Political Philosophy

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Political Philosophy
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Types of Government

• Democracy- Rule by the people
• Monarchy- rule by a king
• Oligarchy- rule by a group
• Theocracy- rule by religious leaders
• Despotism or Dictatorship- rule by someone who
  seized the government by force

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Right or Left

• Communism
• Socialism
• Welfare Liberalism
• Classical liberalism Libertarian

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What is the role of Government

• What should the balance be between individual
  freedom, our individual autonomy and social
  control?
• Often we assume we have many rights? What is the
  basis for freedom?
• Do all of our rights come from the Government?

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Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Should the individuals interest be put ahead of
  the group?
• Or should the group or (societys) interest come
  first.

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Platos (Totalitarian) Republic

• In Platos Ideal State each person has an
  assigned role- given to them by the King.
• Plato believes that society will benefit because
  everyone will be working towards the collective
  good of the whole society.

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Natural Rights Theorist

• Thomas Hobbes
• John Locke
• Jean Jacques Rousseau

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Natural or Human Right

• Natural rights are rights we have without a
  government.
• They are rights that we have in virtue of our
  humanity.
• Natural rights are akin to human rights. When you
  hear people discussing human rights abuses, they
  mean abuses of certain basic rights. There is no
  clear philosophical basis for these rights.

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Natural vs. Positive Rights

• Natural rights are basic, negative rights.
  Rights that we have, and other must simply
  respect and not violate.
• Positive Rights come from Government- by
  legislation. The government passes an act of
  positive legislation that extends to us a certain
  right- to vote, drink, or drive

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Positive Rights

• The government makes a law, and a right is
  created. Dogs have positive rights, trees have
  positive rights, people have positive rights too.

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Thomas Hobbes- Monarchist
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State of Nature

• Mankind was born into the state of nature. Life
  in the state of nature is "short nasty and
  brutish".

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Might Right

• There are no arts or letters only a war of all
  against all. In this state men all have an equal
  right to everything.
• Right is equal to freedom, the freedom, to do
  what he would, and against whom he thought fit,
  and to possess, use and enjoy all that he would
  or could get.

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1 Natural Right

• Thomas Hobbes
• 1 Natural Right- LIFE!

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Two Laws of Nature

• Hobbes says that in the State of Nature mankind
  knows by reason two laws of nature, they are
• 1)"seek peace and follow it" and
• 2), "be willing to lay down his right to all
  things and be contented with so much liberty
  against other men, as he would allow against
  himself."
• Golden Rule

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Hobbes Egoism

• Hobbes is an Ethical Egoist.
• Hobbes is a Psychological Egoist.
• Our egoism leads us to give up our right to
  everything and to form a social contract.

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Form a Government

• The best way to protect your RIGHT to life.
• All people give up our rights, to the king.
• King determines morality.
• NO IMMORAL LAWS!

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Immoral to Revolt!

• Hobbes- writing in defense of the King, denies
  that one can legitimately revolt against the
  government.
• Once you leave the state of nature you have a
  duty to keep your promise and obey the king.

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Inconsistent

• Hobbes originally claims that Egoism is what
  leads us out of the state of nature.
• Once we enter into the government morality is
  determined by the king.
• He is a royal command theorist- the right action
  is whatever the king says.
• Egoism is not consistent with out duty to the
  king.

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John Locke- Representative Democrat
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Kinder, Gentler state of Nature

• Lockes conception of the state of nature differs
  from Hobbes. He says that it is , "Men living
  together according to reason, without a common
  superior on Earth with authority to judge between
  them is properly the state of nature".

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John Locke 3 Natural Rights

• Natural rights are akin to human rights.
• LIFE
• LIBERTY
• PROPERTY
• Labor theory of property
• If you work for something, and it is not already
  owned by someone, then you acquire ownership of
  it.

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Protection

• Locke, like Hobbes, claims that we leave the
  state of nature for protection!
• It is the best way to protect our right(s).

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Locke the Radical

• Locke, unlike Hobbes, says people have the right
  to revolt!
• If the government is not protecting our natural
  rights, then the people have a right to form a
  new, better government.

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Jean Jacques RousseauDirect Democrat
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True State of Nature

• Rousseau claims that both Hobbes and Locke
  mischaracterize the state of nature.
• Natural Man
• Civil Man

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Natural Man

• Natural man is motivated by love of self, only
  cares about self preservation. Natural man is
  not motivated by greed or love of material goods.

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Civil Man

• Mankind moves from the state of nature to
  civilization once we move from self preservation
  towards the goal of acquiring property and
  wealth.

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Corrupted!!!

• At this point mankind becomes motivated by greed
  and corrupted by envy.

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Everywhere we are in chains

• Man is born free, but every where we are in
  chains.
• He thinks that we can only be truly free when we
  are part of a direct democracy.

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General Will Vs. Will of All

• General will, is the opinion people will reach,
  if they consider a matter objectively and
  determine what is best for society as a whole.
• Will of All, is the will of the majority,
  considering only their own self interest.

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Adam Smith

• Adam Smith Argued that the government should not
  interfere in the market place.
• The idea of a Laissez-faire approach to
  regulation has dominated the American economic
  landscape for hundreds of years.

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John Stuart Mill

• In his essay "On Liberty" he argues that the
  limiting principle against positive legislations
  of government is Harm.
• Libertarians argue for a limited government, one
  that has as its sole purpose, protection.

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Harriet Taylor

• Was the wife of Mill. She wrote and co wrote
  many essays under his name, including An Essay on
  Toleration and Non-conformity.

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Mill as a Libertarian

• The government must not extent into the private
  affairs of its citizens except to stop harm to
  others.
• The only legitimate laws according to Mill are
  laws that protect you from others, but not from
  yourself.
• Limitations For the HP to apply, the agent in
  question must be an adult, fully in control of
  his or her faculties.

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John Hospers

• Born in a small town near Des Moines, Iowa,
  Hospers grew up speaking Dutch as a first
  language. He went on to earn a Master's degree in
  literature from the University of Iowa and a
  Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University.

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3 types of laws that government enacts

• John Hospers
• 1) laws protecting you from yourself,
• 2) laws protecting you from others and
• 3) laws making you help others.
• Only the second class of laws are legitimate. The
  other two are the result of government
  superseding its bounds.

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Georg Hegel

• Hegel views man as the measure of his actions.
• We are free when we act from our own will. Our
  will expresses itself thru action.
• We express our freedom in relation to material
  objects, by acquiring them, using them and
  exchanging them for other goods or services.

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Obligations

• When we form a contract we agree to exchange some
  good for some other good or service. If either
  party engages in fraud or violence then he is
  acting wrongly.
• Our individual will must be brought into
  allinement with the universal will of all. This
  is similar to Rousseaus general will.

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Family and State

• Objective will. When one enters a family then
  your own interest is tempered by the interest of
  other members of the family. You may sacrifice
  what is best for you to benefit other family
  members.
• In the same way citizens of a state must do the
  same thing, to help others in the society.

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Karl Marx

• Communist-
• Sometimes known as a Marxist.

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Communism shall sweep the World

• Karl Marx employs a historical/ hypothetical
  approach to argue that the communist revolution
  is coming. He employs a dialectical analysis of
  the historical rise and transition of the state.
  He argues that because of the exploitation of the
  workers by the capitalist will lead to a
  revolution of the workers and to eventually
  communism taking hold.

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Karl Marxs Communism

• Under Marxs conception of communism, it is not
  fair that the owners of business make all them
  money and profit, when the workers are the ones-
  actually doing the work!
• He believes in an egalitarian society, where
  everyone is equal is social status.
• This type of communism was never realized in USSR
  or in China.