History of Political Thought
GREEK PHILOSOPHY
Socrates
- enigmatic figure
- left no writings
- much about him was known through his pupil
Plato
- made contributions in ethics, epistemology and
philosophy through his dialect method of inquiry
or the Socratic Method
- addressed the doctrine: virtue is knowledge,
along with his incessant search for moral virtues
and their universal definitions
- served in the Athenian army
↳ fought in the Peloponessian war between
Athens and Sparta in 431-404 BC
- doubted democracy as an efficient form of
government
- questioned the collective notion of “might is
right”
- called for improve justice system in Athens
- concerned about justice moral autonomy,
government by expertise rather than
magistrates
- doubted the Athenian lottery system in selecting
leaders
- argues for strict compliance with the law →
whatever it commands
↳ironic view since he can obey it even as he
continued his mission regardless of what
the athenian court demands
- lived through the height of Athenian hegemony
- admired aristocratic Sparta
- Accused of corrupting the minds of the youth
and of impiety
↳ sentenced to death by poisoning
- did not fear death and refused to escape
↳ a philosopher must not fear death
↳ his dialectics will displease others even if
he chooses to escape
Socratic Method
- involves breaking down questions into series of
questions
- difficult method due to continuous questioning
↳ not necessarily to give answers → due to
lack of wisdom or knowledge on the subject
- Socrates was a teleologist: the god arranges
everything for the best
- his teacher: Anaxagoras
Socratic paradoxes
● No one desires evil
● no one earth or the strong willingly or
knowingly
● virtue all virtues is knowledge
● virtue is sufficient for happiness
● what i do not know i do not think i know
paraphrase i know that i know nothing
Socrates on knowledge
The socratic virtue consists of:
1. Thought
2. Sense
3. Judgment
4. Practical wisdom
5. Prudence
- to him, wrongdoing and behavior are virtues
resulted from ignorance, and that those who did
wrong knew no better
Socrates on virtue
- best way for people to live: focus on the pursuit
of virtue rather than the pursuit of material
wealth
- philosophical or intellectual virtues is foremost
- stressed that the unexamined life is not worth
living
- ethical virtue is the only thing that matters
Socrates on politics
- was not keen on conventional politics
(democracy) and rule by the king philosopher.
- He cannot tell people how to live because even
he himself has not organized his own
- respected Athenian democracy
- remained loyal to Athens as attested by his
military service
Plato
- Republic and Law
- ideal state Platonic communism
Plato's ideal state presupposes the following
features:
● no nuclear family nor private property for
both the king philosophers and
guardians/soldiers
● only very limited property permitted for
craftsman or farmers
● the ideal state is clearly aristocratic
● monarchy or aristocracy is the most perfect
form of government (government of the best
individuals)
Three classes in the just city
1. Governors/Rulers
- main focus is to rule and acquire more
wisdom knowledge to enable them to carry
out their mission in government
2. Guardians or soldiers
- must hone their knowledge courage and
skills for security of state
3. Craftsman or farmers
- allowed limited private property
- must be productive to supply the wealth of
the state
Platonic Theory of Ideas
- Plato points out two types of realities: the
sensible world and the intelligible world or world
of ideas
1. Sensible world
- world of individual realities
- multiple and constantly changing
- a world of generation and decay, and
temporal and spatial
2. Intelligible world
- universal, eternal, and invisible reality --
called ideas or forms -- which are
immutable, non material, or temporal or
spatial
- not just concepts of psychic events but
objective and independent beings out of our
conscience
- sprouted such universal terms as justice,
virtue, dignity, unity, etc.
- the idea of rightness occupies the highest
position
↳ origin of the existence of everything
because human behavior depends on it and
everything tends to it
Myth in the Cavern
- used in elucidating the ontology of both worlds
of senses and intellect
- story of the prisoners inside the cavern
- portrays a complete denial of the legitimacy of
ordinary people's desire - and of the appetitive
life
- to be freed from the chain of appetite: people
must be educated in a properly run state
↳ require complete subordination of the
lower classes to philosophers
- Plato believes that because people lack the
ability to achieve virtue on their own they must
live in permanent subjection to the philosophers
↳ hence Plato, to critics, was a racist
- pioneered women's equality they too can be
philosopher queens
- purpose of the just city (the Republic): make its
inhabitants virtuous as possible
- city's primary institution: educational system
with a focus on poetry and the arts
People in the just city
3 Classes:
1. Rulers
2. Auxiliaries
3. Farmers
- underlying the structure of the city and its
educational function are ​two basic
psychological assumptions​:
1. Believes that people are malleable
- affected by his environment
- making him virtuous needs a properly
governed city
2. Limits malleability
- believes in the fundamental, innate
differences between people
↳ those with gold silver or bronze in their
souls also impact their different capacities to
achieve virtue
- different classes have different levels of
virtue
- To Plato, the philosopher king/queen
always rules
 ↳ lower classes would remain completely
subordinates → described as slaves to the
rulers
Plato's later political theory
- Plato (in Laws) delved on his “second best city”
as distinguished from his “just city” (in the
Republic) - deals on the philosophical lawgiver
- He lose faith in the possibility of the philosopher
king
↳ now draws inspiration from ancient Egypt
where laws concerning music had not changed for
thousands of years
- in his Magnesia: all citizens → enfranchised
politically, living in traditional families, and law
reigns
- The political system (Laws) is purged of the
excesses of Athenian democracy: combination
of election and lottery, and reformed institutions
like the assembly and popular courts
- in Magnesia: private property is allowed
↳ ownership of gold and silver - like in
Sparta - is forbidden
↳ state will confiscate excessive wealth
- men and women should have access to
education, serve in the military, and eligible for
public office
↳ focused on education of pleasures and
pains
On religious matters
- gods can get involved in human affairs but
incorruptible
↳ adherence is enforced by inquisition →
people who do not believe in them are sentenced to
death even if their conduct as exemplary
- Plato: one of the first thinkers in Western
tradition to advocate death sentence for
thought-crime
Plato’s Second Best City (in Laws)
- his political philosophy: moved from its Socratic
fruits (Republic) with his second best city
(Laws)
- Socratic model: emphasis on virtue and
government by expertise
↳ via the union of philosophy and political
power → the philosopher king
- abandoned the Socratic model
↳ proposed his second best form of
philosophic politics → adherence to the unchanging
laws constructed by a philosophic lawgiver
Aristotle
- Politics
- state, form of government, citizens
State
- advanced ​2 basic ideas​:
1. the state is a community
2. the state as the highest form of communities
- The state is the highest community aiming at
the highest group
- in terms of social evolution, the first form of
association is the ​(1) family​ - which serves
man's daily needs followed by the ​(2) village​ to
meet some rudimentary and primitive cultural
wants that the family cannot provide
- state exists for the sake of good life not for the
sake of life only
- political society exists for the sake of noble
action and not mere companionship
- the state is by nature prior to the family and the
individual
↳ since the whole is of necessity prior to the
part
- “Man is by nature a political animal”
- only gods or beast can exist without a need for
a state/city
Mixed Constitution
- Aristotle advocated constitutional government
↳ based on limited suffrage
↳ best constitution for states
↳ best life for most men
- did not abandon the Platonic ideal state
(monarchy or aristocracy- rule of the best) as
inspiration
- advocated for a mixed constitution based on
balance or equilibrium of two principles - wealth
and numbers
The Democratic Principles
- characteristic: popular sovereignty and
individual liberty is incompatible with the
stability of the existing moral and political order
- “Men think what is just is equal and that equality
is the supremacy of the popular”
- “Freedom means doing what a man likes in
such democracies everyone lives as he
pleases”
- While appreciative of Plato’s Common Sense
and collective wisdom of the people, Aristotle is
scared of a government in which popular
sovereignty is allowed to operate without the
modified influence of the other principles -
particularly wealth
- considered the godfather of all conservatives in
history
↳ tried to harmonize respect for
constitutional government with social and economic
inequality
Aristotelian citizens
- one who has the power to take part in the
deliberative or judicial administration of the
state
- Representative government is unknown to
Aristotle since the Greek city-state was
governed directly by its citizens
- idea of a citizenship: economically independent
individual who has enough experience,
education, and leisure to devote himself to
active citizenship
- To be a citizen meant to participate directly in
the legislative and executive functions of
government
- Only those who are active, or have the means
and leisure to share in the government of the
state are its component or integral parts
- mechanics tradesmen, labourers etc.: belong
into the lower classes
↳ necessary to the existence of the state but
not parts of the state
On Forms of Government
1. Kingship / Monarchy
- most ideal kind of government
- ruled by men with preeminent virtue
↳ cannot be regarded part of the state
↳ no law applies to them → they are law
themselves - a god among men
2. Aristocracy
- not delved into his Politics
- government by the best men
- deteriorated form of aristocracy → oligarchy
3. Constitutional government (polity)
- the citizens at-large administer for the
common interest
- compromise between two principles of
freedom and wealth
↳ uniting the freedom of the poor and wealth
of the rich without advantage of both
- Aristotle expressed the pagan view
↳ “from birth, some are marked out for
subjection, others for rule”
- rule over slave must be based on moral
excellence
On Private Property
- he argued for private property - contrary to
Plato's denial of this idea
- a threat to moral perfection
- Plato advocated “communism” and outlawed it
to preserve unity and devotion to the state
- to Aristotle the most important is not who owns
the property but how the property is used
↳ essentially a moral question not one of
political economy
- Excessive inequalities of wealth → dangerous
to the state
↳thus the need for strong middle class to
provide balance and harmony
- Under such circumstances constitutional
government is also endangered
↳ can swing in one of two extremes:
● Plutocratic regime (oligarchy) for the
exclusive benefit of the wealthy; or
● Proletarian regime (democracy) for the poor
● Tyranny can grow out of either extremes
On perfect justice
- Aristotle understood the basic issues between
the rule of law and the rule of men
- “Rule of law is preferable to that of any
individual”
 ↳ magistrate should regulate only matters
on which the law is silent
- While government based on law cannot be
perfectly just, it’s the lesser evil
↳ preferable than the arbitrariness and
passion inherent in government based on the rule
of men
- Constitutional state: most important legacy of
Aristotle bequeathed to posterity
- Rule of law preceded democracy, as in ancient
Greece, “isonomia” (equality before the law)
was coined before “demokratia” (rule of the
people)
STOICISM
- Derived from “​stoa poikile”​ , a painted porch,
where students and philosophers gather to
study or listen to lectures
- Zeno (336-264 BC) from Cyprus- founded the
Stoic School of Philosophy in Athens
- Developed in 3 stages​:
1. Early stoicism
2. Middle stoicism
3. Roman stoicism
- Famous Roman Stoics: Epictetus, Seneca,
Cicero, and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius
Stoics Philosophy
- Propagated Logics, Physics, and Ethics
- Advanced ​2 principles on the universe​:
1. Active principle
- Is reason inherent in the substance (God)
2. Passive principle
- Is substance (matter)
- For them, the whole cosmos is God
↳a totality where both gods and men are its
integral parts
- Nature is inherently harmonious and orderly,
with pervasive goal or purpose
- Only one principle govern all things →
determines all happenings
- Nothing happens against nature
- Men and nature then are not opposites
↳both components of the cosmos
(substance and reason)
- Mankind: one and the same
A True King is Divine
- Kingship is the only cohesive force in the state
- A true king is divine
↳ his absolute authority is bestowed by God
- King’s order = law
↳ to defy is to defy God himself
- King- envoy of God on earth to enforce
morality, ethics, and religion
- King = God’s spokesmen on earthly and
heavenly matters
Deification of Kingship
- Created a notion of a world state based on the
concept of universality of mankind and the
inseparable cosmos
- Deification of kingship (absolute monarchy) and
world state is a precursor to dictatorship and
imperialism
↳ the very root of the Divine Rights Theory
- Stoic’s doctrine: one world, one law, one reason
→ inspired Roman emperors
- Idea of divinity of kings and emperors made
many European states not only autocrats, but
also cruel and heartless rulers
- Democratic values and principles - have no
place in stoicism
↳ unlike Plato & Aristotle who recognized
individual political thoughts
Roman Stoicism
- Flourished in Rome, an expanding empire
- Stoics thoughts and teachings were relevant to
the Romans who are noted for pragmatism, and
famous for native virtues of self-control,
devotion to duty, and public spirit
- Stoic idea of world state and cosmopolitanism -
ample justification for further expansion of the
Roman territory
Kennel of Roman Political Thoughts
3 Aspects of Stoic ideas
- Left legacies to Roman theory of law on:
1. Devotion to Duty
2. Unconditional Allegiance to State
Sovereignty
3. Idea of World State
- Stoic philosophy of secular law became the
foundation of modern legal system, both
national and international
Other Legacies of Stoicism
- Absolute monarchy & world state- precursor to
dictatorship and imperialism
- The French Revolution - liberty, equality, and
fraternity, is a truncated form of universal
brotherhood propagated by Stoics
- The stoic idea of “law above the law”
↳ fundamental principle of the American
constitutional system
9 Stoics Principles of Tranquility
- Aurelius advocated for cultivation of Stoics
principles of humility, self-awareness, service,
death, nature, etc.
- Seneca the stoic principles of civil duty, moral
obligation, humility, self-awareness, self-denial,
etc.
- These 9 principles are:
1. Acknowledge that all emotions come from
within (Aurelius)
2. Find someone you respect and use them to
stay honest (Seneca)
3. Recognize that there is life after failure (A)
4. (No failure, no growth) Read purposefully
and apply your knowledge (Epictetus)
5. Challenge yourself to be brutally honest (S)
6. Reflect on what you spend most on (A)
↳ when you feel resistance, use that as a
cue to move forward
7. Remind yourself: you were not meant to
procrastinate (A)
8. Nothing is better proof of well-ordered mind
than a man’s ability to stop just where he is
and pass sometime in his own company (S)
9. Remind yourself that time is our most
precious resources (A)
ROMAN STOICISM
Stoic Doctrines
- Nature is an expression of the Divine Will, and
people could live happily in accordance with it
- Unity of Man and Universe
- Participation in politics and world affairs
- Achievement does not count, it is living a
virtuous life that does
- Concept of law and order and the universal
state
- Concept of Natural Law w/c governs the
universal state
↳ the finest legacy of Stoicism to Rome
- Greatest legacies of Roman Republic/Empire:
in the field of Law & Politics
- Roman law and legal system applied in Europe
until the end of the 18th century
Roman Legal Doctrines
- Still effective today are:
● Stare Decisis: precedents
● Culpa In Contrahendo: contract law- clear
duty to negotiate with care
● Pacta Sunt Servanda: basic legal principle-
agreement must be kept
● Jus Cogens (or Peremptory Norm):
international law principle w/c does not
permit derogation by all states (e.g.
aggressive war, crimes against humanity,
genocide, torture, piracy, slavery etc.)
derived from Natural Law
Pax Romana​ (21 BC to 284 AD)
- Tranquility reigned in the Empire from the reign
of Augustus (21 BC-14BC) up to the reign of
Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD)
- Cultivated the following values:
● Pax: peace
● Concordia: Harmony
● Pietas: Duty
● Humanitas: Decency
● Copia: Wealth
3 Types of Roman Law
1. Citizen Law​ (Jus Civile)
2. Law of Peoples​ (Jus Gentium)
- basis of international law
3. Natural Law​ (Jus Naturale)
- Reasonables - it is held that man obey the
law because it is reasonable
- Roman Law: founded on 12 Tables consisting of
prescribed behaviors and corresponding
punishments when transgressed by Roman citizens
(Plebeians or Patricians)
Other Concepts Derived from Roman Law and
Politics
Concept of Sovereignty
- People obey the law, not because it is ethical or
religious, but because it is the command of the
supreme political authority, and the
manifestation of the will of the body politics
Theory of Political Obligation
- People had to show obligation to law which is
duly sanctioned by the highest political authority
of the Republic
Separation between the Church and the
Individual
- As a legal person, the state has rights, but the
protection of the rights of the individual is the
main purpose for which the state existed
- Individual: center of legal thought in Roman
political thought
- State exercises authority within definite limits
- Individual’s rights be safeguarded against other
persons and against illegal encroachment by
the government itself
Roman Constitution
- Constitutional concepts w/c survived in the
Western Democracies/Elsewhere:
● Checks & Balances
● Separation of Powers
● Vetoes
● Term Limits
● Impeachments
● Quorum
● Power of the Purse
● Regular Elections
● Block Voting
RELIGIOUS THINKERS
St. Augustine
- 354-430 AD
- Native of Hippo, North Africa (now Algeria)
- Reaffirmed Christian idealism over the ruins of
the vast Roman empire
- 410 AD: Visigoths sacked Rome
- Decline of Rome was attributed to:
● Abandonment of its Republicanism in favor
of despotic monarchical imperialism
● Betrayal of its native civic virtues
● Adoption of Christiabity in the empire
- 312 AD: Roman emperor Constantine legalized
Chrsitianity in the Roman Empire
↳ Christian qualities of other worldliness,
meekness, pacifism, disregard for public
affairs, and contempt for revered national
deities had persistently sapped the strength
of Rome
↳ Christian refusal to recognize loyalty to Rome
as first loyalty contributed to the downfall of
the empire
- Regarded as a foreign religion, the Christians
were seen as building state within a state
- Fall of Rome = Victory of Christianity
- Religious thinkers has fit the new faith to the
fallen empire
↳ made Rome its engine for the conversion of
Western Europe
↳ source of legitimacy of the upcoming Holy
Roman Empire
- Holy Roman Empire (1200 AD)- a loose
confederation of states, cities, and duchess
↳ stretching from Denmark to Rome and from
Burgundy to Poland
City of God
- Augustine advanced the idea of 2 cities: earthly
and heavenly
1. Heavenly City
- City of God
- Refers God, faith, and salvation
2. Earthly City
- Civitas terrena
- Not a political concept
- Concerned about ways of life, not with the
organizations of life, and the opposing ways of
life
↳ Earthly city: love of self; lust for power to
dominate
↳ Heavenly city: love of God, contempt of
the self, as the foundation of order
- Basic conflict between Good and Evil: rages in
mankind (as a whole) and in every individual
- Earth-based agency (Church) - needed to
realize the heavenly city
- Said that the state is good
↳ provides social peace
- Perceives peace in terms of justice MUSLIM THINKERS/PHILOSOPHERS
↳ the right relation of man and God 1. Al Kind' ​(801-873 AD)
- “Justice being taken away, then, what are - Abu Yusof Ibn Al Ishaq Al Kindi
kingdoms for, but great robberies?” - first peripatetic philosopher
↳ justice: the foundation of the state under - considered the father of Arab Philosophy for the
an equitable ruler synthesis, adaptation and promotion of Greek
- Christianized the theory of state imbuing and Hellenistic philosophy in the Muslin world.
Platonic concept of Justice and Aristotelian
Eudaimona (​ happiness/good life) w/ biblical 2. Al Farabi​ (872-951 AD)
idea of the state as moral purpose rather than - Abu Nasr Mohammed Ibn Mohammed Al Farabi
formal authority w/ monopoly of use of force - made significant contributions in the fields of
and sovereignty Metaphysics, Political philosophy, Ethics, Logic,
Cosmology, Mathematics, etc.
St. Thomas Aquinas - wrote a treatise on the Virtuous City (Madinat Al
- 1225-1274 AD Fadila) theorizing on the Ideal State.
- Not a political theorist - Based on the Aristotelian concept, he posited
- His works became fundamental text of the that the ideal State should be ruled by the
Roman Catholic doctrine Philosopher-King (Holy Prophet-Imam).
- espoused Augustine’s views on Good & Evil - In Ethics and Politics: ideal society - directed
- Moral philosophical ideas centers on achieving towards the realization of "True Happiness"- an
final end/good/happiness via moral virtues plus enlightened and virtuous one.
infusion of theological virtues w/c he - Madinat al Fadila: the Virtuous State or City
summarized into 6 Cardinal Virtues - considered the Second Master, Aristotle being
the First.
6 Cardinal Virtues - Rev. Robert Hammond’s book: "The Philosophy
1. Prudence of Al Farabi and Its influence on Medieval
2. Temperance Thoughts" (1947)
3. Courage ↳ Al Farabi's thoughts are entirely
4. Justice theocentric
5. Natural Law ↳ has profound influence on the
6. Charity and Beatitude philosophical thoughts of St. Thomas
↳ Charity: the key to Beatitude - union with Aquinas, who came some 3 centuries
God to be achieved by 3 Fundamental later.
virtues
3. Ibn Sina ​(980-1037 AD)
3 Fundamental Virtues - Abu Al Al Husayn Ibn Sina
1. Faith​ Virtue - born in Afshana, Bohhara, Central Asia
- Asserting to the truth of revealed principles - wrote the "Qanun Fi'I Tibb"
(Articles of Faith) ↳ a medical textbook in Europe and the
2. Hope​ Virtue Islamic world during the medieval period
- Putting trust in God - Philosophical thoughts contained in his book, Al
- Submission to God Shifa (The Cure)
3. Charity​ Virtue ↳ has profound influences on European
- Loving God for his own sake scholasticism, especially on St. Thomas
- Alms to the poor, needy Aquinas.
- made works in Logic, Ontology, Epistemology,
Psychology, Mysticism and Oriental Philosophy
- Albertus Magnus- scholasticist and teacher of
St. Thomas Aquinas
↳ adopted Ibn Sina's thoughts in
Metaphysics, Logic, Psychology, etc.
4. Al Ghazali ​(1056-1111 AD)
- Abu Hamid Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Al
Ghazali
- born in Tus, Iran
- Refuted Greek Philosophy
- avidly upheld the supremacy of Revelation
- philosophical writings centered on the existence
of God as the First Cause
↳ God - starting point of all causal chains
↳ creates and controls all elements therein
↳ the one who makes and causes function
as causes (Musabbib Al Asbab)
Predestination
- believes that there is no single event in the
world that is not determined by God’s will
- Nature: a process in which all elements
harmoniously dovetail with one another
- Celestial movements, natural processes,
human actions, even redemption in the afterlife
are all “causally” determined by God
- tried to reconcile Greek Philosophy (Reason)
with Revelation (Al Qur’an)
- refuted philosophical teachings with denies the
validity of divine revelation.
- left lasting legacies to Islamic law, Islamic
jurisprudence, and other aspects of Quranic
teaching through his numerous books.
5. Ibn Rushd​ (1126-1198)
- Abu Al Walid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Rushd
- born in Cordova, Spain
- jurist and physician
- considered the final and most influential Muslim
philosopher in the West
- His medical book ( Kitab Al Taisir) became the
main medical textbooks for physicians for
centuries in the Islamic empire and Europe
- wrote a book, Decisive Treatise , dealing with
the tension between religion and philosophy
- challenged anti-philosophical sentiments within
the Sunni tradition sparked by Imam Al Ghazali
- made contributions to Metaphysics,
Psychology, and Religious Sciences
- His commentaries on Plato and Aristotle, and
ancient thinkers, made imprint in Spain and
Latin Europe
↳ renewed Western intellectual interests on
Greek philosophical thoughts
- Contends that the way to truth is through
philosophy
3 Ways to Discover the Truth
1. Demonstration- reflection and inferences
2. Dialectics
3. Rhetorics
3 Categories of Humanity:
1. Philosophers
2. Theologians
3. Common Masses.
6. Ibn Khaldun​ (1332-1406)
- Born in present-day Tunis
- considered one of the greatest philosophers
during the Middle Ages
- considered the father of the field of Sociology
- wrote an encyclopedic book (Kitab Al Ibar-
Book of Lessons) on the rise and fall of
civilizations, compiled into 7 books, the first of
which is The Al Muqaddimah (Introduction or
Prolegomena)
- At 17 years old, he became an orphan
↳ both parents died due to the Black Death
- In Sociology, he developed the Theory of Social
Conflict, based on (ASSABIYAH) Social
Cohesion or Group Solidarity
- theorized that when a society becomes a great
civilization (or dominant culture) its high point is
followed by a period of decay
Advanced the following theories:
1. Theory of Money
- money should have intrinsic value based on
Gold or Silver
2. Theory of Political Economy
- the economy being composed of
a)value-adding process
 b) labor or skills plus techniques to give
higher value
c) labor theory of value

3. Concept of Government
- he defines as “an institution which prevents
injustice other than such as it commits
itself’. ↳ best ever in the history of Political
Theory according to British
philosopher/Anthropologist Ernest Gellner

4. Theory of Taxation
- said that at the beginning of the dynasty,
taxation yields a large revenue from small
assessments
- at the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a
small revenue from large assessments
- The Laffer Curve on the correlation between
tax revenue and tax rate is derived from this
theory.