Political philosophy

To begin with, we were introduced to a man called Plato. Plato is a classical Greek philosopher known throughout history as a great mathematician as well as a student of Socrates and founder of an academy in Athens. We moved on to look at Plato's crito, this being a short but important piece of dialect depicting the conversation between Socrates and his wealthy friend Crito regarding justice, injustice and the appropriate response to them. Basically Socrates was imprisoned following a trial, whilst his friend Crito tried to persuade him to escape from prison. Socrates dismissed Crito's arguments, explaining why he must face his sentence, introducing the idea of a covenant between him as a citizen and the state. Socrates then went on to explain that he has lived in the city and benefited from it (through education) and so he now must abide by the laws of the city, he has implicitly agreed with these laws by remaining in the city as an adult as well as bringing up a family within the city. He concluded that if he tried to escape prison, therefore breaking the law, he is attempting to destroy the whole city, arguing essentially on Kantian Principles - If everyone tried to oppose the law, what sort of society would we be living in?

Accredited to cote

This then lead on to The Social Contract. Although never written down this was merely a spoken agreement that ultimately said that without it there would be a collapse in society. This spoken agreement appears in The Leviathan, a book written by Thomas Hobbes which was first published in 1651 describing itself as a "biblical monster of unstoppable power". The power of The Leviathan was limitless which then leads on to the relatable theory known as the State of Nature. The State of Nature, a term that has originated from political philosophy and is used in social contract theories to describe the hypothetical condition that preceded governments. Hobbes wrote that "during the time, men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every

man" In this state any person has a natural right to the liberty to do anything he wills to preserve his own life, describing life as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". He then went on to say that peoples dominate passions are aggressive - people that act on these passions will produce a state of war, therefore people lived in fear. He described the state as a war machine, organised explicitly for war against subjects who resist and organised for war against rival states. The Leviathan made a basic contract called a sovereign that would represent the people of the state as long as they agreed to hand over their power. However it is not the authoritarian manual it is often thought to be as Hobbes makes it clear that the sovereign owes his power to the people he governs, setting important limits on the power of the sovereign, maintaining that self defence remains a right even in this new common wealth.

We then moved on to looking at Locke, an English philosopher and physician of the 17th century who was highly regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers of our time. The Two Treatises of Government was a political piece of work written by Locke in 1689. The First Treatise attacks the concept of "The Divine Right of Kings" basically stating that God had given Adam the right to rule - "Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air" Genesis. The second Treatise depicts Locke opposing to Hobbes theory and his belief in the State of Nature as he, unlike Hobbes believed that everyone should have the right to enjoy natural

freedom and equality instead of having to live in fear all the time whilst obeying natural laws. These natural laws were moral laws which every man knew intuitively - a ready made knowledge of right and wrong that was "interwoven into the constitution of the human mind" discovered by reason, which originates from God. Locke proposed a concept of government that by consent and limited by law, used its power to protect property and insisted that taxes could not be levied without the peoples consent. He insisted that a need for a higher level (such as the government, police ect.) was needed to choose sides with arguments or disagreements stating that the government should only rule if society agreed. He believed that citizens could rebel if their government ceased to respect the law, implying that the right of revolution was one of the natural rights of man.

Rousseau, another influential philosopher believed that the conflict between obedience to the state and your own freedom is to be guided by our own will. He wanted a civil freedom, stating that if everyone was involved in making the law they will only be following their own will, this being the general will, essentially saying that society makes us unhappy. He believed that the people had to be part of the legislature.

To wrap up everything in a nutshell...

Hobbes is a complete collapse of society.

Lockes is a collaborative state.

Rousseaus is a state of freedom.

Moving back to Plato we begin to delve into some of Plato's theories, starting with The Forms. Plato's forms are believed to represent a distinct and perfect parallel world and/or universe with perfect replications of our imperfect world. This idea is represented in the cave analogy. The cave analogy describes prisoners being forced to stare at the side of a cave with them only knowing one world, this being the world of shadows. One day, one of the prisoners decided to turn around and saw the "perfect world" and tried to influence the others to do so. Basically Plato believed that everything we saw, for example a chair is an imperfect version of a better chair, ultimately saying that there is one perfect chair out there. This ideology can be applied to Christianity as heaven is believed to be the perfect ultimatum after death. Understanding the forms is crucial to understanding Plato's concept of the soul. He believed that the soul is

organised into three parts; Reason, Spirit and Desire.

Accredited to Image Editor

Reason knows the forms and therefore reality.

Spirit represents courage, ferocity and aggression. The spirit wants honour but does not know what honour is.

Desire is a constant craving, pushed hopelessly from one desire to another. Reason is needed to control desire.

Plato argues that if there are three types of soul, there must be three types of state. The type of state is determined by the people who dominate it. The Chariot is known as the representation of the three states.

Reason helps to guide people. They control the demands of spirit and desire and are aware of the forms. These philosophers are rulers of the ideal state and use their knowledge of the forms to rule.

Desire is a democracy, everyone believes they have the ability to lead which is also characterised by an obsession with money.

Spirit is an aggressive state which prizes military power and glory.