3. Politics

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-80
Author(s):  
James A. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Political Obligation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
History Of

‘Politics’ examines Hume’s political thought as developed in Book Three of A Treatise of Human Nature, his essays, and The History of England. Hume wrote about his ideas on political obligation. Hume also engaged with 18th-century party politics and as a result, developed a self-consciously ‘moderate’ approach to the political questions of the day. Hume considered a number of economic topics in the Political Discourses and came up with a revisionary theory of money. Hume faced some stylistic challenges as he moved from philosophy to history. He then made a pessimistic turn in his thinking about politics in the final decade of his life.

History, Politics, Law

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cross Section ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Global Order ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Many

Historians of political thought and international lawyers have both expanded their interest in the formation of the present global order. History, Politics, Law is the first express encounter between the two disciplines, juxtaposing their perspectives on questions of method and substance. The essays throw light on their approaches to the role of politics and the political in the history of the world beyond the single polity. They discuss the contrast between practice and theory as well as the role of conceptual and contextual analyses in both fields. Specific themes raised for both disciplines include statehood, empires and the role of international institutions, as well as the roles of economics, innovation and gender. The result is a vibrant cross-section of contrasts and parallels between the methods and practices of the two disciplines, demonstrating the many ways in which both can learn from each other.

scholarly journals The History of the Language and the History of the Nation

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2 (22)) ◽  
pp. 106-118
Author(s):  
Gabriella Macciocca
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Italian Literature ◽  
The Political ◽  
Italian Language ◽  
Deep Knowledge ◽  
Linguistic History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University ◽  
Over Time

The history of the language represents a moment of deep knowledge in the development of the political thought of the Nation. With regard to the Italian language, we must recognize observations and summaries of linguistic history produced ever since the origins of the language itself. A short number of examples, coming from the history of the Italian language, and from the history of Italian literature, will be considered. We will consider in which way the language has been taught over time and the University statement.

scholarly journals The “Slavic-Russian Nation” in the Historical Literature of Ukraine and Russia from the 1600s to the mid-1700s

Slovene ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-447
Author(s):  
Petr S. Stefanovich
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Slavonic Language ◽  
Imperial Identity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Church ◽  
Century Literature

The article analyzes the history of the concept of a “Slavic-Russian nation”. The concept was first used by Zacharia Kopystenskij in 1624, but its wide occurrence starts in 1674, when Synopsis, the first printed history of Russia, was published in Kiev. In the book, “Slavic-Russian nation” refers to an ancient Slavic people, which preceded the “Russian nation” (“rossiyskiy narod”) of the time in which the book was written. Uniting “Slavs” and “Russians” (“rossy”) into one “Slavic-Russian nation”, the author of Synopsis followed the idea which was proposed but not specifically defined by M. Stryjkovskij in his Chronicle (1582) and, later, by the Kievan intellectuals of the 1620s–30s. The construction of Synopsis was to prove that “Russians” (“rossy”) were united by both the common Slavic origin and the Church Slavonic language used by the Orthodox Slavic peoples. According to Synopsis, they were also supposed to be united by the Muscovite tsar’s authority and the Orthodox religion. The whole conception made Synopsis very popular in Russia in the late 17th century and later. Earlier in the 17th-century literature of the Muscovite State, some authors also proposed ethno-genetic constructions based on Stryjkovskij’s Chronicle and other Renaissance historiography. Independently from the Kievan literature, the word “Slavic-Russian” was invented (first appearance in the Legend about Sloven and Rus, 1630s). Both the Kievan and Muscovite constructions of a mythical “Slavic-Russian nation” aimed at making an “imagined” ethno-cultural nation. They contributed to forming a new Russian imperial identity in the Petrine epoch. However, the concept of a “Slavic-Russian nation” was not in demand in the political discourse of the Petrine Empire. It was sporadically used in the historical works of the 18th century (largely due to the influence of Synopsis), but played no significant role in the proposed interpretations of Russian history.

scholarly journals Political Technique, the Conflict of Umori, and Foucault’s Reading of Machiavelli in Sécurité, Territoire, Population

2015 ◽  
pp. 172-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Erwin
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Lecture Series ◽  
Common Thread ◽  
History Of ◽  
Raison D’État ◽  
The Difference

This article examines Foucault’s interpretation of Machiavelli in his 1978 lecture series, Sécurité, territoire, population. I argue that Foucault’s interpretation in these lectures deliberately misrepresents Machiavelli. This misrepresentation allows him to develop later traditions in political thought in a way that precludes any importance Machiavelli might have had for the concerns of these later authors. Further, thorough analysis of Foucault’s reading of Machiavelli uncovers a common thread between the two authors. For Machiavelli, the political is a space articulated by an immediacy of princes to peoples and generated from the fold formed by the difference between the qualities of the political humors. For Machiavelli, this difference of the humors—unstable and porous as it is—between those who desire to dominate and those who desire not to be dominated is immanent to the political. Read from this perspective Foucault’s critique of the tradition in anti-Machiavellian literature develops a reading of Machiavelli that, even if it misrepresents him, breaks Machiavelli free from the place his thought generally occupies in the history of raison d’État. The paper then closes developing the notion that Foucault’s interpretation of Machiavelli points in the direction of a clear theme shared by the two — the theme of historically generated political technique(s).

Seneca the Elder, the Controuersia Figurata, and the Political Discourse of the Early Empire

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-150
Author(s):  
Matthew Leigh
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Roman History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Turn On ◽  
Specific Event ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Seneca The Elder

This paper studies examples of how exponents of Roman declamation could insert into arguments on the trivial, even fantastic, cases known as controuersiae statements of striking relevance to the political culture of the triumviral and early imperial period. This is particularly apparent in the Controuersiae of Seneca the Elder but some traces remain in the Minor Declamations attributed to Quintilian. The boundaries separating Rome itself from the declamatory city referred to by modern scholars as Sophistopolis are significantly blurred even in those instances where the exercise does not turn on a specific event from Roman history, and there is much to be gained from how the declaimers deploy Roman historical examples. Some of the most sophisticated instances of mediated political comment exploit the employment of universalizing sententiae, which have considerable bite when they are related to contemporary Roman discourse and experience. The declamation schools are a forum for thinking through the implications of the transformation of the Roman state and deserve a place within any history of Roman political thought.

A Study of Political Discourses in Egypt Post-Mubarak Era

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110491
Author(s):  
Abbas Keshavarz Shokri ◽  
Jabbar Shojaei
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Target Groups ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
Made In

The collapse of the Mubarak regime on 25 January 2011 marked the beginning of profound discursive challenges in Egypt. Following the January Revolution, the political forces and discourses long suppressed by Mubarak finally felt free to participate in the political struggles of the time, and attempted to lead the charge in the rebuilding and reorganizing process of Egyptian society. To shed light on the origin and characteristics of these discourses, attempts have been made in this paper to explain through discourse analysis the four major political discourses in today’s Egypt: democratic Islamism, authoritarian Islamism, secular democracy, and secular authoritarianism, and also to identify the political groups representing each discourse, their target groups, the method of their argumentation, and finally their proposed political agenda. To explain these discourses, the a posteriori discourse method is used, i.e. identifying the history of the formation of components and features of discourses. To this end, the discourse analysis of theorists such as Foucault and Van Dyke has been used to examine political discourses in Egypt. The factors used to examine the discourses are: discourse producers, discourse audiences, discourse content, and discourse actions.

Hume and the Customary Causes of Industry, Knowledge and Humanity

2018 ◽  
pp. 184-207
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Berry
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Causal Analysis ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

Examines Hume’s account of economic development as a subset of the history of civilisation, which is presented by him as a history of customs and manners. Since Hume believes that the subject matter of ‘economics’ is amenable to scientific analysis, the focus is on his employment of causal analysis and how he elaborates an analysis of customs as causes to account for social change. This is executed chiefly via an examination Hume’s Essays, though the History of England (as a test case) and the Treatise of Human Nature for its expression of Hume’s seminal analysis of causation are also incorporated.

Conclusion—Rousseau’s paradox

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
Social Democrat ◽  
The Social ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter binds the book together, recapitulating its general argument, and offering pointers as to how the study relates to some contemporary questions of political theory. It suggests that a classification that distinguishes between Weber the ‘liberal’, Schmitt the ‘conservative’ and Neumann the ‘social democrat’, cannot provide an adequate understanding of this episode in the history of political thought. Nor indeed can it do so for other periods. In this book, one part of the development of their ideas has focused on the relationship between state and politics. By learning from their examples, people continue their own search for an acceptable balance between the freedom of the individual and the claims of the political community.

4. Religion

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-103
Author(s):  
James A. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Natural Religion ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

‘Religion' discusses Hume’s various treatments of religion, particularly in the essay ‘Of Miracles’, Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, and ‘The Natural History of Religion’. Hume's earlier writings show some interesting implications for religion, including A Treatise of Human Nature and the essay ‘Of National Characters’. Looking at ‘Of Miracles’ shows that Hume’s theme was not the possibility of miracles as such, but rather the rational grounds of belief in reports of miracles. Considering the Dialogues emphasizes the distinction between scepticism and atheism. Meanwhile, ‘Natural History’ emphasizes Hume’s interest in the dangerous moral consequences of monotheism. What is the future for religion? Perhaps Hume was unlikely to have supposed that his writings would do anything to reduce religion’s hold on the vast majority of human beings.

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