CLASSICS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
James Fieser
Short Outline
4/28/2010
Please note that this is an extremely abbreviated outline of the text material, and contains little more information than the contents list of headings and subheadings. Test questions will be based on more detailed information than appears here. You may wish to use this outline as the starting point for a more detailed one of your own devising.
PLATO: OBEDIENCE TO THE STATE (from Crito)
Crito urges socrates to escape
Crito’s argument:
Socrates criticism: disregard the views of the many
General rule:
Particular application of this rule with justice:
Respect the view of the expert of justice
Argument of the Athenean laws
Athens like a parent to Socrates
Athens has been like a parent to Socrates insofar as Athens has raised him and seen to his education
Socrates owes his real parents a debt of gratitude and should thereby obey them
Therefore, Socrates woes Athens a debt of gratitude and should thereby obey their laws and decisions
Social contract between Socrates and Athens
If one chooses to take up residence in a particular area, then one is thereby agreeing to obey the laws and decisions of the lawmakers
Socrates chose to reside in Athens
Therefore, Socrates has agreed to follow the decisions of the lawmakers (regarding his execution)
Prospects for Socrates if he Flees
PLATO: JUSTICE AND THE IDEAL STATE (from The Republic)
Justice and self interest
Whether might makes right
Thrasymachus: justice is the interest of the stronger
Socrates: Physicians, captains, and rules seek the interest of their subjects
Thrasymachus:
Socrates: injustice is not more beneficial than justice
The advantages of injustice: the ring of Gyges
Glaucon: This shows that injustice is more profitable than justice
Socrates: two kinds of justice
Three social classes
The emergence of the tradespeople class
Societies are needed to efficiently provide for the basic necessities of food, shelter and clothing
Other needs:
Armies:
Need for the guardian class and censorship their education
Censorship: lies in literature need to be censored
Selecting the ruling class
Rulers should be selected among the best of the guardians show the greatest interest in furthering the good of their country
The nature of justice
The noble lie: staying within one’s class
Three types of metal
Justice as doing one’s own business
Justice is based on the principle that one person should practice one thing only, the thing to which his nature was best adapted
Four virtues of the state
More on the guardians and rulers
Selective breeding of the guardians
Communal lifestyle of the Guardian class
Secretly selected for breeding based on the best qualities
The philosopher-king
There can be no public or private happiness unless the rulers are philosophers
Knows the forms:
ARISTOTLE: THE NATURAL FOUNDATION OF SOCIETY (from Politics)
The state as a creation of nature
Rulers differ in kind
Natural rulers and subjects: families, villages, states
The state is prior to the individual
Parts of the household
Three relations in the family:
Household management:
Slaves
Property in the household
Instruments in managing the household: some are living, others lifeless
In Defense of Natural slavery
“From the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, others for rule”
Slaves and the rational principle:
Against slavery by law
Slavery by law: conventional laws that allow slavery, such as those captured in war
Three Criticisms:
The skill of slavery
Art of the slave:
Art of the master:
Art of justly acquiring slaves:
Women and children
Royal rule vs. constitutional rule
Royal:
Constitutional:
Different virtues for rulers and subjects
Different capacities of the soul
Slave:
Women:
Child:
Different virtues for different capacities of the soul
Man:
Woman:
The subject’s virtue is relative to that of the ruler
Slave:
Forms of government
Ruling for the good of the governed
Purpose of the state:
True governments:
Despotic governments:
Rule of one, few, or many
One: kingship
Perversion:
Few: aristocracy, where it is ruled by the best men, or rule for the best interest of the citizens
Perversion:
Many: constitutional government, where fighting men possess the supreme power
Perversion:
Justice as equality
General view: justice involves equality
Problem:
Possible qualities:
Problem: none of these is sufficient for determining equality and inequality in justice
Conclusion: justice is equality, but equality is relative to the advantage of the state, and the common good of the citizens
CICERO: NATURAL JUSTICE (from On the Commwealth)
Introduction
Development of societies
Learning (philosophers) vs. experience (politicians):
Philus: against natural, innate and universal justice
Philus adopts the arguments of Carneades
Justice is a legal right, but not a natural right
Justice varies from place to place
Justice is inconsistent with worldly wisdom
Three scenarios:
Summary of Carnades’ position
“Men had established laws among themselves from considerations of advantage, varying them according to their different customs, and altering them often so as to adapt them to the times; but that there was no such thing as natural law”
Scipio and Philus: true justice vs. practical benefit
Scipio: The benefits of injustice outweighed by the disbenefits of remorse
Philus: human practice confirms the benefit of injustice
Laelius: for natural justice
Laelius: natural justice and virtue
Natural law:
Scipio: Justice the foundation of lawful government
Scipio: Democracy, Aristocracy, Monarchy
Criticisms of democracies
Aristocracy vs. monarchy
AUGUSTINE: THE EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY CITIES (from City of God and Contra Faustum)
The two cities
Differences between the two cities
Two cities formed by two loves
Earthly:
Heavenly:
Peace through the eternal law
Two types of peace
Earthly city:
Heavenly city:
Both kinds of peace are connected with the eternal law
Principles of eternal law
Two precepts of eternal law:
Three loves:
Principles of civic harmony:
Principles of domestic harmony:
Travelers:
Servitude introduced by sin
In the state of innocence (Eden, before Noah)
After Noah
Domestic peace
Peace and discord between the two cities
Travelers’ use of earthly advantages:
Harmony between the two cities
The earthly city:
Travelers:
Discord between the two cities
Against extending one’s empire
The liabilities of acquiring too much
Case of two men:
Kingdoms without justice are like robberies
Good people should not wish to rule more widely
Wars
Language diversity, wars of unity, and the tragedy of even just wars
Three circles of society:
All wars aim at peace
God and war (from Contra Faustum)
God commands wars with just retribution, not cruelty
Moses wars should not abhor us:
The real evils in war:
Wars justified when in obedience to God
Soldiers who fights in an unjust war:
Turning the other cheek is consistent with divinely ordained wars
Old testament does not contradict new testament
Critics of the Old Testament point out how they contradict the New Testament
Response:
God’s reasons for justice are unknowable
Blaming God for ordering wars shows an ignorance of the timeless perspective of divine providence
AQUINAS: NATURAL LAW (from Summa Theological, and On the Governance of Rulers)
Four kinds of law
Whether there is an eternal law
Eternal law is god’s rational rule over the universe
Whether there is in us a natural law
All things partake in eternal law that is imprinted on their natures, which gives them an inclination to their proper end
Natural law is the rational creature’s participation in the eternal law
Whether there is human law
Human laws are the specific conclusions that we deduce from more general rules of natural law
Whether there was any need for a divine law
Four reasons for divine law
Natural and human law
Whether the natural law contains several precepts, or only one
Self-evidence: subject contained in the predicate
In itself:
In relation to us:
First principle of natural law: good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided
Our human goods are embedded in our natural inclinations
Six main natural inclinations and their natural law moral precepts:
Whether the natural law is the same in all men
Reason goes from general conclusions to specific conclusions
Three levels of principles (regarding rightness and knowledge)
The most general principles are the same for all, but not known by all (e.g., do good > be sociable > do not harm others)
Immediate deductions are the same for all, but may not be known by all (e.g., don’t steal)
Further deductions are not the same for all, and would not be known by all (e.g., return borrowed property)
Whether every human law is derived from the natural law
Human law has natural law to the extent that it is accurately derived from natural law
Two kinds of deductions from natural law
Logical:
Determination:
Natural servitude
Human inequality in the state of innocence
People are born unequal:
Man mastering over man in the state of innocence
Two meanings of “master”
State of innocence
The nature and duties of royal authority
What is meant by the name, king
People need something guide him towards his goal
Three unjust governments:
Three just governments
The community should be self-sufficient with all necessities
That a kingdom ought to be governed primarily with a view to creating happiness
How a king may institute a good life among the subject multitude
Two things needed for an individual’s good life
Three things to establish the good life for the multitude
How he may preserve what has been instituted
Three things that hinder the continuance of the public good
Three responsibilities of the king
How he may advance what he has preserved to a better condition.
Just war
Whether it is always sinful to wage war (three requirements of a just war)
Proper authority:
Just cause:
Rightful intention:
Wrong intentions:
DANTE: WORLD GOVERNMENT (from On Monarchy)
Arguments for a single ruler of the world
Three questions concerning temporal monarchy
Temporal monarchy: the government of one prince above all men in time (i.e., one king of the world)
Three questions:
Is it necessary for the welfare of the world
Did the Roman people rightfully take to itself the office of monarchy
Does the authority of monarchy come from God directly or an intermediary
Needed for society to achieve its end
Aristotle (politics): one thing needs to regulate things to attain an end
Examples:
Reflects the image of God
Parallels the prime mover
Needed to resolve controversies
Allows the most freedom
Is more just and less tempted by desires
Does things more efficiently
Principle of efficiency:
Harmonizes the wills of everyone
Confirmed by Augustus’s Peace of Rome
Monarch’s authority independent of church authority
Against the Sun-Moon Argument
The sun-moon argument: according to Genesis, God made the sun and moon to be the greater and lesser lights, where the sun illuminates the moon
Two ways of criticizing allegorical interpretations of the bible
Criticism 1 of sun-moon argument:
Criticism 2 of sun-moon argument:
No possible source of church authority over the king
Possible sources of such authority
God:
Church:
Emperor:
Universal consent:
Separate domains of temporal and spiritual powers
People have two ends:
Two paths:
Two guides:
THOMAS MORE: UTOPIA (from Utopia)
Geography and government
Layout of the island
200 miles across the middle, crescent shape, center of crescent a great bay
Founded by Utopus, dug a 15 mile trench separating it from the continent
54 large cities, with the same laws and customs
Amaurot, capital city; three senators from each city go there once a year
Farmhouses throughout the country; city dwellers are sent there in rotation
Families of forty people
20 family members sent to farms in two-year shifts; some voluntarily stay longer
Egg incubators
Magistrates
200 Lower magistrates (syphogrant/ philarch): 30 families vote for one lower magistrate for a one year term (can’t be re-elected)
20 Higher magistrates (tranibor/protophi): over 10 lower magistrates, can be re-elected
Prince: holds position for life, voted for by lower magistrates from a list of four nominated by the people
Magistrates can’t call secret meetings, which avoids conspiracies to change the government
Can’t debate a subject on the day it is proposed
Work and leisure
Everyone understands agriculture
One type of clothing, and they make their own clothes
Lower magistrates keep people from being lazy
Six hour work days, three before lunch, three after
Spare time: read, entertain with music and conversation, attend public morning public lectures
Game of virtue and vice
Efficiency of the utopians
Domestic issues
Family life
Houses contain several generations of people, with the males staying in place
When families get too large, some are moved to smaller families
Cities have a maximum of 6,000 families
The oldest male runs the family, wives obey husbands, juniors obey seniors
Products of family industries are made available at local markets where goods are exchanged for free
Slaves slaughter animals, not citizens, since it would compromise their feelings of pity and kindness
Meals for 30 families are held in large dining halls; people can eat at home, but usually don’t since the halls have better food
Public hospitals of high quality, with large bedding capacity for emergencies
There are no bars, houses of prostitution, or other private places of corruption
Slaves, euthanasia
Slaves
Terminally ill
Marriage, divorce, adultery
Issues of justice
Punishment
Handicaps, physical appearance
Laws
War
Religious tolerance
Conclusion
More disagrees with many of the laws and customs of the Utopians, but wish that many others would be adopted by modern governments
NICOLO MACHIAVELLI: POLITICAL SURVIVAL (from The Prince)
Republics and monarchies
Two kinds of government: republics and monarchies
Qualities of praise and blame in a prince (Ch. 15)
Imaginary vs. real virtues of a Prince
Alleged qualities of a good monarch.
Typical virtues of a monarch:
Generosity vs. stinginess (Ch. 16)
Better to be stingy than generous.
Problems with generosity
Reply to counter examples
Criticism: Caesar obtained his empire through generosity
Reply:
Severity vs. mercy, being loved vs. feared (Ch. 17)
Severity in punishment better than mercy
It is better to be feared than loved
The severity of Hannibal
Hannibal was severe yet militarily successful; Scipio was humane, but a failure militarily.
Honesty vs. deception (Ch. 18)
Emulate both the fox and the lion.
Appearance of virtue
Being hated and overthrown (Ch. 19)
How to avoid being hated
How to avoid being overthrown
BRUTUS: AGAINST TYRANTS
King made by the people
People elect kings
God establishes kings, people confirm the selection through election
Kings need to remember that the people put them in power to bear the burden of the commonweath
All kings are elected, either the specific king or the bloodline
People above the king
Kings are Servants of the People
Ministers of the king vs. ministers of the kingdom
Ministers of the king:
Ministers of the kingdom:
Why Kings were first established
Kings are under the law
Royal authority based on contract
Two contracts with the king
Two contracts:
The people stipulate the terms, the king follows
Allegiance forced on the people by the king is invalid
Opposing tyrants
Two types of tyrants
Tyrant without title:
Tyrant by practice:
Justification for opposing tyrants
Identifying a tyrant
The duty of officers to oppose tyrants
How to oppose tyrants
GROTIUS: JUST WAR
Natural law
Sociability and the principles of natural law
Humans have a desire to live in peacefully in society with others
Stoics called this “sociability”
Animals too have this inclination, but humans alone act based on general principles
Laws of nature flow from this tendency to preserve society
Natural law and reason
Natural law involves things that are right and wrong their rational nature
Even God can’t change natural law since it would involve a contradiction
Natural Law unique to humans
Roman view of natural law and animals
God and Natural Law
Just Causes for War
Public and private wars
Public wars are declared by a public authority, private ones by private people
Private are the oldest, and form the basis of the other
Defense of life and property
Derived from self-defense
We have a right to defend our lives by killing the attacker
We have a right to defend our property by killing the attacker
These two rights, which apply to both private wars and public wars
Reparation for damages
Punishment
Unjust wars
Just Conduct in War
The just means and ends of war
Discrimination
Proportionality
Three justifications for destruction of property:
HOBBES: THE STATE OF NATURE AND SOCIAL CONTRACT
The natural condition (Chapter 13)
Equality of People
Slight inequalities in body and mind balance out
Body:
Mind:
Three causes of quarrel
Competition:
Distrust:
Glory:
State of war
Proof of the natural condition
Even now with laws we protect ourselves
Crit: there was not general war of all against all
Reply:
Nothing is unjust
Two cardinal virtues:
Three motivations toward peace
First and second laws of nature (chapter 14)
First law of nature
Definitions (all rooted in psychological egoism)
Right of nature:
Liberty:
Law of nature:
Law 1: seek peace as a means of self-preservation
Second law of nature
Law 2: contracts are reasonable
Mutually divest ourselves of hostile rights so to achieve peace
Other laws of nature (Chapter 15)
Law 3: Keep contracts that we make (justice)
Problem: selfish people will not always keep contracts
Solution:
Law 4: Gratitude: toward those who comply with contracts
Law 5: accommodation (complaisance): accommodating oneself to the rest
Law 6: cautious pardoning of those who commit past offences
Law 7: against cruel punishment
Law 8: against showing contempt: avoid direct or indirect signs of hatred or contempt of another
Law 9: natural equality: avoid pride
Law 10: against arrogance
Law 11: equity: be impartial
Law 12: Possessions
Law 13: mediation and arbitration
Other possible laws which are less important
Causes of the commonwealth (Chapter 17)
Commonwealth needed for protection
Why people are unsociable
Creating a commonwealth
To ensure contracts (and peace) power must be given to one man, or one assembly
Definition of a commonwealth:
PUFENDORF: NATURAL LAW AND SOCIETY
Need for society
Types of law
Divine:
Human:
Self-preservation
Unsociable human qualities
Foundation of natural law
Fundamental law of nature
“Every person ought to preserve and promote society, that is, the welfare of humankind”
Natural laws authored by God
Duties to god, self, and others arising from the natural law
The creation of society
Large communities not necessitated by human nature.
Disadvantages of living in large communities
Advantages of living in society
The Foundation of Government
Safety in numbers
Government needed to enforce the social contract
Two faults in human nature that keep prevent people from consistently agree to a public goal
Two covenants and a constitution
Covenant for people to come together and form a society
Constitution (or decree) to establish a form of government
Covenant to obligate the ruler to secure public safety, and the people to obey the ruler
Governments ordained by god
Alliances
Treaties of peace: reinforce duties of natural law
Examples:
Leagues: add something new to precepts of natural law
Equal:
Unequal:
LOCKE: NATURAL RIGHTS
Against the divine right of kings (Ch. 1)
Robert Filmer’s view
Locke’s criticism
State of nature and its laws (Ch. 2)
State of nature
Fundamental law of nature (four natural rights)
Law-breakers: each person has the authority to punish those who break the law of nature
Right to life: We retain our right to life unless we forfeit it by violating the rights of others
State of war (Ch. 3)
The innocent have a right to wage war against law breakers.
Includes a justification to kill
State of war vs. state of nature
A state of war can also emerge when someone harms us and a corrupt political system prevents adequate redress.
Slavery (Ch. 4)
Natural liberty
We cannot contract ourselves into slavery
We may forfeit our life and liberty
Drudgery
The Jews’ condition of drudgery
Definition of drudgery
Property (Ch. 5)
Mixing labor with what is held in common
We create private property when we mix our labor with an object held in common.
Acquiring land
Land is also acquired by mixing our labor with common land
Beginning of Political society (Ch. 8)
We form larger communities for the benefit of mutual protection, but in exchange for this we give up some of our liberty.
Dissolution of Government (Ch. 19)
Two ways of dissolving governments.
Violation of public trust.
Criticism: perhaps people will always be dissatisfied with a government and thus continually overthrow and replace it.
Locke’s response:
Criticism: permissiveness regarding insurrections may lead to all out civil war, and this is not justified.
Locke’s response:
HUME: THE ORIGINAL CONTRACT AND ARTIFICIAL JUSTICE
Against the original contract: allegiance based mainly on society’s necessity
Original contract in savage times
In primitive times, before writing, people formed governments through an unwritten contract for the sake of peace and order
Criticism:
The modern conception of an original contract
Standard modern (Lockean) view: all government, from earliest times, arose from the voluntary consent of the people who are in a natural state of liberty; their obligation to the government is conditional on the government’s fulfilling its role to maintain justice and protection, and revolution is justified when it doesn’t
Criticism:
No hereditarily binding contract
Standard response: the contract is an original one made a long time ago
Criticisms:
Societies founded by conquest
Elections no foundation of governmental allegiance
Elections are done either by a few influential people, by a frenzied multitude under a ringleader
Consent of the governed is rare
Consent is rare, and when it happens it is mixed with so much fraud or violence that it cannot have much authority
Obedience through fear, necessity, and acquiescence
No tacit consent because no real choice
Standard argument for tacit consent: by choosing to stay in a country one tacitly agrees to follow the government
Criticism:
Allegiance an artificial duty based on the necessity of society
Allegiance does not arise from a primary instinct like the love of children, gratitude to benefactors, pity to the unfortunate
Allegiance is an artificial duty, like justice regarding property and promise keeping
Against natural justice: property based solely on usefulness
Justice regarding property based solely on utility
No need for private property with abundance
No private property with extensive benevolence
No private property with extreme lack of necessities
Suspension of justice in situations of great crime and war
Justice arises from utility
Justice does not arise from instinct
Five reasons
MONTESQUIEU: SMALL REPUBLICS, LIBERTY AND SLAVERY
Advantages of small republics
Properties of republics
Small republics have a better chance of survival
Properties of a monarchy
Monarchies should be mid-sized
Properties of a despotic government
Large empire require a despotic authority to keep distant regions in line
Consequences:
The natural size of republics, monarchies, countries ruled by despotic princes
Protection through a confederate republic
Two disadvantages of republics:
Solution:
Confederate governments work best with republics
What Monarchies and republics tend toward
Political liberty
The general idea of liberty
Two kinds of liberty:
Different meanings of the word liberty
Deposing a tyrant, choosing a superior, right to bear arms, governed by a native of one’s own country
Liberty is confined by the laws
Political liberty does not consist in an unlimited freedom
Different aims of different governments
Different aims of different countries
Separation of powers to preserve liberty
Three branches of government
Legislative:
Executive:
Judiciary:
No political liberty when the legislative and executive branches are united in the same person (he can both enact and enforce a tyrannical law)
Slavery
Wrongfulness of slavery
Makes one man absolute master over the life and fortune of another
Inutility:
Three sources of slavery among Roman Citizens
Prisoners of war:
Criticism:
Selling oneself into slavery
Criticism:
Slavery from birth
Criticism:
Other criticisms of slavery
Origin of slavery from cultural differences
Cultural differences between conquers and natives led to slavery
Origin of slavery from cultural differences
Rulers conceded to slavery in part as a quick way to convert natives to Christianity
Absurd arguments for the slavery of the negroes
Other absurd arguments for slavery
Heat fatigue an absurd argument for slavery
Tasks of slaves performed by freemen
BECCARIA: ON CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
Intent of punishments (Ch. 12)
Prevention and deterrence
The purpose of punishment is to create a better society
Advantages of immediate punishment (Ch. 19)
Short imprisonment before a trial
Reason for swiftness
Association of ideas
Associationism:
The ideas of "crime" and "punishment" are best associated when punishment is swift
Mildness of Punishments (Ch. 27)
Certainty vs. severity
There is no need for severe punishments since swiftness of punishment deters the best
People adjust to increases of severity
Examples of cruelty:
The Punishment of Death (Ch. 28)
We don’t give up our right to life
Capital punishment is cannot be founded on the social contract
Forfeiture of rights is inconsistent with the view that we do not have the right to kill ourselves
Only one justification of capital punishment
Capital punishment does not deter
Advantages of perpetual slavery
Perpetual slavery combats religious repentance
Deters people from committing crimes when they are assured of eternal happiness through easy repentance
Harmful effects of the death penalty
It reduces people's sensitivity to human suffering
Overcoming the custom of the death penalty
Human history consists mostly of errors, with few truths
ADAM SMITH: CAPITALISM AND LIMITED GOVERNMENT
Benefits of free trade
Self-interest and bartering for necessities (1.2)
Humans need the cooperation for survival, unlike animals that live independently of each other
We get what we need “by treaty, by barter, and by purchase”
Domestic industry promoted through an invisible hand (4.2)
For the sake of their own security, people support domestic (as opposed to foreign) industry without intention or knowledge of doing so
Through self-interest, an invisible hand directs the betterment of society
Results of conscious efforts to promote domestic trade
Free trade and prosperity (4.5)
Carrying trade:
Britain’s prosperity does not owe to corn laws
First governmental duty: defense (5.1.1)
The military which protects “society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies”
Cost of military increases as civilization expands
Second governmental duty: judicial system (5.1.2)
The justice system protects every member of society from injustice or oppression by every other member
Rich vs. poor
Civil government isn’t necessary where there is no property (or none that exceeds two or three days labor)
Cost of justice system
Separation of judicial from executive branch
Otherwise people in power may sacrifice individuals’ rights to larger political interests
Third governmental duty: public works and institutions (5.1.3)
Unprofitable public works that are advantageous to society
Expenses differ based on different periods
Article 1: of the public works and institutions for facilitating the commerce of the society
Facilitating commerce in general
Good roads, bridges, navigable canals, harbors
Facilitating particular branches of commerce
Particularly government efforts to help protect British businesses (such as the East India company) in foreign places like India
Article 2: of the expense of the institutions for the education of youth
Educational institutions
Costs can be defrayed by fees that students pay their teachers, or through endowments
Article 3: of the expense of the institutions for the instruction of people of all ages
Religious instruction, which don’t make them better citizens but “prepare them for another and a better world in a life to come”
Publicly funded religion leads to religious persecution
Hume’s argument for state-funded religion
Criticism of Hume
Two state remedies to help block religious superstition in the many privately-funded religions
HAMILTON AND MADISON: FEDERALISM AND DOMESTIC FACTION
Federal union consistent with confederacy of republics (Federalist, 9)
Small republics waver between tyranny and anarchy
e.g., small republics of ancient and Italy
Advocates of despotism use these to criticize republican government and civil liberty
Improvements in governing have improved republicanism
New improvements in the science of government
Montesquieu’s view of confederated small republics
The benefit of confederacies in keeping the peace is not a new idea
Critics of confederacies often cite Montesquieu’s view of the need for a small republic
Hamilton’s response to critics
The true nature
Common distinction between confederacy and consolidation
Hamilton’s criticism:
Lycian Confederacy
Federal unions avoid faction (Federalist, 10)
The need for governments to control faction
A great advantage of a union is its ability to control faction
A common complaint about government is that it’s too unstable and “the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties”
Sources of faction
Definition of faction:
Two cures for faction
Property the main cause of faction
Several natural reasons for faction: e.g., “a zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government,”
But unequal distribution of property is the main cause
Controlling the effects of majority faction
Causes of faction cannot be removed; we can only remove the effects
Two ways of blocking majority faction:
Large republics control majority faction better than small democracies
A small faction cannot block majority faction, since the majority will be able to unite their ruling passion
Large republics can control faction through representation
Republics defer to elected representatives
Distinction between democracy and republic
Effects of having representatives
Republics have a better chance of avoiding factious representatives
Republics encompass more citizens and territory than democracies
In small democracies there is a greater chance of a majority forming with the intent of oppressing the minority
In large republics, a greater diversity of interests prevents the majority from oppressing the minority
EDMUND BURKE: POLITICAL CONSERVATISM
Two approaches to liberty
Dangers of abstract liberty
Liberty in action
Liberty in action is all that we can know about liberty
Liberties as an inheritance
Inheritance conserves and transmits
British liberty preserves “an inheritance from our forefathers”, beginning with the Magna Carta
Social change analogous to natural change
Change in the natural world preserves the past
Rights
Pretended rights destroy real rights
Real rights include the rights to live by the rule of law, the right of justice between people, the right to the fruits of their industry
Abstract rights are too simplistic
When a government limits people’s full liberties (through the social contract), it must have “a deep knowledge of human nature and human necessities”
True rights balance social interests
Rights occupy a middle ground
Religion the basis of civil society
Against atheistic critiques of religion
Revisions of religious institutions should not be done by atheists
Benefits of an established church
Importance of tradition
Tradition brings stability to law and education
Radical changes in government breaks the continuity of the commonwealth, and one generation cannot link with another
Society as partnership with the past and future
BENTHAM: UTILITY AND GOVERNMENT
Utility the standard of law
Reformation in morality
Knowledge is rapidly advancing
The principle of utility
“it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong”
Distinguishing Good and Bad Laws
The Utilitarian Calculus
The principle of utility
Seven factors
(1) intensity; (2) duration; (3) certainty; (4) remoteness, that is, the immediacy of the pleasure or pain; (5) fecundity, that is, whether similar pleasures or pains will follow; (6) purity, that is, whether the pleasure is mixed with pain; and (7) extent, that is the number of people affected
Applying the factors
Against the Original Contract
The assumed binding nature of contracts
People get used to the binding nature of contracts in general, without inquiring about its authority
Problem determining the king’s violation of his promise
The people still need to determine whether the king acts in opposition to their happiness
The King’s promise to secure happiness is not simply a promise to follow the letter of the law, as seen by four counter instances:
Obligation to govern and obey based on utility, not promise
The foundation of all promise keeping is utility (the benefit or disbenefit of keeping promises)
Validity of promise based on utility, not on the promise itself
Defenders of social contract say that the promise itself creates the obligation
Bentham’s response:
Against natural rights
Only legal rights are grounded in legislative facts
Ambiguity with the word “right”
Natural rights do not come from natural laws
Only legal rights exist
JOHN AUSTIN: POSITIVE LAW
Terminology
Three classes of law
Divine law
Positive law:
Positive morality:
Two meanings of morality
Morality which is good or worthy of approval
Morality which is without regard to goodness or badness (e.g., the morality of an age)
Three elements of law
Three kinds of authors of positive law
Monarchs, or sovereign bodies, as supreme political superiors
Men in a state of subjection, as subordinate political superiors
Subjects, as private persons, in pursuance of legal rights.
Confusing Positive Law with Morality as it Ought to Be
The dogma of legal positivism
“The existence of law is one thing; its merit or demerit is another. Whether it be or be not is one enquiry; whether it be or be not conformable to an assumed standard, is a different enquiry. A law, which actually exists, is a law, though we happen to dislike it, or though it vary from the text, by which we regulate our approbation and disapprobation”
Blackstone: human laws invalid when in conflict with divine law
Blackstone: all valid laws derive their force from divine law; “human laws are of no validity if contrary to them”
Austin’s criticism:
Danger of this view: this urges us to disobey laws by more compulsory motives
Blackstone: no valid right to a slave’s labor
Blackstone: a master cannot have a right to the labor of his slave
Austin’s criticism:
Paley: civil liberty identified with non-restraint from law
Paley: “Civil liberty,” he says, “is the not being restrained by any law but which conduces in a greater degree to the public welfare;”
Austin’s criticism:
Grotius: identifying actual international laws with natural laws
Grotus: conflates international laws as they actually are with the natural moral laws as they ought to be
Confusing positive law with positive morality
Roman jurists: identifying jurisprudence with knowledge of justice
Digest of Roman Law: “Jurisprudence,” says this definition, “is the knowledge of things divine and human; the science which teaches men to discern the just from the unjust.”
Austin’s criticism:
Mansfield: moral obligation is sufficient for a binding promise
English law: a binding promise must be have a specific motive
Mansfield: a promise is binding simply by involving a moral obligation
Austin’s criticism:
JOHN STUART MILL: LIBERTY OF SPEECH AND ACTION
Liberty in General (Chapter 1)
Tyranny of the majority
Political tyranny:
Tyranny of the majority:
The Principle of liberty
Governments may restrict a person’s liberties only when his actions harm other people, but not simply because that person’s actions harms himself.
Three kinds of liberty necessary for any free society:
Liberty of Thought and Discussion (Chapter 2)
Importance of controversial opinions
Benefits of allowing false opinions
Benefits of critiquing true opinion
Debates over true opinions are important to keep them alive (as opposed to a dead dogma)
Criticism: it makes no sense to say that truth prevails only when it is disputed
Reply:
Four benefits of freedom of opinion (i.e., “the mental well-being of humankind”)
Liberty of Action (Chapter 3)
People should be free to act (as well as be free to think) so long as their actions don’t cause public disruption
Permitting Privately Harmful Conduct (Chapter 4)
Obligations to society
We have social obligations in exchange for the protection that we receive from society
Benevolence:
Cannot coerce duties to oneself
When violating duties to oneself is punishable
Possible criticisms of freedom in private conduct
Criticism:
Criticism:
Responses to criticisms
Main principles and limitations
Main principles of this book
“The individual is not accountable to society for his actions, in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself”
Restrictions to self-regarding misconduct
Examples
ERRICO MALATESTA: ANARCHISM
The meaning of anarchy and state
Different meanings of “anarchy”
Proper meaning:
Different meanings of “state”
Precise meaning: government in its various institutions (political, legislative, judicial, military, financial)
Other meanings:
Anarchists should avoid using the word “state” and instead refer to the “abolition of government”
Typical justifications of governmental authority
The scope of governmental power
Government authority is based on a metaphysical illusion:
True governmental power
Exchanging liberty for protection
Main justification for government:
Governmental Oppression
Types of oppression
Directly:
Indirectly:
Creation of a ruling class
History shows that those in power create a privileged class to facilitate the economy, since the government cannot do it alone
Governments pretend to defend justice and equality
Governments assume the task of protecting society and providing essential services, but these tasks ultimately defend the rich
The “seesaw game”
Governments secure the conquerors the fruits of their victory
If there is always strife between people, then governments will always be necessary to secure to the conquerors the results of their victory
End exploitation by ending the government
The inevitable social conflict isn’t really between independence vs. social control, but, rather, a conflict involving one person oppressing another
Alternative to government
Social order through voluntary associations
The most important social functions take place without government
Public services best secured without government
Public services are first created by those with private interests, but then governments step in to control and exploit them
JOHN RAWLS: JUSTICE AS FAIRNESS
Thesis: if we ignore our actual advantages and disadvantages within society, we will arrive at two basic principles of justice that establish a base-level of equality and allow for unequal advantages only when they are to everyone’s benefit.
Different notions of justice
The fundamental idea in the concept of justice is fairness
Two principles of justice
Two principles stated
Two principles express the notions of “liberty, equality, and reward for services contributing to the common good”
Principle 1:
Principle 2:
Some inequalities permitted
Principle 2.a
Principle 2.b:
Original position
Conditions of rationality, mutual self-interest, similar needs
Regarding the success of proving the above principles:
Mutually self-interested:
Rational:
Similar needs:
Impartiality regarding one’s actual advantage
The people ignore their actual advantages and disadvantages within society when settling on principles of justice (veil of ignorance)
Motives to accept inequalities
In this situation, the people will arrive at the above two principles of justice
Several assumptions avoided
Regarding self-interest
Regarding constitutions
Regarding coming together the first time
Fairness
Fairness is fundamental to justice: the right dealing between people who are cooperating with or competing against one another