Hobbes’s Argument for the Practical Necessity of Colonization

2021 ◽  
pp. 16-41
Author(s):  
David James
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
National Liberation ◽  
Science Of History ◽  
Practical Necessity ◽  
Liberation Movements ◽  
Historical Necessity

Hobbes attempts to show that practical necessity and human nature are related in such a way that colonization is unavoidable by virtue of its naturalness. Colonization is practically and historically necessary because unavoidable constraints generated by human nature combine with material and social factors to produce certain inevitable outcomes. Hobbes’s account of colonization can also be understood in terms of his negative idea of freedom. Hobbes fails, however, to provide a sufficient explanation of one aspect of modern colonialism, namely, the existence of national liberation movements, while the role of the sovereign implies a different idea of freedom to Hobbes’s purely negative one. This makes colonization appear less natural and necessary than he suggests. Finally, I explore the implications of Hobbes’s account of the causes of colonization in connection with the possibility of a ‘science’ of history and the idea of historical necessity.

Kropotkin

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Kinna
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Analysis ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Special Character ◽  
Revolutionary Politics

This book is designed to remove Peter Kropotkin from the framework of classical anarchism. By focusing attention on his theory of mutual aid, it argues that the classical framing distorts Kropotkin's political theory by associating it with a narrowly positivistic conception of science, a naively optimistic idea of human nature and a millenarian idea of revolution. Kropotkin's abiding concern with Russian revolutionary politics is the lens for this analysis. The argument is that his engagement with nihilism shaped his conception of science and that his expeditions in Siberia underpinned an approach to social analysis that was rooted in geography. Looking at Kropotkin's relationship with Elisée Reclus and Erico Malatesta and examining his critical appreciation of P-J. Proudhon, Michael Bakunin and Max Stirner, the study shows how he understood anarchist traditions and reveals the special character of his anarchist communism. His idea of the state as a colonising process and his contention that exploitation and oppression operate in global contexts is a key feature of this. Kropotkin's views about the role of theory in revolutionary practice show how he developed this critique of the state and capitalism to advance an idea of political change that combined the building of non-state alternatives through direct action and wilful disobedience. Against critics who argue that Kropotkin betrayed these principles in 1914, the book suggests that this controversial decision was consistent with his anarchism and that it reflected his judgment about the prospects of anarchistic revolution in Russia.

Thomas More's “rule” of pleasure before, after, and inUtopia

Moreana ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (Number 207) (1) ◽  
pp. 36-56
Author(s):  
Gerard Wegemer
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
The Other ◽  
Biblical Allusions ◽  
De Officiis

After establishing a context of More's lifelong engagement with the “calculus” of pleasure, this essay shows how the section devoted to the Utopians' pleasure philosophy is structured around five formulations of a “rule” to calculate “true and honest [honesta]” pleasure in ways that playfully imitate and echo the “rule” Cicero formulates several times in De officiis to discern one's duty when there seems to be a conflict between honestas et utilitas. When followed, the Utopian pleasure calculus shows the necessary role of societas, officii, iustitia, caritas, and the other aspects of human nature, most importantly friendship, that Cicero stresses in his rule and that he argued Epicurus ignored. Much of the irony and humor of this section depends on seeing the predominance of Ciceronian vocabulary in Raphael's unusual defense [patrocinium] of pleasure, rather than a Ciceronian defense of duty rooted in honestas. Throughout, however, this essay also shows how More goes beyond Cicero by including Augustinian and biblical allusions to suggest ways that our final end is not as Epicurus or the Stoics or Cicero claim; the language and allusions of this section point to a level of good cheer and care for neighbors and for God in ways quite different from any classical thinker.

scholarly journals Invasion landscapes as social‐ecological systems: Role of social factors in invasive plant species control

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Yletyinen ◽  
George L. W. Perry ◽  
Olivia R. Burge ◽  
Norman W. H. Mason ◽  
Philip Stahlmann‐Brown
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Invasive Plant ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Invasive Plant Species ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological

scholarly journals Reopening Selves: Phenomenological Considerations on Psychiatric Spaces and the Therapeutic Stance

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Samuel Thoma ◽  
Isabelle Schwänzl ◽  
Laura Galbusera
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Phenomenological Research ◽  
Social World ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
Structural Level ◽  
Open Door ◽  
Coercive Treatment ◽  
Psychiatric Institutions ◽  
The Individual

Classical and contemporary phenomenological approaches in psychiatry describe schizophrenia as a disorder of common sense and self-affection. Although taking into account intersubjectivity, this conceptualization still puts forward an individualistic view of the disorder, that is, the intersubjective deficit resides within the person. To overcome such individualism, in this article, we first propose that schizophrenic experience might be understood as arising from a dialectic relation between the self’s loss of openness to the world and the world’s loss of openness to the self. To show the relevance of social factors at the onset of schizophrenic experience, we propose a phenomenological analysis of trigger situations. In the second and main part of this article, we then focus on the implications of these phenomenological insights for the clinical practice: we argue that if schizophrenia is understood as a loss of openness between self and social world, psychiatric institutions should be transformed into spaces that enable a reopening of selves. We first describe <i>enclosing</i> phenomena such as coercive treatment to then, in contrast, present particular forms of <i>open psychiatric spaces</i> such as open door approaches and open dialogue. Besides the institutional-structural level, we also highlight aspects of openness at the intersubjective level of the individual agents, thus particularly emphasizing the role of an open therapeutic stance. We thus speak of (re)opening <i>selves</i> as we believe that the reopening of the patients’ self cannot but be related to and fostered by a reopening of the professionals’ self and stance. We thus argue that openness in the therapeutic stance is key to initiating the further process of recovery, which we describe as a reattunement of selves both at the bodily and narrative level. Last but not least, we sketch out possibilities for future phenomenological research on the question of psychiatric space and draw some broader societal implications.

The Role of Politics in the Historical Transport Networks of the Iberian Peninsula and the Pyrenees from Roman Times to the Nineteenth Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-260
Author(s):  
Pau de Soto ◽  
Cèsar Carreras
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Transport Network ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Transport Networks ◽  
Political Economic

AbstractTransport routes are basic elements that are inextricably linked to diverse political, economic, and social factors. Transport networks may be the cause or result of complex historical conjunctions that reflect to some extent a structural conception of the political systems that govern each territory. It is for this reason that analyzing the evolution of the transport routes layout in a wide territory allows us to recognize the role of the political organization and its economic influence in territorial design. In this article, the evolution of the transport network in the Iberian Peninsula has been studied in a broad chronological framework to observe how the different political systems of each period understood and modified the transport systems. Subsequently, a second analysis of the evolution of transport networks in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula is included in this article. This more detailed and geographically restricted study allows us to visualize in a different way the evolution and impact of changes in transport networks. This article focuses on the calculation of the connectivity to analyze the intermodal transport systems. The use of network science analyses to study historical roads has resulted in a great tool to visualize and understand the connectivity of the territories of each studied period and compare the evolution, changes, and continuities of the transport network.

scholarly journals Role of clinical, functional and social factors in the association between multimorbidity and quality of life: Findings from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. e0240024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatjana T. Makovski ◽  
Gwenaëlle Le Coroller ◽  
Polina Putrik ◽  
Yun Hee Choi ◽  
Maurice P. Zeegers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Factors

The Role of Experience in the Assessment of Human Nature

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-337
Author(s):  
Jan-Olav Henriksen
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature
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