Political philosophy
13 January 2022
15:40
Ch1: Why do we need political philosophy?
Allegory of Good and Bad Government
Depicts the nature of good and bad government respectively by means of figures who
represent the qualities that rules ought and ought not to have, and then to show the effects
of the two kinds of government on the lives of ordinary people
Political philosophy = an investigation into the nature, causes and effects of good and bad
government
Rests on three ideas:
1. good and bad government profoundly affect the quality of human lives
2. the form our government takes is not predetermined: we have a choice
3. we have political knowledge; we can know what distinguishes good government
from bad: we can trace the effects of different forms of government, and we can
learn what qualities go to make up the best form of government
Government = the whole body of rules, practices and institutions under whose guidance we live
together in societies
Nowadays, we think much more about the institutions of good government, and less about
the personal qualities of the people who make them work
'end of history' thesis: claim that all societies would be propelled by economic forces into governing
themselves in roughly the same way (liberalism)
Politics is about the use of power, and powerful people - especially politicians - do not pay any
attention to works of political philosophy
Why political philosophy has so rarely made a direct impact on political events: political
philosophers look at politics from a philosophical perspective, they are bound to challenge
many of the conventional beliefs held both by politicians and by the public at large
This does not stop political philosophy from having any influence
Nobody can tell in advance whether any given work of political thought will have impact on
politics
It depends entirely on whether the underlying shift in thinking that the philosopher
proposes corresponds to political and social change in such a way that the new ideas
can become the commonplaces of the following generations
The position of the philosopher according to Plato: he has genuine knowledge while those around
him have only distorted opinions, but because the path to philosophical knowledge is long and hard,
very few are willing to take it
Political philosophy bring truth to politics rather than opinions
How political philosophers tackle political goals:
1. Determine which goals are ultimate goals
2. Ask whether goals are related to each other
In raising these questions, and suggesting some answers, political philosophers are not (or needn’t
be) appealing to any esoteric form of knowledge. They are inviting their readers to reflect on their
own political values, and to see which ones they care about most in the final analysis
, Essential nature of tasks political philosophers: they take what we know about human societies, and
the ways in which they are governed, and then they ask what the best form of government would be,
in the light of aims and values that they believe their audience will share
the agenda of political philosophy changes as society and government change, although
some items have stayed on it as far back as our records go
changes in society open up possibilities that did not exist before, or alternatively close them
off
o Example: democracy seems to need certain preconditions to function successfully: it
needs a wealthy and literate population, media of mass communication so that ideas
and opinions can circulate freely, a well-functioning legal system that commands
people’s respect, and so forth. And these conditions did not obtain anywhere until
the fairly recent past
Ch2: political authority
We are governed by states that wield unprecedented power to influence our lives. They not only
provide us with basic protection against attack on our persons and our possessions, they also
regiment us in countless ways
Recent phenomenon from the perspective of human history
Political authority:
1. People generally recognize it as authority, as having the right to command them to behave in
certain ways
2. People who refuse to obey are compelled to do so by the threat of sanctions - law breakers
are liable to be caught and punished
Hobbes: We need political authority because it gives us the security that allows us to trust other
people, and in a climate of trust people are able to cooperate to produce all those benefits that
Hobbes listed as signally lacking in the ‘natural condition’.
How can we create authority where it does not exist?
Hobbes: everyone gathering together and covenanting with one another to establish a
sovereign who would rule them from that day forward; alternatively, they might submit
themselves individually to a powerful man, a conquering general for instance. He thought it
mattered little who had authority, so long as the authority was unrestricted and undivided
Anarchism = a political philosophy and movement that is sceptical of authority and rejects all
involuntary, coercive forms of hierarchy. Anarchism calls for the abolition of the state, which it holds
to be unnecessary, undesirable, and harmful.
Two camps:
Community The market
What it is takes face-to-face communities as the Market anarchists – sometimes called
building blocks that make trust and libertarians – claim that we could
cooperation between people possible contract and pay individually for the
One of the most important human services that the state now provides,
motives is a desire to be accepted including crucially for personal
and respected by those around protection
you, and in the setting of a small
community this makes cooperation Everything works through private
possible even if people are not agencies
saints.
