Introduction to Philosophy for SHS students

1. philosophy
The human person in the society
By
BRO. DIEUDONNE W. SAWADOGO, FSF, MPHIL
September, 2019.

2. The human person in the society
• “Every human being today is the subject of some state or another. Human beings, for whatever reason, have a
strong tendency to recognize themselves into a society, and these societies contain types of power structures
that will tendto qualifythemas a state.”
• What do some philosophers consider as the state of nature and the characteristics of the human being
without a state.
• theories about the state of nature according to some philosophers
• How are societies necessary for experiencing good life

3. Key Concepts
• The State of Nature: A pre-social condition. It is a hypothetical society prior to the existence of
the political society.
• The Social Contract: An agreement between (a) members of the community or (b) members
of the community and the Sovereign.
• The Sovereign: The legitimate head of state after the Social Contract: (a) a person or group of
persons, such as a monarch or a government, or (b) the people representing themselves.

4. i- Thomas Hobbes justificationof totalitarianism
• Human are equal by nature (same physical and mental power)
• No one is too smaller not to inflict harm to another and no one is too big
not to be maimed by anyone.
• They are equal so that no one can be spared from harm by anyone.
• This equality of power enables humans to desire for the same thing,
which result in competition, distrust, and pursuit of glory, which in turn,
cause war among them.
• In the state of nature, every one is at war with everyone because the
state of nature is the state of constant war among people.
• Nothing just or unjust, good or evil because there is no common power,
no law, therefore, no standard of what is just or unjust, right or wrong.
• Thus the State of Nature according to Hobbes is a dangerous place, and
“life of man “ is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

5. • According to Hobbes, the human condition in the state of nature is one of
survival: no education, no culture, no civilization, no progress, and worst, no
life, life was miserable.
• Human cannot endure this condition of war. For that, both their reason and
passion dictate that they leave that condition and establish a political society
in which they will agree to surrender their natural rights to the sovereignty
they would choose to govern them.
• Hobbes justifies the existence of the political society by referring to the
miserable human condition in the state of nature: Man entered into
government for Safety.
• He believed that humans are inherently bad because everyone is self-
interested
• If human are good by nature, there will be no war. Therefore, there is war is
war because human are naturally wolfish unto one another.
• If human are wolves, according to Hobbes, what form of government, then,
should be established?

6. HOBBES FORMS OF GOVERNMENT
• If human are wolves according to Hobbes, a Leviathan (a state with
absolute power) is necessary in order to rescue peace and order in
the society.
• He suggests that a strong political society with absolute power must
be established in order to keep all the people in fear for their own
protection.
• For that strong society to be established, there is a need for the
people to come together and enter into social contract to establish a
political society and choose their sovereign to whom they will
surrender all their natural rights and empower him to rule them.
• Once they agree, to enter into political society, they will cease to
exercise their absolute natural rights and start abiding by the will
and commands of the sovereignty.

7. • Hobbes argues that for the sovereignty to command absolute
obedience from all the people, he should possess all the powers of
the government.
• The legislative, executive, judicial, military and even religious power
should be vested in him.
• These powers should be vested in the sovereignty to avoid division
of power to enable the Leviathan to rule absolutely so that all the
people will obey him absolutely.
• He gives preference more was on the Monarchic government calling it
as a
• According to him, Monarchy guarantees stability and uniformity
which actually helps in preventing from falling into any chaotic
situation in any type of country having this particular form of
government best form of government.

8. What about human liberty
• According to Hobbes, liberty is a luxury in the condition of war.
• Liberty is the main cause of the miserable human condition in the state of
nature, a condition that people try to escape by establishing a political
society.
• For him, the stability of the society can no longer afford to give back
humans their natural liberty
• Liberty of thought, of expression, of religion… have no place in Hobbes’
society because people may use these liberties to criticize, disobey and
attack the sovereign that may lead to revolution, which in turn, may lead
to the destruction of the society, returning back to the state of war, to the
very condition that the political state tries to avoid.
• If any liberty exist, it is what the sovereign allows people to do. In other
words, there is no human liberty in Hobbes’ political society.

9. The type of society fromHobbes theory
Totalitarian society
It is a society in which the way of life of the people (thoughts,
readings, deeds, courses, career) are controlled by the
government.
It is a society were all the powers (legislative, executive, judicial)
are in the hand of only one person or group of persons.
People in such a society is called subject not a citizen.
No checks and balances

10. Ii- John loke’s justification of democracy
• In the state of nature, there is a natural law that governs the
actions of the people who are themselves rational and free.
• As rational they know the article of the natural law. As free
beings, they can do anything they want in accordance with the
natural law.
• No one among them is master, no one is slave. All are equal.
• In the state of nature everything is like paradise.
• However, ther are three things lacking:
No written law
No impartial judge
No common power to execute the article of the natural law.

11. No written law
• The article of the natural law are too broad to be applied to
specific cases.
• And not everyone is capable of discovering the article of the
natural law that commands specific obligations
No impartial judge
• No impartial judge who is empowered to decide on controversies.
• While people are rational they are not always objective and
impartial in their judgement when they themselves or relative are
involved in controversies.
• Thus, there is a need for an impartial judge tasked to resolve
controversies among the people.

12.  Lack common power
There is no common power to execute the articles of the natural
law.
People may know the natural low and they may decide on
controversies impartially.
But individually they have no power to enforce what is right.
Thus there is a need for common power to obligate people to
abide by the article of the natural law.
Because of this, the state of nature that seems to be a paradise at
first has become state of war similar to that of Hobbes’.
For that reason, there is a need for people to enter into a political
society in order to address the inconveniences.

13. • Since people are free in the state of nature, no one can be forced to enter
into the political society without his consent.
• It is only through the people consent that the human being can enter into
a political society.
• To achieve this, the people have to give their consent to two social
contracts:
First contract: Contract between people themselves to establish a
political society to address the three inconveniences in the state of nature
Therefore, the political state is established to form a government tasked
to
- Enact the written laws (legislative power)
- To settle actual controversies among people (judicial power)
- To enforce the law (executive power)

14. Second contract: contract between the people and the government
 The people agree to obey the government on condition that it protects their
rights to life, liberty and property.
 On the other hand, the government agrees to protect people’s right to life,
liberty and property on the condition that people abides by its commands.
 This second social contract places the people and the government on equal
footing.
 A breach on the part of people will mean deprivation of their life, liberty and
property.
 A breach on the part of the government will mean removal from positions of
its officials or the of the government.
 Therefore, the second social contract recognizes the powers of the people
being the true sovereign ones.
 Its officials are simply the representatives of the people to whom they entrust
some of their power and who are accountable to them

15. Loke’s formof society
• Locke’s political society is the opposite of Hobbes’ political society.
• While Hobbes justifies totalitarian society and authoritarian government,
Locke justifies democracy
What is democracy?
Form of society where the “sovereignty resides in the people and from
whom all government emanates.”
It is “the government of the people, by the people, and for the people”
A democratic society is a society of free people, whereby, people enjoy
various kinds of liberties which are protected by the constitution, the
supreme law of the land.
Liberty of thought, of expression, of religion, to own a private property,
of abode and travel, to enter into contract, etc.

16. Iii- JeanJacques Rousseau’s concept of the general will
“Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains”, says Rousseau.
In other word, humans are free and not free at the same time.
This statement talks about two human conditions:
The human condition in the state of nature and the human condition
in the corrupt society.
• In the state of nature, that is, in primitive condition, human were free
• In the corrupt society, human were deprived of this freedom.
Unlike Hobbes and Locke who regard human as capable of reason in
the state of nature, Rousseau conceives human as a noble ape-like
savage.
The reason is that they have no ability for rational thinking, they are
not moral but they are harmless and compassionate.

17. They are asocial but not selfish, incapable of causing war, not
even peace. They are naturally good.
Apart from being an ape-like noble savage, human in the state of
nature are essentially free.
They can do whatever they want since there is no power above
them to demand obedience from them.
In the state of nature, there is no society to define what is right
or wrong, just or unjust. They are not beholding to anyone or
institution, not even to the family.
In the state of nature, human are free but such freedom was
deprived by illegitimate institution established by those who had
vested interest in the society.

18. What gave rise to this condition
• The culprit, according to Rousseau, was the institutionalization of private
property.
• In the state of nature, no private property and the person who first said,
“this is my property” was the real founder of political society according to
Rousseau.
• When humans started to claim private properties, they needed to protect
them by establishing the political society.
The society and all the institutions were then established purposely to
protect the properties, the haves and the powerful.
Private properties and personal riches were institutionalized and all sort of
rules were created to legitimize this set-up which result in social
inequalities, which in turn, resulted to deprivation of human freedom.
Hence, “man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains”

19. • Natural freedom was replaced by political freedom that were actually shackles
(restraints) of slavery by institutions established illegitimately by those who were in
power.
What should be done according to Rousseau?
There is no return to the state of nature.
The task is to establish a political society that recognizes human freedom
Since human are free, political society can only be legitimately founded based on
the consent of the people
Therefore, the problem of the political society is “to find a form of association
which may defend and protect with the whole common force of the community,
the person and property of every associate, and by means of which each,
coalescing with all, may nevertheless obey only himself, and remain as free as
before”. (Rousseau, 1967, 17)
Rousseau’s political society has therefore two purposes:
To defend and protect the life, and the goods of each member
To protect and promote people’s liberty

20. What formof association will realize these purposes of the political society
To realize it, each person must be united with all so that he
can be protected with the whole common force
This unity must be an absolute unity, a unity of individual
will
People’s wills must be reduced into only one will, which
Rousseau calls The General Will.
The General Will is the will of the collective body of people,
the will of people as an association.
It emanates from the collective subject, the people as one,
which tends to promote the universal good.

21. Being a member of the body politic, a person must always take into
consideration the general will.
In making decisions, a person must ask two questions:
Can my decision be universalized?
Will my decision promote the common good?
 When the person’s answers to both questions are “yes”, then he is in
accordance with the General Will.
Why should the person act according to the General Will?
Because it is only in acting in accordance with the General Will that the
person acts freely.
Freedom is not the act of doing anything a person wants.
It is not doing what the Government commands, unless what the
Government commands is in accord with the General Will.

22. • The former is natural freedom and it is slavery to the person’s
passion and appetite
• The latter is political freedom and it is slavery to the government.
Real freedom is moral freedom according to Rousseau.
Moral freedom is attained when a person is no longer a slave to
his appetite and passion,
When he obeys no one except himself
This is (Copleston, 1994). possible when the person acts in
accordance o the General Will
• When a person acts in accordance to the General Will, devoid of
any personal interests, he obeys no one except himself because
the General Will is actually each and every person’s real will.

23. • If a person follows the General Will, which is actually his own will,
then he follows no one except himself.
• He is therefore, a master of his own choices and this is moral
freedom.
• Moral freedom is a kind of freedom which is possible only in a
political society legitimately established by the people who freely
give their individual consent and who allow themselves to be
bound by the General Will (Copleston, 1994)
Thus for Rousseau, to be a member of the political society is to be
absolutely bound by the General Will.
To be bound by the General Will is to be morally free.
To be morally free is human’s greatest achievement, which is
possible only in a political society

24. EFFECTS OF THE SOCIAL CONTRACT
• Hobbes: People will live in peace but without rights except for the right to self-defense
• Locke: The three natural rights which exist in the State of Nature will be easier to enforce
by the government. Those who have given express consent will be bound by the contract;
those who have given tacit consent can opt out and leave.
• Rousseau: Life will be fair for all if we employ the general will and set aside our personal
interests.