Assignment: No 1

Module Code: HM4001

Module Title: Humanities I
Name of the Lecturer: Prof. Premakumara
Date of Submission: 01.04.2016

ASSIGNMENT: 02

Name: K.A.L.P.Abeykoon
Student ID No. 2014093CL1
Advanced Diploma Level Stage II
Introduction to Political Philosophy and major philosophers
Political Philosophy is a branch of Philosophy which studies fundamental questions concerning
the communal life of human beings. Its goal was the creation and preservation of an ideal
society. The questions that Political Philosophy raises are, What are the underlying principles of
the State, of authority and of political ideals? What is the best way to govern our interactions?
What responsibilities do we have to each other? Political Philosophy is normative and rational
discipline.

Political Philosophy is closely connected with Politics, Economics and Ethics. These branches of
knowledge share some common areas. The circles of their interest are entangled with one
another. But their approach to tackle the issues is different from one another. Political
Philosophy has metaphysical, epistemological, axiological and speculative approach. The
approach of Politics is determined by the key concept of Power. The approach of Economics is
determined by the key concept of Wealth.

When we talking about the political philosophy there were major philosophers. We can divide
them in to two categories as Ancient politicalphilosophers and Modern political philosophers.

Views and Concepts

There are lot of great philosophers were lived all along the centuries. Here we only talk about
some of major philosophers.

Ancient political philosophers

Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
St. Thomas Aquinas

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Modern political philosophers

John Locke
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Hobbes
Karl Marx

Socrates(c. 469 - 399 B.C.)

Widely considered the founder of Western political philosophy, via his spoken influence on
Athenian contemporaries; since Socrates never wrote anything, much of what we know about
him and his teachings comes through his most famous student, Plato.

Plato(c. 428 - 348 B.C.)

He is perhaps the best known, most widely studied and most influential philosopher of all time.
Together with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, he provided the main opposition to
the Materialist view of the world represented by Democritus and Epicurus, and he helped to lay
the foundations of the whole of Western Philosophy.

Wrote a lengthy dialog The Republic in which he laid out his political philosophy: citizens
should be divided into three categories. One category of people are the rulers: they should be
philosophers, according to Plato, this idea is based on his Theory of Forms.

Aristotle(384 - 322 B.C.)

Aristotle was an important Greek philosopher from the Socratic (or Classical) period, mainly
based in Athens. He is one of the most important founding figures in Western Philosophy, and

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the first to create a comprehensive system of philosophy, encompassing Ethics, Aesthetics,
Politics, Metaphysics, Logic and science.

Wrote his Politics as an extension of his Nicomachean Ethics. Notable for the theories that
humans are social animals, and that the polis (Ancient Greek city state) existed to bring about the
good life appropriate to such animals. His political theory is based upon an ethics of
perfectionism

St. Thomas Aquinas(1225 1274)

In synthesizing Christian theology and Peripatetic (Aristotelian) teaching in his Treatise on Law,
Aquinas contends that God's gift of higher reasonmanifest in human law by way of the divine
virtuesgives way to the assembly of righteous government.

John Locke(1632 1704)

Described a social contract theory based on citizens' fundamental rights in the state of nature. He
departed from Hobbes in that, based on the assumption of a society in which moral values are
independent of governmental authority and widely shared, he argued for a government with
power limited to the protection of personal property. His arguments may have been deeply
influential to the formation of the United States Constitution.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1712 1778)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Francophone Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of the
18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across
Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern
political and educational thought.

Analyzed the social contract as an expression of the general will, and controversially argued in
favor of absolute democracy where the people at large would act as sovereign.

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Thomas Jefferson (1743 1826)

Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the
Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from
1801 to 1809.

Politician and political theorist during the American Enlightenment. Expanded on the philosophy
of Thomas Paine by instrumenting republicanism in the United States. Most famous for the
United States Declaration of Independence.

Thomas Hobbes (1588 - 1679)

Generally considered to have first articulated how the concept of a social contract that justifies
the actions of rulers (even where contrary to the individual desires of governed citizens), can be
reconciled with a conception of sovereignty.

Hobbes wrote several versions of his political philosophy, including The Elements of Law,
Natural and Politic (also under the titles Human Nature and De Corpore Politico) published in
1650, De Cive (1642) published in English as Philosophical Rudiments Concerning Government
and Society in 1651, the English Leviathan published in 1651, and its Latin revision in 1668.
Others of his works are also important in understanding his political philosophy, especially his
history of the English Civil War, Behemoth (published 1679), De Corpore (1655), De Homine
(1658), Dialogue Between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Laws of England (1681),
and The Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance (1656).

Karl Marx(1818 - 1883)

Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, political theorist and revolutionary of the 19th
Century. Both a scholar and a political activist, Marx is often called the father of Communism,
and certainly his Marxist theory provided the intellectual base for various subsequent forms of
Communism.

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Marxism, the philosophical and political school or tradition his work gave rise to, is a variety of
radical or revolutionary Socialism conceived as a reaction against the rampant Capitalism and
Liberalism of 19th Century Europe, with working class self-emancipation as its goal. Among
other things, he is known for his analysis of history (particularly his concept of historical
materialism) and the search for a systemic understanding of socioeconomic change.

In large part, added the historical dimension to an understanding of society, culture and
economics. Created the concept of ideology in the sense of (true or false) beliefs that shape and
control social actions. Analyzed the fundamental nature of class as a mechanism of governance
and social interaction. Profoundly influenced world politics with his theory of communism.

Conclusion

In simple terms, political science is a systematic look at political systems and how they interact
while political philosophy is a careful study of a search for knowledge, the good, and justice.

The Ancients wanted to actualize human greatness. This required a combination of virtue,
intelligence, education, morality -- in a way, a good regime. As a generalization in philosophy,
the ancients thought certain people were more capable than others and that the orientation
towards justice had to reflect these differences; this is the opposite of how justice is formulated
today is, fairness, equality, diversity, tolerance, etc.. For the ancients, these concepts would have
been empty formulations that simply dont make sense.

The modern approach views the ancient model as fanciful. The moderns didn't think virtue
existed and that it was perhaps a linguistic trick. True equality for modern philosophy means
acknowledging first that everyone is a violent animal (Hobbes) and that the way you acquire
justice is not through potential, virtue, or capability; justice is actualizing power to do what you
want with it. The moderns wanted to alter nature to create the things people want. The feminists
of the second wave offer an almost hyperbolic example of this with their desire to shape nature
through technological intervention. In these ways, virtue was not important, but creating comfort
becomes the ultimate good.