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Summary Social and Political Philosophy - Chapter 1-8
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Samenvatting Social and Political PhilosophyAn Introduction to Political Philosophy, Titus Stahl (2018)
Chapter 1 – Political Philosophy and Politics
Political philosophy exists since the earliest beginnings of philosophy itself.
Concerned with social conventions, who has more social power than others and why? Are the
choices that are made by the powerful also just and good for the people who are subject to the
ruling power?
What relations between people are legitimate and just?
The guidance that political philosophy offers us, goes beyond self-interest, ideology or mere
opinion.
Political science is descriptive, while political philosophy is prescriptive.
Political philosophy also offers us definitions of certain concepts, like government or rights.
Political philosophy focusses on the development of conceptual arguments and less on empirical
evidence, even though that is still important as well.
The nature of politics: what is politics?
Simple (but not complete) definition:
﮲ Politics are those actions that have to do with the government or the state.
﮲ Politicians are those people who hold a public office which gives them the chance to
decide how to use the power of the government to pursue certain goals. Or they strive to
reach such a public office, which is the case when the politicians are in the opposition.
Politics can be seen in two ways: as an institutional setting or as a way of acting.
Politics can be seen as cooperative and as conflictual, different political theories have different
views upon this.
The traditional conception of politics
Traditional conception of politics: a specific institutional setting (government) and involves the
attempt to use government power to enforce certain policies, potentially against the resistance
of those who disagree with them.
- Conflict is a permanent possibility in politics
- Institutional view on the nature of politics
- Robert Paul Wolff:
o Politics is only concerned with the power of the state
What is a state?
Max Weber gives a definition:
1. Government politics is always a matter of collective action, that is, the behavior of a
group of people.
2. Government politics is characterized by a specific goal, namely to subordinate the
conduct of persons within a territory to what he calls domination
3. Government politics is necessarily coercive, not in the sense that it always employs
coercion, but that the government is always ready to employ coercion.
A state must have all three components to be called a state.
Domination is the central goal of all governments, according to Max Weber.
Definition of domination: the probability that a certain command given in a specific content will
be obeyed by a given group of persons.
,Governments attempt to make their citizens believe that they are legitimate, which means that
they not only can command them, but they are also entitled to enforce certain laws. Weber says
it’s hard to determine whether a government really is legitimate, so he only defines it as
‘appearing legitimate’. The government always aims at not giving up the attempt to make their
decisions appear legitimate to the people.
Sovereignty, the first characteristic
- Weber: all governments must aim at upholding a monopoly of violence in their own
territory.
- Once a government loses the control over violence and the population is no longer
constrained in that regard, we speak of a failed government.
Sovereignty, what more
- Defined in terms of relations between organizations. All organizations, like schools and
sports clubs, can set rules for their members, but they are authorized to enforce rules for
a small group of people. Above these organizations are bigger organizations that make
rules for them, etc. At some level, there is no higher institute left and that highest
institute is called the sovereign.
- The sovereign can be a president, a king or a parliament.
- We do have the UN and other organizations that do have the right to enforce laws on
states, but this still doesn’t result in a world government.
Politics is an activity that is directed at influencing governmental power where government
power:
1. Is the power to set the ultimate rules for people living in a territory
2. Aims at being recognized as legitimate
3. Claims a monopoly of violence
4. Is willing to back up these rules with coercive force.
The role of political philosophy:
- Understand the meaning and character of government power
- Understand the role of politics in human life
- Understand the conditions under which it is legitimate
- Understand its proper aims and goals
Some activities do not have all the characteristics to be called politics, but for example a protest
does have a political dimension. Another problem is that only the activities of the state itself are
called politics, while there are also issues with which the state does not concern itself, while they
can be seen as political. For example the oppression of women until some decades ago.
The political vs. the private
Aristotle, Politics.
- Different forms of ruling over people and/or living together
o Oikos = household
o Polis = city-state
- The function of life in a household is to take care of the natural aspects of human life:
food and sexual reproduction. Common with animals, so it is based on nature
- In a household you have two ways of ruling: the master ruling over the slaves and the
husband/father ruling over his wife and children
- This view of women needing their husband to reason properly led to centuries of
oppressing women in politics and philosophy.
- The city (polis) enables citizens to free themselves from the natural constraints and to
deliberate together freely.
, - Household makes it possible for people to live, the city makes it possible for people to
live well.
- A city state can only flourish when the rules do not see it as a household, because you
cannot treat the citizens the same way as your slaves, children or wives. It is just
according to Aristotle to treat everyone according to their character.
- Even thought the whole theory is racist, sexist, elitist and thus problematic, it does show
that politics might not only be defined by institutions or means, but also by a social
relationship. How to relate to other citizens?
The political vs. the social
Difference between the political and the social, according to Hannah Arendt:
- The two main activities of politics: action and speech
o These two define us as who we are. We disclose ourselves to others. Make our
appearance in the human world.
o A life without speech and action is literally dead to the world. It has ceased to be
a human life, because it is no longer lived among men.
o Through action and speech we enter the public.
Public = specific mode of human community in which people raise public
questions and makes it possible for people to stand up for something.
Public = a space of appearance
No man can live in this space all the time and most men never live in it
o We need a kind of polis to speak and become political beings.
o Politics is changing into the administration of economic and social affairs, instead
of an opportunity for the disclosure of human individuality.
- Distinction between violence and power
o Political power = emerges when people act together as a group.
o Violence = does not need public space, it is instrumental. Attempt to use means to
coerce people into action.
o So: when governments have power, they do not need violence. So power and
violence are opposed to each other.
- Politics is a cooperative activity, based on a specific mode of interaction: public
emergence of consensus and the construction of public space.
- Arendt does not see the state as Aristotle did, so she doesn’t make a difference between a
household and a city state.
According to Weber, obedience is a defining element of political power, but Arendt says it is not,
because political power rests on publicity and agreement.
Civil society = a sphere of economic and cultural interaction which is neither private nor public.
How many governments saw it in the 18th century.
Friends and enemies
In the 20th century the thought emerged that politics is not a cooperative activity (as Aristotle
and Arendt saw it), but it is defined by struggles.
Carl Schmitt:
- Main theorist in developing the legal underpinnings for Nazi rule in Germany, but he is
still considered as a point of departure for left-wing theorists. This is no problem, as long
as the problematic parts in his theory are not uncritically taken up.
- Political is not equal to the state, because the state can be connected with religion and
economics, but politics can’t.
- Distinguishes the political from the:
o Moral, because morality has the distinction between right and wrong
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