Introduction to Political Theory by M. Curtis analysis, Great Political Theories Vol 1

1. History of Political
Thoughts
Lecture 3
Prepared by Raizza Corpuz

2. Objectives
1. Introduce students to Greek
political philosophy and evolution
of politics
2. Introduce students to the idea of
state and citizenship

3. The Greeks
Section 1 : M. Curtis
Prepared by Raizza P. Corpuz

4. • Political Philosophy began in
Greeks.
• Important civilizations: Egyptian,
Hebrew, Persian, Hittite
• Greek science owes a
considerable debt to Babylonia.

5. The Fragments in Political Nature
and Political Problems:
1. Written code of law
2. A tribal God
3. God as the source of political authority
4. Bureaucracy (System of Gov’t)
5. The nature of the absolute ruler or despot
(there are no systematic or exhaustive
expositions).

6. • Politics was inseparable from life in
the polis, a city possessing common
habits, military strength, a myth of its origin,
its own God and religion and citizens.
• The Athens had a great art and literature
• The Academy and Lyceum- put great
stress in education and proclaimed the
value of government, its history of military
aggression and intolerance, and economic
based slavery.
• The polis contained a community, the sole
source of authority, dedicated the purpose of
achieving good life.

7. HOW TO ACHIEVE A GOOD
LIFE?
• Through individual participation in
communal affairs, a duty the individual
voluntarily accepted and which was
desirable both for the community and for
its own development.

8. OBJECTION:
• the creation of social balance and
harmony, which meant not totalitarian
control but a reconciliation of individual
differences need to end anarchy.

9. • The best kind of self-realization and
society was the goal: doing well or living
well was the aim of inquiry and action.
• Politics, therefore, became a proper
subject of inquiry, a process concerned
with the meaning of:
nomos- law and custom- and with the
wisdom of social organization.

10. Sophists
• The first important group of political
thinkers
• The teachers who created subjects by
inventing definitions and concepts, and
who were paid for teaching them.
• Not endowed with university chairs, not
attached with a particular culture or polis.
• They traveled every where to deliver their
lectures, helping their students to
practical success.

11. • Versatile in their interests, they introduces
cosmopolitanism, skepticism, and free
thinking, education for all and academic
freedom
• They taught Sophia, the wisdom, knowledge
and skill is necessary conduct
• The important thing of all is the study of
MAN
• According to Protagoras “man is the
measure of all things”
• According to Gorgias, the proper study of
mankind is Man
• Gorgias, Protagoras, Prodicus, Hippias, and
Trasymachus

12. Ideal State and Model
CItIzenS: anCIent GreeCe
and ItS PhIloSoPherS:
SoCrateS, Plato, and
arIStotle.

13. Socrates (470-399 B.C)
• Known for being a drinker and his love of
inquiry
• He wrote nothing himself
• For Plato: Socrates was the great example
of intellectual prepared to discuss , the
man always prepared to discuss, the
professor who sought not to profess, the
teacher who refused to indoctrinate, who
aimed to make men THINK.

14. • His method is through dialectical process
of question and answer. (Q and A)
• He criticized the Sophists as a group for
professing false knowledge, in not
penetrating sufficiently the significance of
the subjects they were treating.

15. Socrates on Politics
• no particular beliefs on politics but did
object to democracy, but disliked its
Athenian form.
• Basically, he objected to any government
that did not run on the basis of his ideas of
perfect governance
• His pursuit of virtue and his strict
adherence to truth clashed with the
course of Athenian politics

16. PLATO
• The greatness of the teacher is best
shown by the caliber of his students
• Student of Socrates an Aristocratic
Athenian (427-347 B.C)
• Founder of the 1st
college, the Academy in
388, the first systematic political theorist
• Plato was the founder of the first college,
The Academy, in 388 and was a student
of Socrates

17. • concerned himself with fundamental
questions like:
a.the meaning of justice
b.the right kind of life
c.the makeup of the human personality
d.the purpose of political association.
• describes the state as necessary to meet
the needs of every individual.

18. • believed the Athenian ideal of all citizens being
involved in politics was ineffective; he believed
ruling was a craft needing a group of trained
rulers.
• believed that wisdom in the state is vital, and
that wisdom comes from those who lead.
• thought that elders (Guardians) should have
authority and does what is best for the state,
with younger men “auxiliaries” to enforce the
rules of the elders.

19. • Guardians should have no earthly
possessions and should live in a
communal fashion, sharing meals
together.
• Guardians should not have wives either,
and upon the finding of a Guardian to
have more than he should then he shall
be sent back to the general population.

20. The three elements of the
soul
1.Courage-warrior
2.Reason-ruler
3.Appetite - referring to
satisfaction of physical
desires) (laborer)

21. THE REPUBLIC
• main contribution to political science is its
sui generis emphasis on the role of ideas,
values, and ethics in politics
• Division of LABOR of man
No one has ever surpassed Plato in insisting
upon the moral urgency and centrality of
political vision---- Wolin (N.D)

22. • A state comes into existence because no
individual is self-sufficing, we all have
many needs.

23. Aristotle
• A cool dispassionate, moderate observer, the
empirical investigator of political institutions and
behavior
• He thus created an exhaustive analysis of
existing constitutions and political science.
• He believed that change is teleological,
movement toward the natural, predetermined
end.
• The end of man’s action was happiness, which
is achieved by moderation, in its wealth, size, its
constitution, and its ruling group.

24. • The end of the state is self-sufficiency
achieved through moderation, in its
wealth, size, its constitution, and its ruling
group.
• Man and state were linked together
• Man was by nature a political animal who
reached perfection and became civilized
as a citizen.
• The state was a natural phenomenon to
reach man’s end, end to provide good life

25. Aristotle is concerned with the best
form of POLITICAL ASSOCIATION or
CONSTITUTION
• His emphasis was the need for:
constitutional stability- to be secured by
stable foundation of economic power, by
education and breeding-the great virtue of
the good polis.

26. Aristotle’s Politics
• Man is a political animal :
– Highest form of human fellowship is in the
state
• Three good forms of constitution:
– Monarchy NOT tyranny
– Aristocracy NOT oligarchy
– Polity (Democracy) NOT mob
Zoon Politikon – Man is a
Political Animal

27. Thus, Aristotle
• believed in a government that worked for
the common good through realistic means
• attainable and promoted the common
good for all citizens through the
supremacy of the LAW
• increasing the number of rulers decreases
the chances of a virtuous state

28. POLITEIA
• ideal is hard to achieve, and even harder
to sustain the same as Utopian society
• Thus, Aristotle advocated a form of
mixed government, or
"politeia", in which all citizens "rule
and are ruled by turn", and power is
monopolized by no particular class.

29. Politeia
• (πολιτεία) is an ancient Greek word used
in Greek political thought,
• Derived from the word polis ("city-state"), it
has a range of meanings, from 'the rights
of citizens' to a 'form of government'.

30. The function of the government
guarding the
• common interest of the people of the state
and helping them with moral and
intellectual virtue which is happiness.

31. ARISTOTLE
• His emphasis was the need for
constitutional stability- to be secured by
stable foundation of economic power, by
education and breeding-the great virtue of
the good polis.

32. REFERENCES
The Great Political Theories Volume
1.
M. Curtis, 1981 P. 22-101