Best Six Reads In Political Science
BretCahill
They make a lot of basic mistakes and violate a lot of obvious political laws
they wouldn't had they even glanced through these books.
1. _The Republic_ Plato
2. _Spirit of Laws_ Montesquieu
3. _Notes on the State of Virginia_ Jefferson
4. _The Federalist_ mostly Madison
5. _Democracy in America_ DeTocqueville
6. _Picture This_ Heller
On the other hand even a populist will admit some people are just too dumb for
politics.
Bret Cahill
"In democratic ages people should read the literature of aristocratic ages,
such as ancient Greece. Greece wasn't a democracy. Greece only had 25,000
citizens. The other 325,000 were slaves."
-- DeTocqueville getting a little self serving
Robert Cohen
St. Augustine, THE CITY OF GD, advocates/discusses christian concept of
political reality
Thomas Hobbes' writings, convincingrationale for govt versus anti-govt & crime
--he's probably not a totalitarian, but perhaps is an authoritarian
Nik the Greek
Hobbes? Mill? Rousseau?
Tim
"BretCahill" <bretc...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040111115439...@mb-m06.aol.com...
Hegel, Nietzsche, Strauss, Kojeve, Arendt, Grant
The Immortalist
A political theorist is someone who engages in political theory.
Aristotle John Austin Jeremy Bentham Jean Bodin Edmund Burke Frederick
Engels Hugo Grotius Johann Gottfried von Herder Thomas Hobbes John
Locke Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Niccolo Machiavelli Karl Marx John
Stuart Mill John Milton Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
Thomas More Thomas Paine Plato Samuel Pufendorf Jean-Jacques Rousseau
John of Salisbury Baruch Spinoza Alexis de Tocqueville Gabriel Almomd
Noam Chomsky David Easton David Friedman Clive Hamilton V.O. Key Jr.
Harold J. Laski Harold D. Lasswell Robert Paul Nozick G. Bingham
Powell John Rawls Roberto Mangabeira Unger Graham Wallas Stephen L.
Wasby Beatrice Webb Sidney Webb
http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_theorist
http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_philosophy
Democracies Multiparty Limited Communist States Authoritarian Regimes
Military Junta Single-party State Autocracy Traditional Monarchies
Unclassifiable No Self-Government No Government Uncertain Not Included
Constitutional Monarchies Fascist Totalitarian
Types of Governments
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/20c-govt.htm
---------------------------------
-A-
Acton, Lord (1834-1902):
Acton was against "programmes of reaction" and thought that there
could be great reliance on those institutions that came about as the
result of slow evolution. That, ultimately, what was to be trusted
were those "changes arising from special historical situations rather
than from the minds of presumptuous men."
-B-
Bastiat, Frédéric (1801-50):
Bastiat was of the view that those who subscribe to socialism
subscribe to putting in place mechanisms, a philanthropic tyranny,
which would but force the human race (a futile effort) to behave as
the social engineers think the human race ought to behave as opposed
to how it behaves by nature.
Bentham, Jeremy (1748-1832).
In Bentham's writings, politicians, beginning with those of the early
19th century, found legitimization in their most favoured activity:
the business of making laws; and, they have been doing it in great
quantities ever since. Bentham the business Bentham figured that laws
should be socially useful and not merely reflect the status quo; he
thought it to be a "sacred truth" that "the greatest happiness of the
greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation."
Bright, John (1811-89):
Bright was a son of a Quaker cotton spinner and took up employment in
his father's factory. In 1839, he, at the time of its formation,
together with Richard Cobden (1804-65), became a leader in the
Anti-Corn-Law League (they advocated free trade; see the Manchester
School of economics). Bright and Cobden were also members of the Peace
Society (Bright energetically denounced the Crimean war). During the
American Civil War, Bright warmly supported the north. He became a
member of parliament. Bright supported Joe Howe in Howe's bid to
reverse the 1867 union of Nova Scotia to the rest of Canada.
Burke, Edmund (1729-97).
Burke was an Irish born English Statesman and author, sympathetic
towards American colonies and Irish Catholics, and (because of the
resulting violence and destruction) an enemy of those who supported
the French Revolution.
-C-
Cicero, Marcus Tullius (B.C. 106-43):
Cicero was a Roman orator and statesman. He was in power but for a
brief time. His political opponents condemned him and sent him into
exile (a Roman citizen could not be put to death by execution).
Chambers tell us that Cicero wrote most of his work "living in exile
and brooding over his disappointments." He gave a very famous speech
against Anthony, after Caesar's death, in 43. Not long after,
Anthony's soldiers hunted Cicero down and put him to death.
Cobbett, William (1763-1835).
A self taught man, Cobbett was a moving force in the great legislative
reforms that took place in England, during the early part of the 19th
century.
Condorcet, Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de (1743-94):
"It is perhaps Condorcet who, in his Esquisse d'un tableau historique
des procrès de l'esprit humain [Sketch for a Historical Picture of the
Progress of the Human Mind, written in 1793-94], best summarizes the
optimism and faith in human reason so characteristic of the age. In
tracing man from the dawn of history, Condorcet first emphasized the
liberation of mankind from ignorance, tyranny, and superstition by
means of his science and his reason; he then sketched a hopeful future
in which mankind would be free, equal in wealth, in education, and
with sexual equality; he finally envisaged the moral, intellectual,
and physical improvement, indeed perfection, of humanity that would
arise through better instruction laws, and institutions." (Benet's
entry on the "Enlightenment.") In Chamber's we see that Condorcet's
work, ... l'esprit humain was "written in hiding [French Revolution],
he insisted on the justice and necessity of establishing a perfect
equality of civil and political rights between the individual of both
sexes, and proclaimed the infinite perfectibility of the human race."
This idea, this impossible dream of the "perfectibility of the human
race," was of course the same basis on which William Godwin work's
Political Justice rested.
Confucius.:
Confucius lived during the turbulent times of the Chou dynasty (c.1027
BC-256 BC). Confucius urged a system of morality and statecraft to
bring about peace, stability, and just government. Confucius was of
the view that both the governed and those who governed were to be
principled and virtuous; and that the first order of business for
government was to instill in the population, as a whole, such virtues
as to make good government easy. This was a system where one treated
both inferiors and superiors with propriety. Confucianism laid down
practical social concepts. Confucianism is not forced; it is not
dogmatic: it is less a religion then it is an ethic by which people
live.
-D-
Diderot, Denis (1713-84):
Diderot denied and subverted the moral foundations of authority. I am
sure there are numerous and authoritative works on Diderot. I have
John Morley's work Diderot and the Encyclopaedists (London: Chapman &
Hall, 1878).
-E-
Engels, Friedrich (1820-1895):
Engels was the writer of The Condition of the Working Class in England
(1844). But his fame principally rests as one of the co-founders (with
Marx) of "scientific socialism." Though not English, Engels lived most
of his life in England, being, it seems to me, about the only country,
at that time, which would permit publication and distribution of such
freethinking material as is represented by the Communistic Manifesto,
the joint work of Engels and Marx. Engels was the more practical of
the pair, and its doubtful that the work of Marx would have ever been
put through the press if it had not been for the work of Engels, an
untiring believer in the works of Marx.
-F-
Ferguson, Adam (1723-1816):
Scottish philosopher and historian, in 1757, Ferguson succeeded David
Hume as Keeper of the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh. Ferguson's
Essay on the History of Civil Society is "a sharp polemic against
Hobbes in the matter of a supposed original compact." [From
Schneider's intro. p. x (Transaction Publishers, 1991).] Ferguson's
work supports the view (the correct view) that societies have not come
about or created out of whole cloth through the agency of human
reasoning. "Like the winds that we come we know not whence and blow
whither soever they list, the forces of society are derived from an
obscure and distant origin. They arise before the date of philosophy,
from the instincts, not the speculations of men." As popular as the
work has been, it was not universality accepted. Hume did care for it;
Leslie Stephen found it superficial; Schumpeter thought that its
popularity in Germany was "unmerited." Marx, however, quoted from it
approvingly.
-G-
Godwin, William (1756-1836):
In 1793, Godwin brought out his work, Political Justice. Political
Justice marked a beginning point when there then started to spread
"high thought and warm feelings," a reaction to the "vices and follies
of the world." Godwin believed it is impossible to be rationally
persuaded and not act accordingly, and that therefore, man could live
in harmony without law and institutions; he believed in the
perfectibility of man.
-H-
Herbert, Auberon (1838-1906).
Herbert was to become the patron saint to a movement known as
"voluntaryism." Typical of Herbert's thoughts, is this: "you will not
make people wiser and better by taking liberty of action from them. A
man can only learn when he is free to act. It is the consequences of
his own actions, and the consequences of these same actions as he sees
them in other persons, that teach him."
Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679).
Hobbes' interest in science, particularly that of Euclidian geometry,
led him to conclude that it should be possible "to extend such
deductive certainty to a comprehensive science of man and society."
Hobbes carried out "greatest, perhaps the sole, masterpiece of
political philosophy in the English language."
-J-
Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826):
Third American President, 1801-1809, Jefferson was born in Virginia;
he received a classical education and became a very versatile leader.
Jefferson was of the view that government should be democratic, but in
view of the problems of democracy: there should be as little
government as possible. Jefferson was against big government and is to
be compared with his contemporary, Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) who
was keen in setting up, in the formation of the United States, a
strong federal state, viz., the Hamiltonian idea of a strong central
authority. Hamilton headed up the Federalists who are to be compared
to the Whigs of England.
-L-
Locke, John (1632-1704).
Locke set forth the rational reason for the existence of a limited
government: "The great and chief end, therefore, of men's uniting into
commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the
preservation of their property." And, that people could generally
regulate themselves without extensive and detailed governmental
intervention: "Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only
motives to a rational creature: these are the spur and reins whereby
all mankind are set on work, and guided."
-M-
Machiavelli (1469-1527).
"We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do,
and not what they ought to do."
Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766-1834).
In his famous work, An Essay on the Principle of Population, Malthus
opined that poverty and distress are unavoidable because population
increases faster than the means of subsistence. As checks on
population growth, Malthus accepted only war, famine, and disease but
later added moral restraint.
Mandeville, Bernard (1670-1733):
A Dutch doctor who practiced in London. In his work, The Fable of the
Bees (1714), Mandeville set down his views that "Private Vices are
Public Benefits." This book sort of grew in the author's hands through
the years 1705-24. The authorities at the time denounced this work as
a public nuisance.
Marx, Karl (1818-83).
The fundamental difference in the beliefs between socialism and
Marxism is that Marxists believe that we are powerless to shape the
course of history, whereas the Utopian belief is that it is within our
power to make a perfect society.
Mill, John Stuart (1806-1873).
While advancing the cause of democracy to a considerable degree, Mill
was wrong in treating collections of people as if these collections
were physical or biological bodies, such that scientific methods might
be employed to predict future events.
Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de la Brède et de
(1689-1755):
French philosopher and jurist, spent two years (1729-31) in England;
studied the political writings of Locke. His work, The Spirit of Laws,
written in 1748 held up the British Constitution to the admiration of
the world. He believed in the necessity in the separation of powers, a
doctrine that was picked up the framers of the American Constitution.
It was Montesquieu who said, "Useless laws weaken the necessary laws."
More, Sir Thomas (1478-1535):
Born in London, More went on to study at Oxford and then on to the
Inns of Court. He became a very influential statesman and eventually
became one of the most powerful men in England as the Lord chancellor.
He earned the displeasure of Henry VIII when he did not go along with
the separation of the English church from Rome. After a harsh
imprisonment of over a year, Henry had him beheaded. More is best
remembered by his work, Utopia, written in 1516.
-O-
Owen, Robert (1771-1858):
One of the first in a line of 19th century socialists.
-P-
Paine, Thomas (1737-1809):
Thomas Paine, the pamphleteer will for ever be remembered as being one
of the significant spark plugs which brought the America Revolution to
full heat.
-R-
Rabelais, François (c1494-c1553):
In his early years Rabelais spent time in the Franciscan and
Benedictine orders where he steeped himself in the classics. Leaving
the monastery he went to universities at Paris, Bourges, and
Montpellier; he became a doctor and practised medicine at a hospital.
"Although frequently in danger of attack for his radical ideas, his
satire on the Church, and his broad humor, he successfully evaded
prosecution, thanks to his friends in high places, and pursued his
career of lecturing, traveling, and writing. ... The key to Rabelais'
humor lies in his gross and earthy naturalism, in his delight in the
common elements of life, and in his belief in the native goodness of
man." (Frederic R. White's Famous Utopias (Chicago: Packard, 1946), p.
121.) Most all of Rabelais' work was a satire on the huge revolution
that was unfolding during his times: the Renaissance. Rabelais
described man as the only "laughing animal"; he thought it his duty,
his right, and his privilege to laugh at, and with, his fellow humans.
Rabelais painted a memorable character called Friar John: a drinking,
fighting and mighty monk. Rabelais' works include Pantagruel (1532)
and Gargantua (1534). In Pantagruel, Rabelais set forth serious ideas
along side of overwhelming nonsense.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques (1712-88):
"Rousseau undertook the defence of social nudity. He called upon his
world, which prided itself so much upon its elegance, to divest the
body politic of all its robes. He declared that while Nature has made
man happy and virtuous, it is society that renders him miserable and
depraved ..."
-S-
Shaw, Geo. Bernard (1856-1950):
Shaw had "an exhilarating force, a trenchant wit, an unfailing eye for
apt instances, a contempt for every fool and a respect for no
authority. ... [He was] alert, never to be taken by unawares, ready to
pounce with avidity upon the delusions of his fellow-men and to rend
them with an animal gusto. ... his wit [intimidated] the enemy before
coming to grips with him." (Orlo Williams.) Shaw joined the likes of
Sidney and Beatrice Webb and H. G. Wells; as socialists they were
known as The Fabians. Some of the books I have, either written by or
about Shaw, are: The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and
Capitalism (New York: Brentano's, 1928), Fabian Essays in Socialism
(London: The Fabian Society, 1889), Bernard Shaw, A Critical Study by
P. P. Howe (London: Martin Secker, 1915), Bernard Shaw by Michael
Holroyd (1936- ) (London: Chatto & Windus, 1988 [Vol.I] & 1989
[Vol.II]).
Smith, Adam (1723-1790):
What Adam Smith did in his book, Wealth of Nations, was to explain how
self-interest was the engine of the economy and competition its
governor.
Spencer, Herbert (1820-1903):
An English evolutionary philosopher, Spencer argued that the ultimate
scientific principles are unknowable and, agnostically, that the
Unknowable must be a power, or God. (Chambers.) Spencer was known for
his application of the scientific doctrines of evolution to philosophy
and ethics, with a central principle, the 'persistence of force,' as
the agent of all change, form, and organization in the knowable
universe. In education, he scorned the study of the liberal arts and
advocated that science be the chief subject of instruction. His works:
First Principles, in which Spencer states the first principle is that
man has the right, the only right, to do anything except interfere
with another's similar right, and proceeds to the application of this
principle to the subsidiary rights flowing therefrom: the right to
property, to free speech, to ignore the State, etc. (London: Williams
& Norgate, 1875); The Principles of Sociology (New York: D. Appleton,
1898); and Social Statics (1851) (London: Williams & Norgate, 1868).
In Principles of Biology (London: Williams & Norgate, 1898), Spencer's
aim was "to set forth the general truths of Biology, as illustrative
of, and as interpreted by, the laws of Evolution ... For aid in
executing it, I owe many thanks to Prof. Huxley and Dr. Hooker." In
1904, Herbert Spencer's autobiography was brought out (London:
Williams & Norgate, 1904). Also published is The Life and Letters of
Herbert Spencer by David Duncan (London: Methuen, 1908). (For a sample
of Spencer's writing see his essay, "The Collective Wisdom.")
[See portrait of Spencer from "The Warren J. Samuels Portrait
Collection at Duke University."]
Spooner, Lysander (1808-1887):
Lawyer, abolitionist, radical, friend of liberty, Spooner was an
opponent of slavery and an ardent enemy of statist legislation; he put
his faith in the law. An eloquent foe of prohibition of alcohol or
drugs, he offered a moral defence of liberty.
-T-
Thoreau, Henry David (1817-1862):
Thoreau was a man of "simple and high thinking" and his writings
proved to have more of an impact on the men of the 20th century than
the men of his own century, the 19th. For instance, Gandhi became
convinced, by reading Thoreau, of the rightness of the principle of
passive resistance and civil disobedience.
Tocqueville , Count Alexis, de (1805-1859):
A young bureaucrat from a noble family, Tocqueville was sent in 1831
to America so that he might report back on its prison system; the
result was a penetrating political study, Democracy in America. One of
de Tocqueville's conclusions found in this work is, "greater equality
requires greater centralization and therefore diminishes liberty."
(Chambers.) Tocqueville spent the last years of his life making a
major study of the French Revolution and its consequences: he was to
complete only one volume before his death.
-V-
Voltaire (1694-1778):
Born Francois-Marie Arouet in Paris, Voltaire, a pen name he adopted
early in his career, through his writings, became the "embodiment of
the 18th-century enlightenment." He was against organized religion,
fanaticism, intolerance and superstition; his cry: Ecrasez l'infâme!
("Crush the infamous thing!") He was a constant source of irritation
to the political and religious authorities of the time. ("If God did
not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.") At times he found
himself in prison, and, at other times, fleeing the country (he spent
three years in England [1726-29], and was much taken up with the
English political and scientific scene, in particular, Locke and
Newton). His works and ideas helped to foster the French Revolution.
-W-
Webb, Sidney and Beatrice:
These are the Webbs of Fabian claim. The Fabians -- G. Bernard Shaw,
Sydney Oliver, Sidney Webb, Annie Besant, Wm. Clarke, Graham Wallas, &
Hubert Bland, et al. -- led the socialist political movement at the
first part of the 20th century. Another circle (just as socialistic)
was The "Bloomsbury Group": representative members being Keynes (the
Cambridge Professor that got us into so much trouble) and Virginia
Woolf (a great literary artist who committed suicide just as Hitler
took Europe by force of arms). Among my books by the Webbs are The
History of Trade Unionism (London: Longmans, Green; 1907) and English
Poor Law History -- Part I: The Old Poor Law (1927). This last book is
"a systematic history of English Poor Relief down to the great
reforming Act of 1834." Part 2, apparently, takes up where part 1 left
and carries on up to the time when the Webbs wrote the book.
http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/BiosPol.htm
http://www.kiara-rankin.com/theorists/theorists.htm
----------------------------
1. Describe and evaluate the analogy Plato draws between the structure
of the soul and the structure of the state.
2. Discuss Plato's use of the craft analogy in his exploration of the
nature of political authority. Is it his most important analogy?
3. Evaluate Hobbes' claim that the sovereign power must be unlimited
in its rights.
4. Does Hobbes show that it is necessary, and also that it is
possible, for persons in the state of nature to create a sovereign
power?
5. Expound and examine Locke's account of the circumstances in which
government is legitimate.
6. Is Locke's defense of private property compelling?
7. Does Rousseau succeed in showing that all citizens of a properly
constituted state are subject to "The General Will"?
8. "The problem is to find a form of association which will defend and
protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each
associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may
still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before". Does Rousseau
succeed in solving the problem?
9. How, according to Hegel, are state and civil society related? Are
they so related?
10. How far does Hegel's theory of history depend upon his
metaphysics?
11. Describe and evaluate Marx's theory of alienation.
12. How cogent is Marx's theory of history?
13. Is Mill's principle of liberty defensible?
14. Critically examine Mill's defense of individuality.
15. Sketch clearly the main ideas of Rawls' argument for Justice as
Fairness and examine them critically.
16. Do contract theories of the state tend to obscure or to illuminate
the nature of political obligation?
17. What is political (as opposed to comprehensive) liberalism?
18. How cogent are Nozick's criticisms of "patterned" theories of
justice?
19. Sketch clearly and evaluate Nozick's argument for the minimal
state.
20. Is there a cogent distinction between "positive" and "negative"
liberty?
21. Can consequentialism be reconciled with respect for individual
rights?
22. What do egalitarians want to equalize?
23. It is widely thought that governments which emerge from democratic
processes enjoy a degree of legitimacy that other governments cannot
match. Is this so?
24. What circumstances, if any, would justify civil disobedience in a
democratic society?
25. What, if anything, justifies the state?
http://spot.colorado.edu/~cartera/mst.html
http://www.nsu.ru/filf/pha/philofhi/clasf.htm
--------------------------------
ABSTRACT: In the wake of the postmodernist onslaught one thing is
certain: morality is in crisis. Where are we to look for answers?
Perhaps to the German idealists—that is, to their bold synthesis of
right and freedom. This paper seeks to bring the timely issue of
absolute freedom and the possibility of its total realization back
into ethical-political discussion. Through a close comparison of the
theories of Fichte and Hegel via a critique of the former by the
latter, I show that the antidote to many of our political, moral and
theological distresses may well be found in Hegel's concept of the
State and Sittlichkeit-i.e., truly understood as the realization of
absolute freedom, or the "We that is I."
Does the Solution to our Present Moral and Political
Dilemmas Lie in the Theories of the German Idealists?
http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Poli/PoliFold.htm
--------------------------------
FROM DICTATORSHIP TO DEMOCRACY
A conceptual framework for liberation
http://www.hermanos.org/nonviolence/dictodem.html
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The Nature of the Communication
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(1) Logical vs Emotional Appeals
(2) Statistical Evidence vs 1 Personal Example
(3) One-Sided vs Two-Sided Arguments
(4) The Order of Presentation
(5) The Size of the Discrepancy Between Views
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(6) Characteristics of the Audience
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(A) - Self-Esteem
(B) - Prior Experience of the Audience
(C) - People tend to protect their sense of freedom
(D) - Reactance operates innumber of interesting ways
(E) - How Well Do the Principles Work?
---------------------------------
http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/hbecker/goffman.html
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstatx.htm
A PRIMER ON POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
http://n4bz.org/primer.htm
http://www.shartwell.freeserve.co.uk/humor-site/pc-quiz.html
http://www.swif.uniba.it/lei/filpol/filpole/indicere.htm