Political Thought 2nd Flashcards
(31 cards)
thomas Hobbs main features
Leviathan 1651
state of nature, human beings are driven by their fear, self interests and self preservation. in the state of nature there is a war against all
to escape the state of nature individuals create the social contract
social contract: where they agree to surrender some of their liberties and freedoms to preserve themselves. agreeing to be ruled under a sovereign to which they give up those freedoms. the contract isn’t between the people and the sovereign but between the people allowing the sovereign
soveregnty and the leviathan the levanthian is a powerful centralized source of sovereign power assigned with the task of creating laws to maintain peace and order.
legacy of hoobbs he is the founder of political phylospphy human nature and the state of nature are sources of individualism sovereign centralized authority helps escape the consequences of individualism. allowing the epople to be saved by themselves.
Hobbs Historical context
- England was facing religious conflict, protestants vs Catholics
- power struggle between the monarchy and the parliament
- English Civil War in 1642- 1651 between royalists and parliamentarians ended with the execution of King Charles 1 and the temporary abolishment of the monarchy until 1660.
- commonwealth under cornwell. after the abolishment of the monarchy, the parliament army, and the public all had different ideas on how the nation should be run. there was no stable legal framework and the parliament was unable to centralize its power, leading to the collapse of the system in 1660
Hobbs on the english civil war
in his eyes the parliaments attemps to take power failed because it wasnt backed by the social contract, which is why it led the country into chaos.
Hobbs furthur historical learning
the treaty of westaphalia ended the 30 years war and established modern states. strong sovereign states with authority over their borders. which reassured hobbs phylosophy and gave him the impresison that this new system could set the order and peace he referred to in his work
which reaffirmed his ideas that only a sovereign ruler can bring peace and stability. setting one religion and avoid war.
his theories set the stage for IR realism
Hobbs founder of political thoguht as a science
he established the scientific and empirical approach to politics inspired by scientists like galileo.
rejecting aristotals claims of people being political animals claiming that to their core they are individualists and hence need to agree to conform under a strong ruler not to tare eachother apart.
dismissing aristotels virtues as vague furthur emphasizing on fear and self preservation as to why people from a social contract under a common sovereign ruler.
Hobbs international though
core problem, lack of authority above states, the state of nature between states has no sovereign, and since states dont have a higher authority he claimed they must follow the laws of nature but as states calling it laws of nations.
where states are formed by the insicure self interersted individualist people that form the social contracts. the sovereign rulers have authority over their states, and insicurity leads to alliances, which must be made to keep peace and order.
subjective decision making from the sovereign leaders can lead to instability, and its why they must follow national laws seek peace, and respect agreements between the states.
Hobbs criticism
yale university press underlined the paradox in hobbs phylosophy as he claimed that for people to have individual rights and freedom there must be absolutism. noting that his view is too focused on security ignoring deeper human needs like meaning and moral porpouse.
Hobbs established political thought
his natural law as law of states was the first way of defining the international system and its functioning. despite the heavy economic critiques, and the intepretive debades of his paradoxical claims.
john locke 1632-1704 context and ideology
he was influenced by his time of enlightenment and political upheaval due to the glorious revolution and the establishemnt of the constitutional monrachy
in 1688 james 2nd wanted to reassert catholicism, setting catholics in high ranking positions and ignoring the role of the parliament. in 1688 his son was born a catholic raising concer for a catholic dynasty of absolutism due to his behaviour.
the parliament took james 2nd brother in law william of orange and offered him the opportunity to take the throne by a swift overthrow of the government. which is what they did with little casualties hence the name glorious, james fled the throne was considered vacant and rewarded to william by the parliament who agreed to parliamentarty terms by implementing a constituional mionrachy, with the bill of rights being implemented in 1689.
john locke general phylosophy
john lock state of nature: perfect freedom without government and binding laws. people are moral and altruistic. all are equal under natural laws which prohibit harm in life liberty, health property emphasizing self preservation and respect. people are essentially free and respectful under his definition of self preservation and natural laws
john locke key claims
property and rights
individuals gain property rights by working with the land they have. the work they put into the land makes it theirs, but they can only have the land they can work on and not more. people have the right to preserve their property even against government.
political society and legitimacy
fomred by consent legitimate government rest on the consent of people
key features of government
* limited by law
* majority rule
* legislative supremacy
* executive power for public good only
social contract and revolution
people are the ones that agree to form society, if the government fails they have the right to revolt.
john locke and his international thoughts
he was involved in colonial affairs as a diplomat, his thoughts serve as a sort of liberal alternative to hobbs
scholasticism: he opposed scholasticism with rigid thinkers, but promoted the study of scholars that were more morally tuned and referred to virtue in education
law of nations does not equal law of nature. unlike hobbs who claimed they were the same in principle but different in scale. Locke essentially claimed that law of nature is human morality. law of nations are the relations between states which are defined by the demands of the morality from the law of nature
property accumulation and trade drive economic growth with money being a form of agreed cooperation which leads to trade and hence international development
federative power governments have two powers legislative and federative which deals with foreign affairs
john rawl saw locke’s law of nations as law of people. where nations have moral framework to promote just society through fair cooperation, promoting human rights peace and not acting out of self interest or power
jean jacques rousseau 1712-1778
phylosopher composer and teacher. lived during the decline of absolutism and the rise of enlightenment.
works include discourse on the origins of inequality and emile, the social contract
he used hypothetical thinking rather than empirical reasoning
natural man and the state of nature rousseau
humans live freely without institutions or laws people arent evil just amoral (not interested in right or wrong) shaped by instinct and emotion rather than reason or laws.
people are capable of freedom morality and change under their own agency rather than through imposed rules.
inequality and the birth of civil society rousseau
he claimed that society was established through the creation of private property stating that land was never private untill someone was able to convince others that it was, it inherently belonges to everyone.
he linked equality to 2 main types of self love.
natural self love a healthy instinct for survival
social self love a comparative pride emotions that is driven by and emerges from society.
he claimed that narural self love was natural and normal and societal self love emerged due to private property and reinforced hirearchical establishments due to this formation of society
meaning that inequality is due to social self love which was created by private property, whilst natural self love promotes equality
international thought of national identity and cosmopolitanism rousseau
national identity and anti cosmopolitanism
cosmopolitanism is the idea that humans belong to a single global community regardless of ther background where evryone has equality global citizenship and shared responsability.
rousseaus social contract states that individuals are free and capable of self rule and able to apply their own agency but only in confined spaces not large areas which inherently defeats his claim
stating tha cosmopolitanism would weaken the state because it needs strong nationalism and the only thing it can and must do is collaborate with other states to maintain itself.
international thought rousseau
empathy and mutual respect
pity is natural sympathy which acts as the core of self preservation which creates moral judgment, he claims creates empathy and mutual respect which both society and state should be built on
civc religion
he proposed to create a religion based on civic values such as culture tolerance and responsability rather than spirituality to promote unity and loyalty among citizens
just wars theory
wars are only justifiable if in line with his natural law motivated by self defence or moral necessity not for conquest
Edmund Burke 1729-1797
known for his thoughs on the american and french revolutions
principle of proximity edmund burke
political decisions must be taken in consideration of near communities iand states as they can influence them and hinder the stability
nation edmund burke nation
a nation is built on the ideals and culture of the people. continiuty is required to transcend those roots in order to maintain stability. sovereign authority is tested with time prescribed by time
what are the sources of sovereignty and how should the government operate ? edmund burke
- constituional sovereignty: rejects absolutism and supports shared powers through constitutional means
- customs over codification: the british system is based on practice there isnt a single written codificarion ofdocuments
- political obligation: citizens must resist morally unjust laws
- individual rights: must be balanced with societal needs for stability
prudence and skepticism change must be gradual and prudent in order not to raise skepticism which leads to chaos.
burke essentially belived that political and social order should aim for slow and steady change that preserves the essence of its culture with cautious governance and no radical change. he detested revolution.
Key issues to burke’s ideology
french revolution: danger to european stability, he claimed order was necessary through governance not revolution
colonialism: he had a pternalistic point of view colonizers should respect the local traditrions
slavery: should be abolished but over time not abruptly as it could create chaos
edmond burkes international thought
the need for intervention
he claimed that the french revolution was cause of an evil spirit that illuded the french into abbandoning their morality which is based on tradition, prudence and social constinuity, with radical democracy and equality. claiming this spirit had ideological force of creating a universal empire which would de stabilize the world. to him intervention is necessary to face immorality in order to uphold common tradition legal norms and stability
party to factions
party: according to burke is rooted in tradition and common good
factions are driven by personal ambition and narrow interests
he saw the french revolutionaries as a faction wanting to destabilize europe through ideological extremism
end of prudent politics
he lamented the shift from traditional pragmatic governance to ideological and more revolutionary governance claiming that it would lead to the spread of a cosmopolitan empire which would implement and spread its ideas through warfare, at a never seen before scale.
edmund burk legacy
his claims about how abandoning traditional and prudent governance for ideological revolutionary ideals leads to chaos and war. destsbilizing the international system. this remains true when analyzing international relations
moral dynamics are important to his ideology to him morality consists of prudence continuity and preservation
