, beginning in Ancient Greece, and including the predominant philosophical thinking of Europe and its former colonies up to the present day. Mill's fundamental question is about the nature and limits of the power that society can legitimately exercise over the individual. Like Hobbes, Locke imagined a civil society capable of resolving conflicts in a civil way, with help from government. Watch this lecture. Why? The views of those writers who challenged the dominance of Christianity: Machiavelli, Descartes, Hobbes, and others. Watch this lecture. Then, enroll in the course by clicking "Enroll me in this course". led to his execution, the question "What makes a government legitimate?" Political Science. As you watch, think about the importance of public service as conceived by Aristotle. In coming to understand why one commodity is priced differently from another, Marx derives his labor theory of value. Interpreting the Political thinkers 1. While Hobbes saw human nature as brutal, Locke's thinking reflected the ideals of the European Enlightenment. Thomas Hobbes designed the first theory of the sovereign state. Overview The lecture begins with an explanation of why Plato’s Apology is the best introductory text to the study of political philosophy. Oxford University Press, Ontario, 8. A survey of the historical development of modern and contemporary political theories since the French Revolution. ), The Church Speaks to the Modern World: The Social Teachings of Leo XIII (New York: Doubleday, 1954). Hopefully, this course will allow you to put yourself within an historical, social, and cultural setting so you may relate to contemporary political society. He determines that actions must be voluntary if they are to be virtuous and thus worthy of praise. Roman political philosophy was influenced by the Stoics, and the Roman statesman Cicero wrote on political philosophy. New Delhi: Pearson Education, 7. Both Engels and Marx argue that class struggles are the motivations for all historical developments - mostly between the "proletariat" and the "bourgeois". C. Macpherson (1962) The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke. Thought: A Treatise in Political Philosophy (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1950). Morrow is a talented writer and thinker who makes it easy to understand complicated arguments while still honouring the complexity and multiplicity of what we call Western political thought. Read this article. Completing this unit should take you approximately 48 hours. This contrasts with Socrates's conversational, or dialectical, method, which emphasizes argumentation based in reason to arrive at truth and to what makes for a good individual, citizen, and society. In his essay On the Jewish Question, Marx takes issue with Bruno Bauer, one of his colleagues among the Young Hegelians. His important publications are Language Politics and Public Sphere in North India: Making of the Maithili Movement, Oxford University Press, New Delhi (2018); Glimpses of Mithila and Maithili: The Correspondence of George Abraham Grierson, Kalyani Foundation: Darbhanga (2013). Additionally, if you like to debate, consider alternative viewpoints, or talk about politics this course will likely interest you. Read this article. How does Tocqueville view the role religion plays in America, specifically with regard to politics and social order? Such ideal notions of the city-state, whether Platonic or Aristotelian, and the particulars therein, have been a point of departure for political philosophers since the time of Plato's Athens to the present day. Watch this lecture. 384 - d. 322 BCE), was a Greek philosopher, logician, and scientist. From there, the importance of the principle of self-ownership in Marx's framework is traced, and how that principle corresponds to contemporary debates regarding distributive justice, and particularly "the difference principle" in the work of John Rawls. : Compulsory Course Duration: July-December Course number: PS- 401 It also considers the ways in which thinkers like Plato, Machiavelli, and Rousseau have responded to the political problems of their times, and the ways in which they contribute to a broader conversation about human goods and needs, justice, democracy, and the ever-changing relationship between the citizen and the state. What does Marx say is the main source of conflict throughout history? Many of the concepts therein originate with Socrates and Aristotle, but come into their own as fully formed foundational principles through the US Founding Fathers' reliance upon and interpretation of Rousseau. Moral and Political Philosophy. Bauer had earlier made an argument against Jewish emancipation from the German Christian state from an atheist perspective, arguing that religion whether Jewish or Christian was a barrier to emancipation. This unit will begin with the Italian political philosopher and civil servant Niccolò Machiavelli. Also, Western political thought has served, in one form or another, as the philosophical and ideological basis for governments around the world for centuries, including the United States. This course asks how different views on human nature and the uses of history inform the design of government. Courses offered in the Department of Political Science University of Hyderabad Department of Political Science M.A. Watch this lecture, which focuses on the technical, as opposed to normative, aspects of Marxian exploitation, and how Marx believed a socialist economic structure is the logical successor to a capitalist economic structure, which would in turn develop into a communist economic structure. As you watch, think about Crito's appeal to Socrates. This leads to increasing intensity of exploitation as well as other effects that contribute to the downfall of capitalism. Watch this lecture. As you now understand, the classic Socratic Method involves dismantling prior ideas in order to free the mind of preconceived notions. Aristotle (b. D. Boucher and P. Kelly, P. (eds) Political Thinkers: From Socrates to the Present. This includes his preferred notion of distributive justice as proportionate equality taken from Book V of Nicomachean Ethics: justice requires that benefits be distributed to individuals in proportion to their merit or desert. Focuses on American and Western political thought: strong emphasis on America’s founding principles and institutions and classical and modern political philosophy. Yet at the same time, once the harm-to-others threshold presented by the principle of liberty is crossed and liberty-limitation is justifiable, it becomes justified according to the balance of restraint of liberty and prevention of harm as assessed by a utilitarian calculation. The rational part is that which has reason within itself or is reason "through-and-through", while the non-rational part is capable of being influenced by reason. Finally, political science is an academic discipline concerned with the study of the state, government, and politics. Book II sets out to discover how we can determine what is virtuous, or that which is fine or excellent, such that our practical reason can be in accordance with it, both in the sense of actions to be taken and ends to be achieved. Why does Marx think that the bourgeoisie is unfit to rule? Throughout Plato's dialogues, and most thoroughly in Book X of the Republic, Plato addresses what he calls the long-running quarrel between philosophy and poetry (and the arts in general, including that of rhetoric). These three thinkers represent the foundation of modern state theory. Speaking through the character of his teacher Socrates, Plato's model of the ideal city-state mirrors the order of nature as based in his metaphysical Theory of Forms, famously articulated here in the Republic through the Allegory of The Cave. Involuntary Action, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: "Books IV-V", Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: "Book VI", Discussion: Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Yale University: Steven Smith's "The Mixed Regime and the Rule of Law: Aristotle's Politics, I-III", Yale University: Steven Smith's "The Mixed Regime and the Rule of Law: Aristotle's Politics, IV", 1.7.3: Distributive Justice as the Task of the Polis, Distributive Justice as the Task of the Polis, 2.1.1: Hereditary and Conquered Principalities (States), Yale University: Steven Smith's "New Modes and Orders: Machiavelli's The Prince, Chapters 1-12", 2.2.1: The State of Nature: A World of All against All, Yale University: Steven Smith's "The Sovereign State: Hobbes' Leviathan, Part I", 2.2.2: The Social Contract: Freedom Exchanged for Security, Yale University: Steven Smith's "The Sovereign State: Hobbes' Leviathan, Parts II and III", John Locke's Second Treatise of Government, 2.3.1: State of Nature: Anarchy without Legitimate Government, Yale University: Steven Smith's "Constitutional Government: Locke's Second Treatise, Parts 1-5", Yale University: Steven Smith's "Constitutional Government: Locke's Second Treatise, Parts 7-12", 2.3.3: Representative Government and Revolution, Yale University: Steven Smith's "Constitutional Government: Locke's Second Treatise, Parts 13-19", Unit 3: Liberal Democracy and Its Critics, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality, 3.1.1: Human Nature: Free, Self-Interested, Perfectible, Yale University: Steven Smith's "Democracy and Participation: Rousseau's Discourse, Part I", 3.1.2: Dependence, Property, and Inequality, Yale University: Steven Smith's "Democracy and Participation: Rousseau's Discourse, Part II", Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract, Yale University: Steven Smith's "Democracy and Participation: Rousseau's Social Contract, Parts I-II”, Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, 3.3.1: Equal Rights and Popular Sovereignty, Yale University: Steven Smith's "Democratic Statecraft: Tocqueville's Democracy in America, Part I", 3.3.2: The Importance of Civic Associations, Yale University: Steven Smith's "Democratic Statecraft: Tocqueville's Democracy in America, Part II", 3.4: Karl Marx as an Enlightenment Thinker, David Riazanov's Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: An Introduction to Their Lives and Work: "Chapter II", University of Cambridge: Alan MacFarlane's "Karl Marx (1818-1883)", Yale University: Ian Shapiro's "Marx and the Enlightenment", Karl Marx's A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy: "Preface", Karl Marx's Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy: "Part I: The Commodity", 3.4.4: From Capitalism to Socialism to Communism, Karl Marx's Capital: "Chapter 14: Counteracting Influences", Karl Marx's Critique of the Gotha Program, Yale University: Ian Shapiro's "Marxian Exploitation and Distributive Justice", 3.4.5: Alienation: Separating Workers from the Results of Their Work, Analytical Marxism: Self-Ownership and Distributive Justice, Yale University: Ian Shapiro's "The Marxian Failure and Legacy", 3.4.7: Understanding Modes of Production (Materialism), Foundation for Economic Education: Jim Powell's "John Stuart Mill's Immortal Case for Toleration", Yale University: Iván Szelényi's "Mill: Utilitarianism and Liberty", Yale University: Ian Shapiro's "The Neoclassical Synthesis of Rights and Utility", 3.5.2: Problems with Neoclassical Utilitarianism, Yale University: Ian Shapiro's "Limits of the Neoclassical Synthesis", 3.5.3: Perfectionism in Mill's On Liberty, Introduction to Western Political Thought. This work deals with Socrates's reasoned self-defense when he is falsely charged with crimes against the state. He tells his friend Crito that, although he has been falsely convicted, he would rather accept the punishment because it will uphold the rule of law in Athens. Rousseau lived in a very different era, but his exploration of the place of the individual in society has significant relevance in the 21st century. Also consider Smith's description of the emergence of government types. At the same time, Plato addresses the tension between the pursuit of individual self-perfection and public service. Politics is the use of power and the distribution of resources. Plato's streamlined view of political and social life holds that the city-state should be governed by a ruler with philosophical training capable of comprehending the true nature of reality, justice, and wisdom, and where one's place in society is determined by one's natural abilities. 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