The State as “a Consequence of the Curse of Humanity”: The Late Schelling’s Philosophy of Religion and of the State

Author(s):  
Christian Danz

AbstractThis paper analyzes the hitherto neglected political philosophy (Staatsphilosophie) contained in Schelling’s Berlin lectures on the philosophy of mythology and of revelation in the context of the complex and politically charged debates of the German Vormärz period. It will be shown that, in his political philosophy, the Berlin Schelling rejects social contract models of the state and follows conservative theorists who conceive of the state as a collective order that supersedes the individual, while at the same time preserving the freedom of the individual and rejecting religious legitimizations of the state. Schelling’s theory of the state is characterized by its distinctive internal tensions and by its multidimensionality. This complexity of his theory of the state helps to account for the diverse range of receptions and assessments of his political philosophy, both among his contemporaries and by subsequent commentators

Author(s):  
Shahrough Akhavi

The doctrine of salvation in Islam centers on the community of believers. Contemporary Muslim political philosophy (or, preferably, political theory) covers a broad expanse that brings under its rubric at least two diverse tendencies: an approach that stresses the integration of religion and politics, and an approach that insists on their separation. Advocates of the first approach seem united in their desire for the “Islamization of knowledge,” meaning that the epistemological foundation of understanding and explanation in all areas of life, including all areas of political life, must be “Islamic.” Thus, one needs to speak of an “Islamic anthropology,” an “Islamic sociology,” an “Islamic political science,” and so on. But there is also a distinction that one may make among advocates of this first approach. Moreover, one can say about many, perhaps most, advocates of the first approach that they feel an urgency to apply Islamic law throughout all arenas of society. This article focuses on the Muslim tradition of political philosophy and considers the following themes: the individual and society, the state, and democracy.


Author(s):  
Zoe Beenstock

Coleridge wrote frequently about Rousseau throughout his varied career. His early lectures and letters draw on Rousseau’s critique of luxury and frequently allude to the general will, depicting Rousseau as a Christ-like figure. Coleridge’s subsequent disappointment with Pantisocracy led him to reject Rousseau and the social contract. Comparing Rousseau to Luther in The Friend, Coleridge argues that Rousseau’s unhappiness arises from a conflict between an age of individualism and an ongoing need for community. According to Coleridge, poetry tolerates this conflict better than philosophy. In ‘Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement’ Coleridge suggests that social retreat offers illusory solace from war and social crisis. He critiques the state of nature, sympathy, and even religion for failing to balance the self with its environment. Thematically and formally The Rime of the Ancient Mariner explores this crisis in cohering systems. Through the mariner’s relationship to the albatross, the wedding that frames the poem, and episodes of the supernatural that disrupt the ballad form, Coleridge defines a breaking point between the individual and general wills.


1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Haldane

Let me begin with what should be a reassuring thought, and one that may serve as a corrective to presumptions that sometimes characterize political philosophy. The possibility, which Aquinas and Madison are both concerned with, of wise and virtuous political deliberation resulting in beneficial and stable civil order, no more depends upon possession of aphilosophical theory of the state and of the virtues proper to it, than does the possibility of making good paintings depend upon possession of an aesthetic theory of the nature and value of art.


1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Weinstock

My intention in this essay will be to explore the role that consent-based arguments perform in Kant's political and legal philosophy. I want to uncover the extent to which Kant considered that the legitimacy of the State and of its laws depends upon the outcome of intersubjective deliberation. Commentators have divided over the following question: Is Kant best viewed as a member of the social contract tradition, according to which the legitimacy of the state and of the laws it promulgates derives from the consent of those people over whom it claims authority, or should he be read as having put forward a secularized version of natural law theory, according to which the state and its laws are legitimate to the extent that they are attained by standards of sound reason and supported by an objective account of the human good?


1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandran Kukathas

The primary concern of this essay is with the question “What is a political community?” This question is important in its own right. Arguably, the main purpose of political philosophy is to provide an account of the nature of political association and, in so doing, to describe the relations that hold between the individual and the state. The question is also important, however, because of its centrality in contemporary debate about liberalism and community.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 292-299
Author(s):  
Mahendar Kumar

Abstract The paper is intended to highlight the key tenets of Szellemiism including education, experience and wisdom and interactions of all three and how Szellemiism can be adopted in the society by creating new social classes, institutional mechanism and social contract. Moreover, Szellemiism emphasizes upon creating the right economic, social and political balance between intellectuals and non-intellectuals. Szellemiism explicitly rejects the idea of equal voting for all eligible citizens, rather it promotes idea of weightage voting based on one’s understanding of environment by objectifying three main elements, one’s education, one’s experience and one’s wisdom by using latest technology of artificial intelligence(AI). Following that philosophy, the three key institutions should be developed including parliament, senate and council of intelligentsia. Afterwards, those three collectively choose the head of state as, the majority tyranny is avoided at each and every stage of intellectocracy and the best among the all is chosen to tackle with complicated and sophisticated national and international challenges. Moreover, Szellemiism supports the idea of a new social contract that ensures timely health, education and livelihood support to the individual by the state but by allowing the state to get maximum private information about one’s self. Hence, the paper concludes that, the new slogan of 21st century would be “Maximum state support with maximum private information”.


Etyka ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 215-230
Author(s):  
Czesław Porębski

The author starts with recalling, primarily in reliance on Du Contrat social the main clauses of the social contract. Then he advances arguments to show that the text of The Social Contract admits of two interpretations of Rousseau’s theory of the social contract. In the first interpretation, the state which is produced as a result of the contract is viewed as the environment in which man fulfils his moral calling; it is the state that by social actions people can discover and pursue moral values while preserving their individual freedom and sovereignty. The other interpretation implies that Rousseau had little respect for the individual person’s freedom and moral sovereignty, because both the construction of the “political machine” and its first decisive motions are dependent on the law-maker, a factor independent of the contracting parties, who is expected to take care of the unenlightened masses to transform them into a society reminiscent of those of Republican Rome or Sparta. In conclusion, the author advances the conjecture that the tensions pervading the theory of the social contract bad their source In certain deeper beliefs by which Rousseau abode also e his literary and educational work. Those beliefs included his distaste of modern civilization, his belief in the unconditional supremacy of moral values, his admiration of freedom, moral sovereignty and integrity, his belief that freedom is a most fundamental value, and his commitment to the kind of social ties which he saw embodied first in Geneva and most perfectly in Sparta.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-103
Author(s):  
Felipe Ribeiro

Resumo O presente trabalho tem por objetivo comparar duas noções diferentes de política, correlatas a duas noções como que simétricas e opostas do que seja a natureza humana, a saber: o conceito aristotétlica de política, e o conceito hobbesiana da mesma. Enquanto a noção teleológica da política aristotélica, segundo a qual a parte é anterior ao todo, o conduzia a tese segundo a qual o homem é naturalmente político, a inflexão materialista-mecanicista da filosofia hobbesiana acabaria por inverter esse quadro: o indivíduo, entendido como conjunto de relações mecânicas torna-se o centro da análise filosófica, e a política passa a ser uma convenção criada pacificar o estado de guerra de todos contra todos. Como interpretar essa transformação do sentido da política? Recorremos a um argumento de Habermas, segundo o qual o conceito hobbesiana de política corresponde ao aparecimento do mercado capitalista, que reifica as relações humanas e subordina a política à busca pelas satisfações materiais individuais. Nesse sentido, mais do que mera opção metodológica, a filosofia de Hobbes ganha o interesse para um diagnóstico de época, de como a política passa a operar com a generalização das relações de mercado.   Abstract The objective of the present work is to compare two different notions of politics correlated to two oppositive notions of what the human nature is: the aristotelian conception of politics, and the hobbesian one. While Aritotle’s theleological notion of politics, that conceives the whole as prior to the parts, made him defend the theses according to which man is by nature a political being, the materialist turn took by hobbesian philosophy would invert this previous scene: the individual, understoond as a compound of mechanical relations, becomes the center of the analisys, and politics becomes a convetion created to pacify the state of war of all against all. What could one say about this transformation of the very notion of politics? We will resort at this point to an argument put foward by Habermas, according to which the hobbesian notion of politics corresponds to the rise of the capitalist market that reifies human relations and subjects politics to the search for invidual material satisfactions. Thus, more than a mere methodological alternative, Hobbes’s political philosophy reveals itself as an epoch diagnosis about the transformation of politics due to the generalization of market relations.


Author(s):  
Anna Stilz

This chapter examines Robert Paul Wolff’s arguments in In Defense of Anarchism about state authority and individual autonomy, and how plausible they are for philosophical anarchism. According to Wolff, the authority of the modern state cannot be justified because it conflicts with the autonomy of the individual. The presumptive clash between state authority and individual autonomy that Wolff highlights remains central to the philosophical anarchist critique of the state, a position that has gained prominence—and widespread acceptance—in contemporary political philosophy. The rest of this chapter comments on Wolff’s views in more detail, including those concerning compliance with the state, a state’s right to rule, unanimous direct democracy, and majority rule. It also discusses Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s assertion that persons must remain free in obeying the state.


2019 ◽  
pp. 208-228
Author(s):  
Rachel Hammersley

Chapter 12 argues that Harrington’s natural philosophy was fundamental to his political philosophy and underpinned his entire programme. Harrington opposed the mechanical understanding of politics and interventionist account of religion advanced by Oxford mathematicians such as John Wilkins. Instead he emphasized the connections between the individual, the state or body politic, and the universe. All three comprised material and philosophical (human and divine) elements. Harrington’s concerns with the foundations and superstructure of the state and with the military, political, and religious aspects of citizenship were born of this view. Understanding these philosophical foundations, and seeing the parallels that Harrington drew between his own ‘political anatomy’ and William Harvey’s work, helps to make sense of the ideas set out in The Mechanics of Nature and the account of Harrington’s illness offered by Aubrey, as well as underlining the unity and cohesion of his thought.


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