An Introduction To Social and Political Philosophy

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An Introduction To Social and Political
Philosophy

• By Dr. Mark Brian Debowski

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Outcomes

• By the end of this presentation the learner shall
  be able to
• 1) Explain the scope of social and political
  philosophy
• 2) Define the multiple forms Of government
• 3) Recall philosophers preferred government forms
• 4) Explain how to generate the ideal state
• 5) Discuss the social role of political
  philosophers
• 6) Is An Ideal State Ever Possible?
• 7) Complete the associated social and political
  philosophy review

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Contents

• The Scope Of Social Philosophy
• Monarchy
• Other Forms Of Government
• Philosophers Preferred Forms
• Plato And The State
• Is An Ideal State Ever Possible?
• Theocracy
• How To Generate The Ideal State
• Judging Political Philosophies
• Social Role Of Political Philosophers
• Social And Political Philosophy Review

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The Scope Of Social Philosophy

• SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY is an evaluation of preferred
  forms of group behavior. Social Philosophy is a
  study of the way people as a group ought to
  behave.
• This field includes the topics of SOCIAL ETHICS
  the moral behavior of society, POLITICAL
  PHILOSOPHY the search for the ideal state and
  LEGAL PHILOSOPHY the ideal system of laws, or
  the way laws ought to be.

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MONARCHY

• Many politics have been evaluated by
  philosophers. Among them is MONARCHY (literally,
  one chief), with absolute sovereignty (sometimes
  inherited and with life tenure) resting in the
  hands of a single individual.
• Some of the leading philosophers who favoured
  monarchy were Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas
  Aquinas. Plato, in The Republic, recognized two
  forms of good government (an aristocracy of one
  monarchy and an aristocracy of the few best
  suited to rule aristocracy or senate). Although
  Aristotle preferred a monarchy, he also looked
  favorably upon an aristocracy and polity (rule by
  the many with constitutional safeguards). St.
  Thomas followed Aristotle's lead.

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Other Forms Of Government

• Other forms of government are
• TIMOCRACY, rule by persons who are held in high
  honour and esteem
• PLUTOCRACY, government by men of wealth
• OLIGARCHY, rule by a few persons seeking
  governmental control for selfish and corrupt
  ends
• AUTOCRACY, governmental rule by a single person
  who has absolute or unlimited power
• TOTALITARIANISM, a dictatorship in which absolute
  power rests with a single person (sometimes this
  includes a government in which the totality of
  power is vested in the hands of a few persons or
  a hierarchy)
• TYRANNY, arbitrary and despotic rule by a
  government of one person with absolute power

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Other Forms Of Government 2

• FASCISM an autocratic regime headed by a dictator
  who exalts the nation and race
• DEMOCRACY, a government of the common people
  which rules according to decisions of the
  majority
• REPUBLIC, a representative form of government,
  headed by a chief of state (usually a president),
  in which the voting citizenry hold sovereign
  power and a constitution protects civil rights
• SOCIALISM, collective ownership of the means of
  production (abolition of private property)
• COMMUNISM, the Marxian form of socialism.
• THEOCRACY, a government based on religious rule
  and teaching.

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Philosophers Preferred Forms

• Most philosophers have not favoured timocracy,
  plutocracy, autocracy, tyranny, totalitarianism,
  or fascism, although there have been notable
  exceptions. For example, Machiavelli, in The
  Prince, advocated a tyranny or autocracy, while
  the twentieth-century Italian philosopher
  Giovanni Gentile preferred fascism.
• Modern democracies and republics are quite
  similar, but the ancient Greeks considered
  democracy as the rule of the masses (lower
  classes) without the protection of a
  constitution hence democracy was frowned upon by
  Plato and Aristotle. Rousseau (a Swiss) was an
  eloquent spokesman for democracy in his Social
  Contract he placed the general will (sovereignty)
  in the hands of the citizens.
• The two principal forms of socialism are Marxism
  and Fabianism the former advocates the violent
  overthrow of existing government by revolutionary
  tactics, while the latter believes in the gradual
  introduction of socialism into society by means
  of education and other techniques. The British
  playwright George Bernard Shaw was prominent in
  the Fabian movement, but Sidney Webb was its
  principal theorist and expositor.

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Plato And The State

• Plato was convinced that the ideal state was
  necessary if people were to progress and find
  happiness. He theorized that the state was the
  unfolding or actualization of the ideal of
  justice thus, the more justice was emulated, the
  better the state would be.
• Since people are also part of the realization of
  the ideal of justice, citizens must develop their
  potentialities in order to find suitable
  employment.
• Through this mutual cooperation-people
  contributing their best to the state and the
  state maintaining laws for the good of its
  citizens-the ideal of justice flourishes.
• Plato would say that the perfect state was the
  one that had most perfectly realized the ideal of
  perfect justice. The extent to which a state
  deviated from the ideal, the greater its
  corruption would be. If it deviated to any great
  extent, it would collapse completely. Hence every
  state would have to resemble the ideal to some
  extent.

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Is An Ideal State Ever Possible?

• In as much as social and political philosophy are
  concerned with the way a society or state ought
  to be, the question of the practicality and
  possibility of an ideal state is reasonable.
• If "ideal state refers to a principle, then the
  answer is no, since principles must remain
  universal abstractions. If this question means,
  "Can an actual state reasonably and adequately
  approximate the blueprint of the ideal?" then the
  answer is yes.

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Theocracy

• A THEOCRACY is a government whose rule of
  structure, law and politics are based on
  religious principles.
• A truly theocratic government would treat all
  subjects with respect, establish an atmosphere of
  peace and justice and allow enough freedom for
  ALL individuals to obtain their maximum
  potential.
• Such a system would meet all the ideals set down
  by the ethical political philosophers mentioned
  above promoting personal freedoms and clarifying
  personal responsibilities.
• Islam sets out in great detail procedures for
  the establishment and maintenance of an Creator
  centered theocracy.

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How To Generate The Ideal State

• This aspiration is much more complicated than it
  might at first appear. Every society has its
  sick, degenerate, insane, and undesirable
  citizens.
• Machiavelli argued that it was quite moral for a
  deceitful leader to use corrupt tactics to gain
  and maintain power and order in a state comprised
  of unregenerate citizens.
• Marx, on the other hand, believed that desirable
  laws would be sufficient to inaugurate a good
  state in as much as law enforcement would
  regulate the behaviour of its citizens thus the
  state's objectives could be achieved.
• Some philosophers (including Plato) contend that
  a good state requires good citizens to improve
  the state. The consequence of this statement
  therefore, is that its good people must be
  regenerated.
• Plato went so far as to say that the form of
  government in a given state expresses the
  personality of its citizens. Corrupt people open
  the way for corrupt leaders. When a group's
  attitude is oligarchical, it will have
  oligarchical leaders.

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Judging Political Philosophies

• What criteria are used for judging political
  philosophies?
• Some philosophers believe that certain forms of
  government are suitable only under specified
  conditions.
• Rousseau believed that no government was suitable
  for all people but that an ideal nation comprised
  of gods would govern itself democratically.
• Marx believed that the only desirable form of
  government was communism and that eventually all
  states would come to this realization.
• The utilitarian philosophers' criterion was
  ---the greatest good of the greatest number."
  Nietzsche, an evolutionary naturalist, believed
  that the strong (aristocrat) should rule the weak
  as in the natural world this doctrine was
  borrowed from Darwin's theory of the survival of
  the fittest

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Social Role Of Political Philosophers

• Are practicing politicians ever affected by
  political philosophers?
• This question implies that practicing politicians
  are not philosophers, and vice versa. It should
  be pointed out that a number of the world's
  political leaders are philosophers.
• In South America many people who are preparing
  for careers in public service study philosophy.
  In the United States, on the other hand, most
  would-be politicians study law.
• Plato, in his Republic, said that until kings
  become philosophers, or philosophers kings, there
  is no hope for the state.
• Kant took issue with Plato's view, claiming that
  power has a corrupting influence Lord Acton also
  said, ---Power tends to corrupt absolute power
  corrupts absolutely.- Kant recommended that the
  leader of the state should surround himself with
  philosophers as advisers, but he pointed out that
  once the adviser becomes the ruling power then
  that power---inevitably corrupts the untrammeled
  judgment of reason.
• It can be seen that philosophers influence
  political leaders when one considers the number
  of nations that have adopted some form of Marx's
  communism.

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Social Role Of Political Philosophers 2

• Even the United States has implemented most of
  the measures of social reform advocated by Marx
  such as
• free education for all children in public
  schools
• abolition of child labor, except with certain
  safe guards
• a progressive or graduated income tax
• the cultivation of waste lands and improvement of
  the soil
• some state control over the means of
  communication and transportation
• and
• some state control of credit.
• Other philosophers, including Aristotle, Plato,
  Rousseau, Locke, and Hobbes have also influenced
  political leaders and reformers.
• Not all philosophers have urged noble acts,
  however. The Italian Renaissance philosopher
  Machiavelli, in his book The Prince, advocated
  duplicity and other questionable means to achieve
  the end-placing candidates in the highest
  offices. The twentieth-century Italian
  philosopher Giovanni Gentile promoted fascism,
  which was practiced by Mussolini in the period
  preceding World War 2. Hitler both developed and
  practiced his own philosophy in his case
  absolute power corrupted absolutely, for the Nazi
  regime was totalitarian.

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SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHYReview 1

• 1. The rule of a nation by those held in high
  esteem is
• a an oligarchy
• b a plutocracy
• c a timocracy
• 2. As a form of government, Aristotle preferred
• a a monarchy
• b a democracy
• c an autocracy
• 3. Marxism teaches the way people ought to govern
  themselves is
• a the dictatorship of the proletariat
• b the greatest good for the greatest number
• c the realization of the will of the people"
• 4 The common ownership of the means of
  production- best identifies the philosophy
• a Bentham
• b Marx
• C Mill

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SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHYReview 2

• 5. An autocratic regime led by a dictator
  exalting his race and nation is
• a an aristocracy
• b a timocracy
• c fascism
• 6. The Republic was written by
• a Socrates
• b Aristotle
• c Plato
• 7. The Social Contract was written by
• a Locke
• b Rousseau
• c Hobbes
• 8. Political philosophy is best defined as a
• a description of the governments of nations
• b a setting forth of the constitutions of states

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SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHYReview 3

• 9. The philosopher who advocated fascism is
• a Nietzsche
• b Gentile
• c Hegel
• 10. The book Capital was written by
• a Engels
• b Lenin
• c Marx
• 11. Which one of the following cannot be
  classified as socialism?
• a Fabianism
• b Marxism
• c Aristotelianism
• 12. Democracy literally means
• a the rule of free citizens
• b the rule of equality
• c the rule of the people