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POLS130 - Political Theory
Tuesday, February 3rd
Plato’s Biography
● Devoted student of Socrates ○ Many of his writings connected to Socrates ○ Socrates was deemed exceptional because he was captivating, thus meaning he had the ability to capture people's attention which is the basis of influence. ● Inciting meaningful inquiry, stopping people in the town square and asking insightful questions. ○ National identity: what is it rooted in? Who determines it? Can you depart from it and still respect or function in their nation? ○ What's the meaning of life? Why do they care about money? ○ The questions disrupted existing orders. The basis of their nation was flawed and couldn’t stand up to critical questioning as a result. So, anyone who inspires people to ask these questions poses a threat to their flawed nation. ● Capital T - Truth
Historical context
● INSERT WRITTEN NOTES
Plato’s Apology
General ● Socrates is not humble. ● Employs the Socratic method in his own trial. He cross examines those questioning him using his own beliefs as a foundation. Why was Socrate’s work a threat? ● Disrupting social order ● Challenging nation identity ● Disrupting shared beliefs
Plato’s charges: ● Corrupting the youth ○ Threatened to disrupt the social order they already had ○ Contextually: ● Impiety ○ Worshipping false gods ○ Introducing the idea of alternative faith and inquiry ● What is a nation? ○ Benedict Anderson: A nation is an imagined community.
Quotes: ● “False gods of honor and money—What kind of life is worth living, worth preserving?” (154) ○ Articulates in so many words he’s God’s gift to humanity ○ Persistent and undying ○ Virtue signaling ○ Address the claim of piety by saying he does his work because it “is what god orders me to do, and I think there is no greater blessing for the city than my service to the god.” ○ Insinuates that others aren’t acting towards the full favor of the god. He’s an intermediary that trumps those who try to judge him as he’s close to god. ○ Describes his thought process. His thought hierarchies; something is the most important and something is the least. ■ Opinion vs knowledge distinction, capital T - Truth ○ Nobody is immune to his judgement and advisement ● The Gadfly and the Horse
General Notes
● When we discuss treason, in any nation, what is the individual's actual offense? Who determines the offense? What social order or social contract did they offend?’
Thursday, February 5th
ABSENT
● ABSCENT
● Today, fortunate. Tomorrow, ruined. ● Fate, fortune is a common theme in Machiavelli's writing.
Letter to Francesco Vettori by Machiavelli
Quote: “When I leave the wood I go to a spring, and from there to check my bird-nets. — I am no longer afraid of poverty, or frightened of death. I live entirely though them.” ○ Reflection of his experiences ○ Discourse of fate ○ Gather insight from passerbys in the end ○ Staying critically engaged: collecting information from the people in the inn (day) → the reading of renowned authors (night) ○ Parallel of food
The Prince by Machiavelli
● Major concept: virtu and fortuna ○ Virtu : A set of skills, capacity, "Qualities of princely excellence” - Machiavelli. Nothing to do with morality ○ Fortuna : Fortune, good or bad luck ○ Virtu and fortuna interact to make up politics. You can have all of the virtu you need but poor fortuna could render them incapable of maintaining or affecting political power. ● Fundamental purpose of the book: a handbook to detail political power ; everything in the reading should be considered the lens of acquiring and maintaining power. ○ Modern significance: Teaches entrepreneurs, investors, politicians and anyone wanting power how to do it. ● There is a fundamental dependence amongst classes (political, economic, etc.) in politics ● There was a belief that there was nothing to be learned from others. The political order was fixed, things are what they are and nobody can disturb it. ● Quote : “I hope it will not be thought of as presumptions for someone of humble and lowly status to dare to discuss the behaviour of rulers and to make recommendations regarding policy. — and in order to properly understand the behavior of rulers one needs to be a member of the lower classes.” ○ Context: this is one of the earliest challenges rendered to ruling individuals, previously a completely foreign concept ○ From alternative perspectives (whether the hill or valley) you are able to understand different think ○ Reminiscent of Common Sense by Thomas Paine ○ Insinuates the the King is too out of touch to be effective ○ Challenges authority ○ Bestows too much power (thought, leadership, etc.) on the people
○ Undermines the pronounced divine right of nobility to be noble. ● Quote: “There is a general rule to be noted here: People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge: but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure some, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance. ○ Who should be crushed or caressed? Why do they fall into that category? Is it clear? ○ This operates under the assumption that all people have a role to play. Either they are coming for your throat or waiting at your aid, but either way they aren’t idle beings. ○ Eliminate the possibility of revenge, eliminate any capacity for influence.
Tuesday February 17th
Hobbes Biography
● Thomas Hobbes (1588 -1679) ● Not idealist ● English Civil War ○ Monarchy vs the forces of Parliament ● Modernity, the Age of Reason - (Events: The Renaissance, the Reformation, the Discovery of the New World) ● Darker side of Enlightenment - Slavery, Colonialism, Racial Inequality ● Social contract ○ Levianthan is one of the earliest documentations of this discourse
How to Read the Leviathan + Notes
● Read in staunchly different ways ○ A defense and restoration of the monarchy ■ Parliament argued that Hobbes restored the rule of one, under a different rationalization ○ Justification for popular sovereignty and new form of liberal self-governance ■ Worked hand-in-hand with aristocrats, but his work eventually began challenging the ideals they stood for and under which they were able to rule ● Attempting to create a new, civil science which we now understand to be political science ● Contextualization, things that contributed to Hobbes’ writing: ○ Netwonian physics ○ Scientific revolution, intellectualism
