Adam Smith’s Political Theory of Opinion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Sagar
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
David Hume ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Psychology ◽  
Central Factor ◽  
Correct Understanding ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Secular Politics

This chapter examines Adam Smith's political theory of opinion in relation to the contributions of David Hume and, to a lesser extent, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, regarding sociability and the state. More specifically, it explores how Smith's development of Hume's alternative theoretic framework of opinion led him to construct a theory of regime forms that was deeply historically inflected, even as he also ultimately admitted that philosophy is incapable of finally resolving the tensions and predicaments generated by purely secular politics. The chapter first considers Smith's notion of utility as the central factor in explaining human sociability before discussing his insight into the correct understanding of the role of utility in human psychology, which carried extensive implications for politics. It then analyzes Smith's rejection of Montesquieu's classification of monarchies and republics and his account of how opinion generated authority. It also describes Smith's views on sovereignty and the limits of philosophy.

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.

scholarly journals State-of-the-art on monolingual lexicography for Croatia (Croatian)

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-77
Author(s):  
Kristina Štrkalj Despot ◽  
Lana Hudeček ◽  
Tomislav Stojanov ◽  
Nikola Ljubešić
Keyword(s):  
State Of The Art ◽  
The State ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Insight Into

In this minireview, the state of the art of the Croatian monolingual lexicography is presented. A brief overview and classification of all existing lexicographic resources is provided in the firts part of the minireview, followed by somewhat more detailed insight into the existing Croatian monolingual dictionaries and monolingual lexicographic projects, orthography dictionaries, and dictionary writing systems used.

The Exile of Political Theory: The Lost Homeland of Legitimation

1995 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 683-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Simons
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legitimation Crisis ◽  
Implicit Definitions ◽  
Recurrent Theme

A sense of distance or exile is a recurrent theme of the literature in which the state of the political theory is either lamented or acclaimed. A review of these tales suggests that implicit definitions of the homeland of the sub-discipline as philosophical, practical or interpretive are inadequate, leading to mistaken diagnoses of the reasons for the ills or recovery of political philosophy. This paper argues that political theory has been exiled from its previous role or homeland of legitimation of political orders. Under contemporary conditions in the advanced liberal capitalist political order, in which a media-generated imagology of society as a communicative system fills the role of a legitimating discourse, political theory faces a legitimation crisis.

Minding the State — or a State of Mind?

1990 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
BERT A. ROCKMAN
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Third ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
Unique Definition ◽  
Public Cultures ◽  
State Organization ◽  
Decisional Authority

In political theory the state has been enjoying a conceptual rebirth even while some of its activities have been receding. The state, however, remains conceptually ambiguous and is thus molded into many different conceptual forms. Three of those forms are discussed in this article: the decision-making state, the production state, and the intermediary state. The first relates to the organization and architecture of decisional authority; the second to the public and distributive goods supplied by the state; and the third to the interconnections between state organization and the organizations of civil society. Although the state lacks unique definition as a concept, its value lies in bringing together the most important macro-level connections of the polity, the society, and the economy that cannot otherwise be adequately analyzed in isolation from one another. In particular, the state provides a focus for the study of statecraft within a given constellation of institutional and interest formations and public cultures. And yet statecraft itself cannot be detached from an analytic focus on the role of incentives, which must be effectively manipulated in order to preserve the fundamental functions of the state.

scholarly journals Vindicae contra tyrannos: Apology of the state as a medium of social integration

Napredak ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-56
Author(s):  
Milan Brdar
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
The State ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Transitional Societies ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Historical Fact ◽  
The One

In this article author presents an apology of the state in relation to modern political theory and humanity scholars and persistent criticism of such an important institution. The first section of the article provides a reconstruction of the origins of the negative attitude toward the state in liberalism, Marxism and conservativism, which have resulted in ridiculous predictions regarding the disappearance of the nation state in the context of globalization. In the second part the author asserts that the state is the unavoidable medium of modern social synthesis and deals with the problem of the one-sidedness modern ideologies and their programs of social synthesis. The principles necessary to perform this task are divided amongst ideologies (freedom - liberalism, equality - Marxism, community - conservativism), and due to this historical fact, we have conflict between them instead of complementarity. This leads to the conclusion that we ought to get rid of devotion to one ideology in favor of reform of our way of thinking. The final section of the article provides a description of the phenomena present transitional societies and the leading political role of intellectuals. In the author's view this unhappy occurrence is due to inadequate education in the area of modern political theory, which due to its negative attitude toward the state reduces our political skill. The first step to avoiding this requires the abandonment of negative attitudes toward the state and the fostering of respect of the state as the protector of the "common good" and the guarantor of liberty, necessary for the improvement of people's lives, in keeping with Aristotle's statement.

On media censorship, freedom of expression and the risks of journalism in Mexico

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 666-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fidel González-Quiñones ◽  
Juan D Machin-Mastromatteo
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
The State ◽  
Corporate Groups ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
Media Censorship

We present a classification of the types of censorship of media to frame the various issues that journalism and freedom of expression face in Mexico, which mainly include the role of the State in preventing or enforcing censorship, the monopoly of a few corporate groups that control most of the mass media and dictate fixed editorial lines throughout all of them, the effect of violence on journalism and the issues that are emerging around the freedom of expression in social media.

The Opinion of Mankind

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Sagar
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
David Hume ◽  
State Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Scottish Enlightenment ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of

What is the modern state? Conspicuously undertheorized in recent political theory, this question persistently animated the best minds of the Enlightenment. Recovering David Hume and Adam Smith's underappreciated contributions to the history of political thought, this book considers how, following Thomas Hobbes's epochal intervention in the mid-seventeenth century, subsequent thinkers grappled with explaining how the state came into being, what it fundamentally might be, and how it could claim rightful authority over those subject to its power. Hobbes has cast a long shadow over Western political thought, particularly regarding the theory of the state. This book shows how Hume and Smith, the two leading lights of the Scottish Enlightenment, forged an alternative way of thinking about the organization of modern politics. They did this in part by going back to the foundations: rejecting Hobbes's vision of human nature and his arguments about our capacity to form stable societies over time. In turn, this was harnessed to a deep reconceptualization of how to think philosophically about politics in a secular world. The result was an emphasis on the “opinion of mankind,” the necessary psychological basis of all political organization. Demonstrating how Hume and Smith broke away from Hobbesian state theory, the book suggests ways in which these thinkers might shape how we think about politics today, and in turn how we might construct better political theory.

Analysis of the Development of the Hospitatity Industry in the North Caucasus Federal District

2020 ◽  
pp. 117-126
Author(s):  
Olga V. Pirogova ◽  
Anastasia Yu. Pirogova
Keyword(s):  
Hospitality Industry ◽  
Federal District ◽  
The State ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
The North ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The World ◽  
Market Saturation

The article talks about the role of the hospitality industry in the world, shows statistics on the state of the hospitality industry in the world and in Russia. It is shown how tourism and the hospitality industry are interconnected, how tourism affects the development of the hospitality industry. The article gives the concept of the hospitality industry, analyzes this concept, gives its interpretation by Russian and foreign scientists, gives an analysis of this concept in connection with the legal point of view. The hospitality industry is a complex of economic system, which is an intersectoral complex. The paper shows the role of the hospitality industry in the North Caucasus Federal District. The concept of a market saturation indicator for hotel services is introduced, and global market saturation indicators for hotel rooms are discussed. The paper gives the main indicators of the state of the hotel services market, such as: the number of collective accommodation facilities, the number of rooms, the number of places in collective accommodation facilities, the number of nights in collective accommodation facilities. These indicators are compared with the indicators of the Russian Federation as a whole, with indicators in the North Caucasus Federal District as a whole. Also, a comparison of these indicators among the regions of the district. The analysis of these indicators of the development of the hotel industry in the district is carried out, the growth of these indicators in comparison with 2012 is shown, the share of hotel services by the district is analyzed. The study shows a significant difference in these indicators between the regions of the district. The article discusses the role of the classification of hotels and provides data on the classification of hospitality industry enterprises in the district, the classification capabilities and the problems associated with this procedure. As a result of the work, a conclusion is drawn on the state of the hotel services market in the North Caucasus Federal District.

History and the Family

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Sagar
Keyword(s):  
David Hume ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Human Psychology ◽  
Francis Hutcheson ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
The Family ◽  
Bernard Mandeville

This chapter examines the role of history and the family in debates over human sociability and the foundations of politics, drawing attention to how David Hume was able to revolutionize the use of state-of-nature conjectures in order to elucidate the emergence of institutional structures and related moral values. According to Thomas Hobbes, human psychology was fundamentally characterized by the balancing of appetites and aversions: all motivation could be explained in terms of the seeking of private pleasure and the avoidance of private pain. Bernard Mandeville essentially followed Hobbes, refusing to give any role to fellow feeling in explaining human sociability. The chapter first considers Hume's rejection of Hobbes's and Mandeville's reductive accounts of human psychology before discussing Hobbes's views on the question of the family and his notion of the state of nature. It also analyzes the debate involving Hobbes's British successors, namely: Mandeville, Anthony Ashley Cooper, and Francis Hutcheson.

On legal facts conditions in criminal executive law and their classification

2019 ◽  
pp. 77-87
Author(s):  
Егор Евгеньевич Новиков
Keyword(s):  
Third Parties ◽  
The State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Legal Consequences

В статье рассматриваются юридические факты-состояния, порождающие, изменяющие или прекращающие уголовно-исполнительные правоотношения. Автор на основе анализа дискуссии ученых-юристов, посвященной определению места событий в системе юридических фактов, представил собственную точку зрения, касающуюся роли юридических фактов-состояний в уголовно-исполнительном праве. В работе аргументируется, что состояние следует отнести к одному из видов фактов-событий. Представлена классификация юридических фактов-событий, содержащихся в уголовно-исполнительном праве. Предлагается рассматриваемые правовые явления классифицировать по следующим основаниям: по происхождению (абсолютные (болезнь осужденного/родственников) и относительные (беременность, опьянение, родство); по времени существования (краткосрочные, длительные, постоянные); в зависимости от способности порождать правоотношения (состояния, влекущие стопроцентное возникновение юридических последствий и факты, порождающие возникновение юридических последствий, но при условии участия третьих лиц). The article deals with legal facts-states generating, changing or terminating criminal executive relations. The author, based on an analysis of the discussion of legal scholars devoted to determining the location of events in the system of legal facts, presented his own point of view regarding the role of legal facts-states in the criminal-executive law. The paper argues that the state should be attributed to one of the types of fact-events. The article presents the classification of legal facts-events contained in the criminal-executive law. It is proposed to classify the considered legal phenomena for the following reasons: by origin (absolute (illness of the convict / relatives) and relative (pregnancy, intoxication, kinship); by time of existence (short-term, long-term, permanent); depending on the ability to generate legal relations (conditions entailing 100 % of the occurrence of legal consequences and facts giving rise to the occurrence of legal consequences, but subject to the participation of third parties.

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