Political Philosophy Summary PHI2183 Winter 2013 Pauley Idurot 6465167 Platos Republic

In The Rebulic, Plato, speaking through his teacher Socrates, sets out to answer two questions. What is justice? Why should we be just.? Book 1
Definitions of Justice Cephalus - Definition: Living up to your legal obligations and being honest. - Counterexample: returning a weapon to a madman. o Jeopardizing the lives of others. - Spokesman for the Greek Tradition Polemarchus - Definition: You owe friends help, and you owe enemies harm o Underlying imperative of rendering to each what is due and of giving to each what is appropriate. This imperative will also be the foundation of Socrates principle of justice in the later books. - Inconsistencies o Judgement concerning friends and enemies is fallible. o Lead us to harm the good and help the bad. o Incoherance in the idea of harming people through justice. Thyrasymachus - Sophists campaign to do away with justice, and all moral standards. - Not much of a definition but a delegitimization of justice. - Justice is nothing more than the advantage of the stronger. o It does not pay to be just. o Just behavior works to the advantage of other people, not to the other person who behaves justly. o assumes that justice is the unnatural restraint on our natural desire to have more. o Justice is imposed on us and it does not benefit us to adhere to it. o The rational thing to do is ignore justice entirely. - Socrates makes Thrasymachus admit that he is promting injustice as a virtue.

Socrates concludes that injustice cannot be a virtue because it is contrary to wisdom, which is a virtue. o Injustice is contrary to wisdom because the wise man, never seeks to beat out those who possess the same skill.

Socrates - Understands justice as the adherence to certain rules which enable a group to act in common. - He argues that since it was agreed that justice is a virtue of the sould, and virtue of the soul means health of the soul, justice is desirable because it means health of the soul.

Book 2 Part 1
Glaucon - Goods can be divided into three classes o Things that we desire only for their consequences. Physical training and medical treatment. o Things that we desire both for their own sake and for what we get from them. Knowledge, sight and health. o Things that we desire only for their own sake Joy and the highest class. - Most people class justice among the first group. o View justice as a necessary evil o Allow ourselves to suffer in order to avoid the greater evil that would befall us if we did away with it. o Justice stems from human weakness and vulnerability We can all suffer from each others injustices. We suffer under the burden of justice because we know we would suffer worse without it. - Justice is not practiced for its own sake but something one engages in out of fear and weakness. Thought Experiment A man is given a ring which makes him invisible. With the possession of the ring, the man can act unjustly without the fear of getting caught. Glaucon claims that even the most just man would behave unjustly if he had this ring. - This tale proves that people are only just because they are afraid of punishment for injustice. - Noone is just because justice is desirable in itself. Glaucon (continued) - demonstrates that not only do people prefer to be unjust rather than just, but that it is rational for them to do so. - The perfectly unjust life is more pleasant that the perfectly just life. o The unjustman, who indulges all his urges, is honored and rewarded. o The completely just man is scorned and wretched.

Adeimantus - Claims that noone praises justice for its own sake but only for the rewards it provides - Requests Socrates to show that justice is desirable in the absense of any external rewards. o justice is desirable for its own sake, like joy, health, and knowledge.

Book 2 Part Two

Socrates - There are two kinds of political justice. o Justice belonging to a city or state. o The justice of a particular man. - Introduces the foundational principle of human society. o The principle of specialization. States that each person must perform the role for which he is naturally best suited and that he must not meddle in any other business. Notion that humans have natural inclinations that should be fulfilled. - Socrates builds the perfect city 1. Healthy City Governed only by necessary desires. There are only producers Producers only produce what is necessary for life. Glaucon calls this city, city of pigs. Points out that people also have unnecessary desires and 2. Luxurious City City with a fever Once luxuries are in demand, positions like merchant, actor, and poet are created. Wealth will lead to wars, Therefore, a class of warriors is needed to keep the peace within the city and protect it from outside forces. Producers cannot act as warriors because that would violate the principle of specialization. Socrates calles these warriors, guardians. - Guardians o Must develop the right balance between gentleness and toughness. o Must be carefully selected. o Guardians should be spirited, or honor-loving, philosophical or knowledgeloving, and physically strong and fast. o Education of guardians. Stories told to young guardians-in-training must be closely supervised. Stories shape a childs soul. Stories must always represent the gods as wholly good and as responsible only for what is good in the world. o Otherwise, children will grow up to believe that bad behaviour is permissible and even admirable. Gods cannot be represented as sorceres who change themselves into different forms or as liars.

o Otherwise, children will grow up without a proper reverence for truth and honesty. Analysis - The soul, like the body, can have both a healthy and unhealthy state. - This state is determined by what the soul consumes and by what it does. - If you surround a soul with unwholesome influences, the soul will gradually take these in and sicken. - Plato will also dictate what will be allowed into the cultural life of the city as a whole. - Plato rules out all poetry, exception of hymns to the gods, and places restraints on painting and architecture. o These aesthetic sacrifices must be made for the sake of education. o Transforms the unhealthy luxurious city into a pure and just city. - We focus on the education of the guardians because we are focusing on the good of the city. o We are interested in what will affect the city as a whole. o The education of the producers will not necessarily affect the good of the city as a whole.

Book 3 Part 1
Socrates - Highlights the importance of guardians not fearing death. o Heroes must never be presented as fearing death or as preferring slavery to death. o Like the gods, heroes must always be portrayed as honest. - The correct love between a boy and a man. o Warns against any sexual intercourse. o Should not involve an erotic element. o Only a pure sort of love. - Training of the guardians o Should resemble the sort involved in training for war. o Not the sort that athletes engage in. o Emphasizes the importance of the proper balance between music and poetry with physical training. Too much training will make them savage. Too much music and poetry will make them soft. - Medical Training o Doctors should be trained to treat the healthy. o Should not be trained to deal with the chronically ill. o People with incurable physical disease should be left to die naturally. o Those suffering from an incurable mental disease should be put to death.

Book 3 Part 2
What does love have to do with education?

o Eros, or proper love, is the emotion that motivates us to ascend to the heights of knowledge. o True knowledge has as its object, the realm of the Forms, the universal, eternal truths that only our mind can access. o Eros provides the emotional motivation for studying. o Plato believes that all action must be motivated by some desire or emotion. o Eros is the bridge between the physical world and the intelligible. Plato explains that love should not focus primarily on physical pleasure. o Sexual intercourse is serving to be useless. o Heterosexual intercourse must be tolerated for procreation. o Homosexual intercourse only servces the fulfillment of physical pleasure. Since it is useless, it cannot be good or beautiful. Whatever is not good or beautiful should be avoided. The health of a mans soul is determined by the desires he aims to fulfill. o A just soul is a soul that pursues the right desires. o Desire for physical pleasure is not worth fulfilling. o One must not try to satisfy his lust for physical pleasure. o Instead, turn that erotic desire into a longing truth and goodness.

Book 3 Part 3
Socrates introduces the third and final class of the just society: rulers. o The best of the guardians will be chosen out as rules and only they will be called guardians. o The rest will remain as warriors and will be called auxiliaries Role is to aid rulers by carrying out and enforcing their decisions. o The selection of the rulers Guardians in training are closely observed. Undergoes through various tests. Those who do best in these tests will proceed on to higher forms of education that will prepare them to rule.

Book 4 Part 1
Glaucon points out that being a ruler sounds unpleasant. o Has no private wealth. o Can never take trips, keep a mistress, and do other happy things. Socrates responds that the goal of the city is to make sure that the city is happy as a whole. o One group cannot be happy at the expense of another. The city will have no wealth or poverty since there will be no money. Socrates limits the size of the city. o Might not be governed well under the current system. The Just city has no use for laws. o Guardians will be in a position to decide any points of policy that arise. o Everything that is a matter of law can be left to the judgement of the rulers. City is now complete.

o Because this city is created to be the best city possible, w o We can be sure that it has all virtues: Wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. Wisdom lies with the guardians because of their knowledge of how the city should be run. Courage lies with the auxiliaries. o Only their courage counts as a virtue of the city because they are the ones who must fight for the city. Moderation and justice are spread out over the whole city. Moderation is identified with the agreement over who should rule the city. Justice, is its complement the principle of specialization, the law that all do the job to which they are best suited.

Book 4 Part 2
Justice in the individual involves the correct power relationship among parts, with each part occupying its appropriate role. o These parts are not classes of society but aspects of the soul, or sources of desire. There are three parts of the soul. o Rational part lusts after truth. Dominant in the guardians. o Spirited part lusts after honor. Most prominent among the auxiliaries. o Appetitve part lusts after everything else. Includes food, drink, sex and especially money. Most prominent among the producing class. Just relations between the three parts of the soul mirror just relations among the classes of society. In a just person, the rational part of the soul rules the other parts, with the spirited part acting as helper to keep the appetitive in line. What it means for one part of the soul to rule the others is for the entire soul to pursue the desires of that part. In a just soul, the soul is geared entirely toward fulfilling whatever knowledge-loving desires reason produces. We tend to think of justice as a set of actions, but Socrates claims that justice is really a result of the structure of the soul. o A person whos soul is in the right arrangement will behave according to the intuitive norms of justice. Socrates points out that since our just person is ruled by a love of truth, he will not be in the grips of lust, greed or desire for honor. Socrates concludes: o A just soul is a soul with its parts arranged appropriately, and is thus a healthy soul. o An unjust soul, by contrast, is an unhealthy soul.

Summary: Socrates idea of justice boils down to harmony. Justice is based on the principle of the specialization principle, where everyone do the job which they are best suited for.

John Lockes Second Treatise on Civil Government

Chapter 1 and 2 State of Nature
Locke reiterates his arguments from the First Treatise: o Adam was NOT given absolute authority over the world and his children by God. o Adams heirs, therefore, did not have this authority. o No one can claim rights since it is impossible to identify Adams heirs today. One must not confuse different types of power: paternal, familial, and political. o Political power: the right to make laws for protection and regulation of property. State of Nature: a state of equality in which no one has power over another and all are free to do as they please. o However, this does not mean that people are allowed to abuse others. o Each individual in the state of nature has the power to execute natural laws, which are universal. o Locke states that natural law simply demands that punishment fit the crime. Locke concludes that all people are in a state of nature until a special compact or agreement between them makes them members of a political society.

Chapter 3 and 4 the State of War and of Slavery War: a state of enmity and destruction brought about by one persons premeditated attempts upon anothers life. Law of self-preservation: a person may kill another person in self-defense. o Rests upon the presumption that any aggression by one person against another constitutes a challenge to that persons freedom. State of nature and state of war are not the same. o State of nature involves people living together, governed by reason, without a common superior. o State of war occurs when people make designs of force upon other people, without a common authority. The attacked party has a right to war. Force without right is adequate basis for the state of war. Difference between war in Society and war in Nature depends on when it concludes. o Society: war ends when the actual force is over Both parties can then resort to the common authorities for arbitration. o Nature: war does not end until the aggressive party offers peace and reparations for the damage done. The innocent party has a right to try to destroy the agressor until then. In the presence of a common authority that fails to act justly, the only possible state is the state of war.

o Because the authority in place to stop the war is itself in violation of the laws of nature and justice. A major reason people enter into society is to avoid the state of war. o The presence of a supreme power limits the necessity for war and increases stability and security. Natural liberty: a persons right to be ruled solely by the laws of nature. Social liberty: the right to be under no legislative power other than that founded by the consent of the commonwealth, functioning for the commonwealths benefit. Slavery (Lockes idea) idea that freedom from arbitrary, absolute power is so fundamental that even if one saught to, one could not relinquish it. o It is impossible to enlist into slavery voluntarily. State of slavery is the extension of the state of war. o Between a conqueror and a captive. o Captive has been forced into obedience.

Chapter 5 Property The earth can be considered the property of people in common to use for their survival and benefit. Question: if the earth and everything on it is the common property of humankind, how does one come upon individual property? For individual property to exist, there must be a means for individuals to appropriate the things around them. Property of person: each person owns his or her own body, and all the labor that they perform with the body. o When a person adds their own labor, their own property, to a foreign object or good, that object becomes their own. Appropriation of goods does not demand the consent of humankind. o Each person has license to appropriate things by individual initiative. Acquisition: a person may only acquire as many things in this way as they can reasonably use to their advantege. o If I take too many apples as I can eat before they go bad, I have overextended my natural rights of acquisition. o One can only take so much as one can use. With too much acquisition of something, one may trade another for something else.

Chapter 6 and 7 of Paternal Power and of Political or Civil Society All people are born with an equal right to freedom. Paternal power extends until the child grown old enough to function independently within socity. The commonwealth at this age attributes the responsibilities and duties of an adult to a person who reaches this age of rediness. o Reason leads to personal freedom. Political power and paternal power are totally different. o People are free of paternal power when they are old enough to function as individuals.

o Political power is built on wholly different foundations. Conjugal Society between a man and a woman. o The master and mistress of the household have power over everyone in that household. o Power is neither absolute (lack the power of life and death) nor political. Civil Society: a united body of individuals under the power of an executive that protects their property and well being, and designs legislation to govern their behavior. o The commonwealth combines the legislative power to make laws and executive power to enforce laws. o The difference between this and the paternalistic society, in which people are born into filial obligations that then extend throughout their adulthood, is significant. Absolute monarchy violates these principles. o Places no common authority over all. o Monarch can impinge on peoples property and welfare without fear of retribution. o People lack the comfort, protection and incentive to contribute to the good of the commonwealth. o To prevent such an imbalance of power: Legislature and executive must be placed in a collective body. No individual is exempted from or above the laws of the commonwealth.

Chapter 8 and 9 Of the Beginning of Political Societies and Of the Ends of Political Society and government Locke argues that the governing factor in civil society must be the majority. By entering into civil society, the individual submits him or herself to the majority and agrees to abide by the rules and decisions of the majority. Since people are all born under some government, they are not in fact free and at liberty to unite together to change that government. o Lockes response: Although someone may bind himself to a given government, he cannot bind his children. They are born free and must make the decision themselves. Consent makes any one a member of any commonwealth. Nature lacks three very imporant things, all of which a just civil society provides. o An established, settled known law. o A known and indifferent judge. o The power to back and support the sentence. In order to gain these three things, people must relinquish their natural rights. o Includes the right to do as they wish within the bounds of the law of nature. The power to punish crimes committed against natural law. o The first right is partially given up by submitting oneself to the laws of civil society. o The second right is given up totally in favor of putting oneself under the protection of the executive power of the society.

Locke finishes by noting that this system is contingent on the three characteristics of civil society mentioned above. o A law o A judge o And an executive working to no other end, but the peace, safety, and public good of the people.

Chapter 10 and 11 Of the Forms of a Commonwealth and of the Extent of the Legislative Power Upon entering into a commonwealth, the majority gets to choose their form of government. Democracy: they retain the legislative powers for themselves. Oligarchy: they submit that legislative power to a few select persons. Monarchy: they give power to a single person. o Monarchy may be hereditary or elected. The majority always has the power to change types of government. The placement of legislative power defines the type of government since legislative power is the supreme power within a civil state. Rules of legislative power o Noone may pass laws of their own. o All such power is invested in this body by the majority. o Every member of society must adhere to the laws laid down by the legislative body. o The legislation must govern by fixed promulgated established laws that apply equally to everyone. These laws must be designed solely for the good of the people. The legislative must not raise taxes on the property of the people without the peoples consent.

Chapter 12 Of the Legislative, Executive and Federative Power of the Commonwealth Despite its importance, there is no need for legislature to always be in session. Not necessary to have a constant flow of new laws. Legislature only needs to be active or in session at certain times. The executive must always be active to enforce laws passed by legislature. All of the individuals forming the civil state and their government come together to form a single body. o This body is in a state of nature with respect to other states. Federative power: the natural power in charge of the states international relations and notes that it is often conjoined with the executive power.