History of political thought

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For the journal, see History of Political Thought.
"History of political philosophy" redirects here. For the textbook, see History of Political Philosophy.

The history of political thought encompasses the chronology and the substantive and methodological changes of human

political thought. The study of the history of political thought represents an intersection of various academic disciplines, such as philosophy, law, history and political science.[1]

Many histories of Western political thought trace its origins to ancient Greece (specifically to Athenian democracy and Ancient Greek philosophy). The political philosophy of thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are traditionally elevated as exceptionally important and influential in such works.[2][3][4][5]

Non-Western traditions and histories of political thought have, by comparison, often been underrepresented in academic research.

Islamic political philosophy.[9]

The study of the history of political thought has inspired academic journals,[10] and has been furthered by university programs.[11][12]

Ancient political thought

China

From around 770 BCE, China began to experience a time of peace and prosperity, which allowed the rise of the so-called Hundred Schools of Thought, the most influential of which was that of Confucius.[13] His thinking was firmly based in traditional Chinese worldview, which saw the values of loyalty, duty, and respect as paramount.[14] He believed that people and society can be improved by reciprocal treatment through moral example set by a leader embodying these virtues, as society would then respond to such good leaders by emulating them.[14] He encapsulated this by saying that:[14]

"If your desire is for good, the people will be good. The moral character of the ruler is the wind; the moral character of those beneath him is the grass. When the wind blows, the grass bends."

For this to work, however, society had to be ordered hierarchically, modeled after the patriarchal family. and headed by an absolute sovereign.[14] However, Confucius also believed the state should employ a meritocratic class of administrators and advisers, recruited by civil service exams.[15] Among later Chinese thinkers, Mozi agreed with his ideas of meritocracy and leading by example, but opposed the family-model of governance with the belief that it would be nepotistic.[16] Mencius, however, championed his ideas later on.[16] An alternative Chinese philosophy called Legalism argued that instead of virtue, authoritarian discipline was crucial for the governance of the state.

Greece

The origins of European political thought are in ancient Rome and Greece. Starting in approximately 600 BCE, thinkers in these societies began to consider questions of how to organize societies, as part of their more broad considerations of ethics and how to live the good life.[13]

In the intellectual golden age of the fifth-century Athenian democracy, Plato had the freedom to develop his ideas, although he nevertheless despised democracy, alongside all other then existing form of government.[17] This was because Plato believed that the state should promote the virtues necessary for good living, but thought the existing political arrangements of monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy all promoted the interests of the people in power, who were ignorant of those virtues, and instead would only pursue honour and wealth, leading to conflict and injustice.[18] To correct this, Plato proposed in the Republic for philosopher kings, who would know how to achieve the good life, to be in power instead.

India

In

the end justifies the means, and that after using the best means available to defeat their enemies, rulers should "substitute [their] virtues for the defeated enemy's vices, and where the enemy was good [they] shall be twice as good".[20]
Prior to him, Manu wrote about similar topics in his Manusmriti.

Post-classical political thought

Europe

The early-

City of God is an influential work of this period that refuted the thesis, after the First Sack of Rome, that the Christian view could be realized on Earth
at all – a view many Christian Romans held.

In the

Islamic attitudes in that the Western church similarly subordinated philosophy to theology. Perhaps the most influential political philosopher of medieval Europe was St Thomas Aquinas, who helped reintroduce Aristotle's works, which, with the exception of the Politics, which was translated directly from Greek to Latin by William of Moerbeke, had only been preserved by Muslim scholars, along with the commentaries of Averroes. Aquinas's use of them set the agenda for scholastic
political philosophy, which dominated European thought for centuries.

In 1215, the Magna Carta introduced the concept of constitutional rights, such as habeas corpus.

Islamic World

Further information: Political aspects of Islam

The rise of

Asharite
view of Islam had in general triumphed.

Imamah are considered proofs of political thought. The clashes between the Ehl-i Sunna and Shia
in the 7th and 8th centuries had a genuine political character.

The 14th century

Arab scholar Ibn Khaldun is considered one of the greatest political theorists. The British philosopher-anthropologist Ernest Gellner considered Ibn Khaldun's definition of government, "an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself", the best in the history of political theory.[21]

Modern political thought

Renaissance

During the

Medici family. At any rate, Machiavelli presents a pragmatic and somewhat consequentialist view of politics, whereby good and evil are mere means used to bring about an end, i.e. the maintenance of political authority. Thomas Hobbes, well known for his theory of the social contract, goes on to expand this view at the start of the 17th century during the English Renaissance
.

John Locke in particular exemplified this new age of political theory with his work Two Treatises of Government. In it Locke proposes a state-of-nature theory that directly complements his conception of how political development occurs and how it can be founded through contractual obligation. Locke stood to refute Sir Robert Filmer's paternally founded political theory in favor of a natural system based on nature in a particular given system.

Age of Enlightenment

Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People (1830, Louvre), a painting created at a time where old and modern political philosophies came into violent conflict.

During the Enlightenment period, new theories about what the human was and is and about the definition of reality and the way it was perceived, along with the discovery of other societies in the Americas, and the changing needs of political societies (especially in the wake of the English Civil War, the American Revolution and the French Revolution) led to new questions and insights by such thinkers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu and John Locke.

These theorists were driven by two basic questions: one, by what right or need do people form states; and two, what is the best form a state can take. These fundamental questions involved a distinction between the concepts of 'state' and 'government'. It was decided that 'state' would refer to a set of enduring institutions through which power would be distributed and its use justified. The term 'government' would refer to a specific group of people who occupied the state at any given time, and created the laws and ordinances by which the people, the government included, would be bound. This conceptual distinction continues to operate in political science, although some political scientists, philosophers, historians and cultural anthropologists have argued that most political action in any given society occurs outside of its state, and that there are societies that are not organized into states which nevertheless must be considered in political terms.

Political and economic relations were drastically influenced by these theories as the concept of the

nation-state
, which also (in a fashion the Roman Catholic Church often decried angrily) preached in the vulgar or native language of each region. These ideas did not spread to cultures outside of Europe until considerably later.

Industrialization

Karl Marx and his theory of Communism, developed with Friedrich Engels, proved to be one of the most influential political ideologies of the 20th century.

The

Marxism-Leninism and put into practice in the Soviet Union and later the Eastern Bloc. During the Cold War, this line of thought would further result in Maoism, Ho Chi Minh Thought, Hoxhaism and Titoism
.

As industrialisation enabled the rise of colonialism, this was accompanied by the ideology of Imperialism. Later, anti-imperialist ideologies would counter this, such as Gandhism and Nasserism.

See also

References

  1. doi:10.1093/gerhis/ghr126
    .
  2. ISBN 9780039102838
    .
  3. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199238804.003.0051
    .
  4. ISBN 0203980743
    .
  5. ISBN 978-93-528-6934-3
    .
  6. ISBN 9780192595355
    .
  7. ISBN 0761967877
    .
  8. ISBN 0203751698
    .
  9. ISBN 9780691134840
    .
  10. ^ "History of Political Thought on JSTOR". www.jstor.org. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  11. ^ "History of Political Thought Project". Princeton University. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  12. ^ "MA in the History of Political Thought and Intellectual History". Queen Mary University of London. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  13. ^
    OCLC 828097386
    .
  14. ^
    OCLC 828097386
    .
  15. OCLC 828097386
    .
  16. ^
    OCLC 828097386
    .
  17. OCLC 828097386
    .
  18. OCLC 828097386
    .
  19. OCLC 828097386
    .
  20. OCLC 828097386
    .
  21. ^ Ernest Gellner, Plough, Sword and Book (1988), p. 239
  22. Malaspina University College
    . Retrieved 2007-02-20.

Further reading

  • Collins, Jacob. The Anthropological Turn: French Political Thought after 1968 (U of Pennsylvania Press, 2020) online book review

External links

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