1. POL 530 CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL THOUGHT
How Political Philosophy is defined?
A combination of political factors, beliefs, and natural talents
Phillip Mitchell
12/20/2015

2. Political philosophy is defined by five different attributes which determine how a person
develops his or her own principles to establish how ordered behavior is arranged inside political
systems to provide political thought and other analytical interpretations for analyzing the
different aspects of political behavior inside a political system. These five attributes are known
as national identity, nationalism, political attitude, political culture, and political attitude
determine the basis of all political thought and ordered behavior to analyze how citizens develop
their own principles or values (set of ideas) inside political systems (O’Neil, 2010, p. 322, 323).
For example, inside a nation (group of people bound together by a common set of beliefs or
political aspirations) lays a form of national identity or (a sense of pride and prestige that
provides a sense of belonging to a nation and a belief in its political aspirations or ideals), which
determines how nationalism (pride) is achieved in the form of political destiny to determine how
principles and values are distributed (O’Neil, 2010, p. 322). This means that political destiny is
determined by political culture (basic norms of political activity in society) which determines
how ordered behavior operates creating different political attitudes or views for regarding
political changes in a given society: which affords how political ideology or basic values are held
by individuals with fundamental goals of politics or the ideal balance of freedom and equality to
practice their visionary aspirations for how political destiny is determined inside government
(elites or leadership structures in charge of running the state) (O’Neil, 2010, p. 320, 323). In
essence, this means that political destiny is shaped by a set of common beliefs among men inside
a given culture to determine how freedom and equality are practiced to determine how fate and
other fundamental goals of politics are distributed inside political systems to form a sense of
pride and accomplishment in creating functional government to share men’s views.

3. As mentioned previously, political philosophy is determined by men’s intellectual
instincts. This was noted by Aristotle, who argued men use their intellectual gifts or natural
abilities to forge common bonds and create animal-like habits inside a State (territorial region) to
create the conditions for survival to afford the best characteristics for establishing a form of self-
sufficiency that men could use to operate inside a Commonwealth (political institution known as
the State) (Rosen & Wolff, 1999, p. 10, 11). As noted, intellectual gifts create the opportunity for
men to establish ordered political behavior inside a political system to determine how authority
(knowledge, natural ability, or experience makes it rational for people to choose their
subordinate position to another individual or group) inside a political system to understand how
alliances are structured in terms of distribution patterns to determine how people and power are
structured to produce the best government possible for their situation (Belle & Mash, 2010, p.
402). In sum, political philosophy is a combination of men attributes and animal-like habits
which are fused together to create an imperfect moral being in the form of a national sovereign
that affords men protection and allows natural instincts to be rewarded in terms of structuring
how the elites and leadership of government function.
In illustrating this imperfect moral being, men have different views and philosophies for
how government should be shaped. For example, my political beliefs are shaped by the idea that
the tools of government can be used in a positive way to shape the lives of citizens inside
political systems for the better to create the conditions for mortal beings to live together in
harmony; to create the conditions for glory by determining how war and peace can coexist
together inside a political system to create sustainable political institutions and afford the best
elite (government) possible by creating the most functional Commonwealth possible to create
Leviathan and its sovereign aspirations and attributes to reward men’s natural gifts and other

4. instinct-like talents (Rosen & Wolff, 1999, p. 11-14, 56-58). In addition, this means that my
political philosophy overtime has been consistent with that of Hobbes, because I also believe that
men have unique talents and attributes to afford a political system in terms of determining the
rules, political institutions, ordered liberty, and behavioral functions between institutions, men,
and government to produce the strongest type of political system. This type of Commonwealth
(government or national institution) would be a reform liberal political system that creates
accountability for how political institutions function on behalf of men not oligarchs or other few
factions inside society. To produce this type of institution, the best political system possible one
could apply Hobbes’ vision of self-sufficiency, in the sense that political institutions must have
self-triggering mechanisms to control ordered behavior to afford men their natural protection and
proper talents to provide equality and justice throughout society to produce the utmost functional
and stable form of government there is to reward the talent’s of men inside political systems to
proper represent men’s views and instincts.
In conclusion, this type of philosophy or idealist idea in the form a reform liberal style
political system implies that government has positive liberty tools at its disposal to produce the
right behavior or conditions for men inside society to reward men’s gifts and talents of labor,
capital, and land to produce an equal appreciation for its created national sovereign as well as
individual liberty rights guaranteed to it by the Commonwealth it lives in. Finally, this type
Commonwealth would have built-in policy tools to produce the utmost representation of men
inside a political system and reward its talents and attributes for sacrificing some of its power to
create a national sovereign or authority to make sure all men are afforded the same opportunity
as less fortunate men to create the utmost level of justice, mutual admiration, and equality to
produce unilateral fairness throughout the political system. This would produce the most

5. efficient and effective political system to create the right conditions for all men to succeed
throughout the course of his or her life.
References:
Rosen, M. & Wolff, J. (1999). Aristotle: The State Exists by Nature. In Political Thought (Eds.),
p. 10, 11. Oxford Readers, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press
Rosen, M. & Wolff, J. (1999). Thomas Hobbes: The Misery of the Natural Condition of
Mankind. In Political Thought (Eds.), p. 11-14. Oxford Readers, Oxford, New York: Oxford
University Press.
Rosen, M. & Wolff, J. (1999). Thomas Hobbes: Creating Leviathan. In Political Thought (Eds.),
p. 56-58. Oxford Readers, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
O’Neil, P.H. (2010). Essential of Comparative Politics: States, Nations, and Society. Third
Edition, p. 21-75, 320, 322, 323. University of Puget Sound, New York, New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, Inc.
Belle, D.A.V. & Mash, K.M. (2010). A Novel Approach to Politics: Introducing Political
Science through Books, Movies, and Popular Culture. Second Edition, p. 402. Washington, D.C.:
CQ Press