Political Authority, Self-Defense, And Pre-Emptive War

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marvin Schiller
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Systematic Fashion ◽  
History Of ◽  
Central Purpose

The central purpose of this paper is to examine the case for political authority, i.e., the argument for having political authority rather than for having none. Thus, the case for political authority is the case against anarchism. My construction of that case owes much, no doubt, to observations made long ago by Thomas Hobbes and john locke. Nevertheless, these observations have never been stated in a satisfactory and systematic fashion, not even by Hobbes and locke themselves. Hobbes’ observations have, more often than not, been misunderstood, and those of locke have generally been overlooked. However, this paper is not intended to be an exercise in the history of political philosophy. Rather, it is an assessment of a philosophical thesis, namely, that political authority is essential to man's survival and well-being. Although this thesis is rarely contested and, in fact, borders on the commonplace, it is contestable. Moreover, since disenchantment with authority and how it is exercised is growing, an examination of how men are likely to fare in its absence is appropriate. Such an examination is complex, but it is not impossible.

scholarly journals Historia de la filosofía política: tres tipos de análisis

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-124
Author(s):  
Luciano Venezia
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
History Of

In this paper I outline three kinds of analysis of classical texts in the history of political philosophy, which I call “Reconstruction”, “Illustration” and “Use”. I briefly develop each of these methodologies, relying especially on my own work on John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. Finally, I put forward some thoughts about the value of the different kinds of approach.

Lectures on the History of Moral and Political Philosophy

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Wolff ◽  
G. A. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
David Hume ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Volume Editor ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theory Of History

G. A. Cohen was one of the leading political philosophers of recent times. He first came to wide attention in 1978 with the prize-winning book Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence. In subsequent decades his published writings largely turned away from the history of philosophy, focusing instead on equality, freedom, and justice. However, throughout his career he regularly lectured on a wide range of moral and political philosophers of the past. This volume collects these previously unpublished lectures. Starting with a chapter centered on Plato, but also discussing the pre-Socratics as well as Aristotle, the book moves to social contract theory as discussed by Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and David Hume, and then continues with chapters on Immanuel Kant, G. W. F. Hegel, and Friedrich Nietzsche. The book also contains some previously published but uncollected papers on Marx, Hobbes, and Kant, among other figures. The collection concludes with a memoir of Cohen written by the volume editor who was a student of Cohen's. A hallmark of the lectures is Cohen's engagement with the thinkers he discusses. Rather than simply trying to render their thought accessible to the modern reader, he tests whether their arguments and positions are clear, sound, and free from contradiction. Ultimately, his lectures teach us not only about some of the great thinkers in the history of moral and political philosophy, but also about one of the great thinkers of our time: Cohen himself.

Hobbes's Concept of Representation—I

1964 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Pitkin
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Standard Edition

It is not customary to regard Thomas Hobbes as a theorist particularly concerned with representation. Hardly any of the traditional commentaries on his thought even acknowledge that he mentions the term; and the index to Molesworth's standard edition of Hobbes's English works contains no reference to it. But the fact is that representation plays a central role in the Leviathan; and Hobbes's analysis of the concept is among the most serious, systematic and challenging in the history of political philosophy. It is an analysis both temptingly plausible and, as I hope to show, peculiarly wrong. And the ways in which it is wrong are intimately related to what is most characteristic and peculiar in the Hobbesian political argument.

scholarly journals The Body Politic “is a fictitious body”

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Douglass
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Religious Imagery ◽  
Central Purpose

Thomas Hobbes once wrote that the body politic “is a fictitious body”, thereby contrasting it with a natural body. In this essay I argue that a central purpose of Hobbes’s political philosophy was to cast the fiction of the body politic upon the imaginations of his readers. I elucidate the role of the imagination in Hobbes’s account of human nature, before examining two ways in which his political philosophy sought to transform the imaginations of his audience. The first involved effacing the false ideas that led to sedition by enlightening men from the kingdom of spiritual darkness. I thus advance an interpretation of Hobbes’s eschatology focused upon his attempt to dislodge certain theological conceptions from the minds of men. The second involved replacing this religious imagery with the fiction of the body politic and the image of the mortal God, which, I argue, Hobbes developed in order to transform the way that men conceive of their relationship with the commonwealth. I conclude by adumbrating the implications of my reading for Hobbes’s social contract theory and showing why the covenant that generates the commonwealth is best understood as imaginary.

A Brief Semantic History of Securitas

Security ◽  
2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Ancient Rome ◽  
Sense Of Security ◽  
Positive Sense ◽  
History Of ◽  
Semantic History ◽  
Cultural Connotations ◽  
Historical Usage

What does the term “security” express? What are or have been its semantic functions: its shifting cultural connotations and its divergent discursive values? This chapter examines the figures and metaphors that have been deployed to think about security across the ages. It outlines the main stations along the word's complex itinerary through historical usage. It begins with a cursory overview that marks the major turning points of this history, beginning with ancient Rome and concluding with seventeenth-century Europe. Among the topics covered is the positive sense of security that established its position as a central topic in political philosophy in the work of Thomas Hobbes. Throughout, the affirmation of security as a good is fundamentally connected with the power of sovereignty to alleviate the cares and concerns of its subjects. The state emerges as an institution that protects its citizens from all varieties of existential threats, from external aggression as well as from internal discord.

Life and Works

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-27
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
David Hume ◽  
John Locke ◽  
George Washington ◽  
John Adams ◽  
James I ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Before And After ◽  
History Of

This biographical introduction begins with the formation of Catharine Macaulay’s political ideas from when, as Catharine Sawbridge, she lived at the family estate. It follows her through her mature development as the celebrated female historian, to her death in 1791, as Mrs. Macaulay Graham. It notes the influence on her of writings of John Milton, Algernon Sidney, and John Locke as well as other republican works. It covers her marriage to the physician and midwife George Macaulay, and sets out the circumstances which led to the composition, and influence of, her History of England from the Accession of James I (HEAJ). The content of her histories, political philosophy, ethical and educational views, and criticisms of the philosophers David Hume, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Edmund Burke are sketched, and it is argued that her enlightenment radicalism was grounded in Christian eudaimonism, resulting in a form of rational altruism, according to which human happiness depends on the cultivation of the self as a moral individual. It deals with her engagement with individuals in North America before and after the American Revolution, in particular her exchanges with, John Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Benjamin Rush, and George Washington, and also recounts her contacts with influential players in the French Revolution, in particular, Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville and Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti count of Mirabeau. The introduction concludes with her influence on Mary Wollstonecraft and an overview of her mature political philosophy as summarized in her response to Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France.

scholarly journals The Theory of Social Contract and Legitimacy Today

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
Neophitos Economides
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The Political ◽  
Renaissance Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Era

Abstract The theory of social contract has played - and still plays - an important role in the central stage of political philosophy. The social contract answers the question of the origin of the society. The history of the theory originates in the ancient Greece political philosophy and extends to the recent years. However, the foundation of the theory resulted in the Renaissance period through the treatises of classical contractarians Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. The manuscript describes the main arguments regarding the theory of social contract and suggests the main similarities and differences among them. Finally, the manuscript, according to the main description of the theories, suggests the main categorization of their results in legitimizing the political authority. In the final section, the article proposes the contribution of the theory of the social contract to the modern era and summarizes the positive aspects of its arguments to the legitimization of the political authority of modern states.

The Idea of Sport Agon as a Metaphor of Human Life in Thomas Hobbes’ Mechanistic Philosophy of Motion

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 25-29
Author(s):  
Maria Zowisło
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Old French ◽  
The Body ◽  
Herbert Spencer ◽  
Sport Competition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mechanistic Philosophy

Contemporary sport is a complex phenomenon with a rich multicultural historical tradition, its universal principles, such as peaceful and institutionalised competition included in the rules of individual fi tness professions, as well as ethos, ceremonial and ideology, are the work of many epochs and nations. The particular contribution of English culture to sport is well-known, from the promotion of its fi nal name (from the Old French desporte, which came to England in the 11th century with the Normans), through the promotion of physical education by eminent educators and philosophers such as John Locke, Herbert Spencer and Thomas Arnold, to the creation and dissemination of many sports, including football, rugby, tennis, cricket and golf. In the article, I refer to the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, signifi cantly infl uencing the shape of modern concepts regarding natural rights, articulating, inter alia, the inalienable right of every human being to freely use his/her body to maintain health through physical activity. Hobbes based his anthropology on the mechanistic philosophy of motion, which he used to explain not only physical activity and functional fi tness of the body, but it also became a premise for the development of the psychology of human aff ects and desires, the culmination of which was the image of the sports race as a metaphor of human life. Hobbes did not limit himself to discussing in-offi ce deliberati, he was very active throughout his life, implementing the movement directive he proposed by performing sports, recreation, practicing preventive health treatments and taking numerous trips. The article is part of the history of ideas - it is a presentation of the concept of movement by the English modern philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), supplemented with a new element in doxographic studies linking the mechanicism of the Leviathan author with the existential motif regarding the idea of the life as a sport competition.

The Making of Modern Liberalism

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Liberal Tradition ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of

This book is a deep and wide-ranging exploration of the origins and nature of liberalism from the Enlightenment through its triumphs and setbacks in the twentieth century and beyond. The book is the fruit of more than four decades during which the author reflected on the past of the liberal tradition—and worried about its future. This is essential reading for anyone interested in political theory or the history of liberalism. The book consists of five parts. It covers subjects such as liberalism, freedom, the liberal community and the death penalty, Thomas Hobbes's political philosophy, individualism, human nature, John Locke on freedom, John Stuart Mill's political thought, utilitarianism and bureaucracy, pragmatism, social identity, patriotism, self-criticism, and more.

Taking Modernity to Extremes: On the Roots of Anti-Politics

2019 ◽  
pp. 147892991988734
Author(s):  
Matteo Truffelli ◽  
Lorenzo Zambernardi
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Natural Condition ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Modern Politics ◽  
Modern Era

The term anti-politics has been used in recent years as never before. However, the concept is used to describe political phenomena and actors that appear at first sight to be mutually exclusive. Starting from the difficulties in defining anti-politics, the main goal of the article is to elucidate its intellectual roots, showing that it is a kind of shadow of modern politics, mirroring its many forms. From an examination of Thomas Hobbes’ political philosophy, it will be shown that anti-politics was born at a moment when politics was no longer seen as a natural condition of social life, but an artificial construct that can be dismantled and reassembled. By no means coincidentally, the main manifestations of anti-politics are nothing but the radical and destructive reinterpretation of what Max Weber identifies as the three “inner justifications” of political authority (i.e. tradition, charisma, competence). Although Weber lays down those principles as underpinning political authority in ancient and modern times, the contention of this article is that they can only be used to deny the legitimacy of politics once this comes to be seen as an artifice that can be taken to pieces and put together again: in short, in the modern era.

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