Notes on "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 10

For episode 9 see here

 The Theory of the Universal Community

 X. Seneca and the Fathers of the Church
    A. Seneca wrote in the early days of Empire
    B. Reflects despondence of a Rome in social and political decline 
    C. Good man can do nothing through political office and such offices
         have little to offer good men
     D. Duty of the good man is to offer moral or religious virtue, to become
          the teacher of mankind
       1. offered strength and consolation in this world
       2. turned toward contemplation of spiritual life
       3. beginning of split between religious life and politics
     E. Religious institutions begin to form along side state
     G. State no longer seen as highest agency of moral perfection 
     H. Seneca saw innocent Golden Age, a state of nature
      I.  For him, government and law are an ethical second-best and as a cure for
           the sinfulness of civilized man
      J. Rise of Christian Church as distinct institution to govern spiritual
          concerns of men was revolutionary
       1. Religious doctrine of salvation was neither philosophy nor political theory
       2. Philosophy of early Christians not unlike Stoics  
          i. law of nature
          ii. providential government of the world
          iii. obligation of law and government to serve justice 
          iv. equality of all men before God
       3. Added obligation to respect constituted authority, as derived from God,
          not the people
          i. respect due institution, not merely the person of the ruler
          ii. But unlike Roman law, it was necessary to suffer bad ruler as he came
              from God and not the people
          iii. Yet obligation to God higher than obligation to the state
       4. Christianity split what for pagans was a unity -- that the duties of
          morality and religion met in the state
       5. Led to problems of church and state (which made possible liberty)
       6. Church and State were to be mutually interdependent with the Church
          the superior partner
     K. Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory
       1. Dealt not with systemic philosophy of Church and State but with
         immediate pressing problems
       2. Ambrose -- 4th Century AD
          i. strong statement for autonomy of the Church in spiritual matters
          ii. taught and converted Augustine
       3. Augustine -- 5th Century AD
          i. transmitted ancient thought to Middle Ages
          ii. Saw human history as dominated by contest between earthly city
              (lower human nature) and the City of God
          iii. through earthly life, however, the two cities are mingled
          iv. true commonwealth must be Christian as only such a state is just
       4. Gregory -- pope, father of the medieval papacy
          i. obedience to ruler extended to passive obedience to wicked ruler
          ii. ruler had power even to do what was unlawful, providing he was
             willing to risk damnation
       5. The Two Swords
          i. Church held spiritual interests and eternal salvation which was the
           province of teaching by clergy
          ii. State held temporal authority, maintenance of peace, order and
           justice
          iii. between the two a spirit of mutual helpfulness ought to prevail
       6. Universal Christian society was the Empire and the Universal Church,
       7. Split laid the ground for the right of (spiritual) freedom
 

Next week: The Folk and Its Law  

Notes on "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 9

For episode 8 see here

 The Theory of the Universal Community

 IX. Cicero and the Roman Lawyers

  A. Known [Western] world soon to be under single political rule like
       Mediterranean
       1. Melting pot became single community
       2. No politically self-conscious nations 
       3. Stoic ideas of world-state, natural justice and universal citizenship
           became common property of all educated men
       4. World ruled by God, father to human who were therefore brothers
  B. Development of these ideas followed two lines
       1. embedding of "natural law"into Roman jurisprudence
       2. development of religious implications of law and government rooted in
           plan of Divine Providence
       3. little political theory done systematically
  C. Cicero not original but very widely read
       1. Wrote to bring Rome back to Republican virtues but failed
       2. Most important contribution was to give statement of Stoic doctrine of
           natural law universally known in the West through the 19th century
       3. Natural law arose from fact of God's providential government of the
           world and from rational and social nature of human being which makes
            them akin to God
           i. In light of this law, all men are equal

"Indeed Cicero goes so far as to suggest that it is nothing but error, bad habits
  and false opinions that prevents men from being in fact equal." (164)

           ii. Equality is moral requirement rather than a fact, contrary to Aristotle
       4. State is a moral community, the res publica, or affair of the people 
       5. Membership in the state is common possession of all its citizens, as is its
           advantages of mutual aid and just government.  Thus:
           i. its authority arises from the collective power of the people
           ii. political power when rightfully and lawfully exercised is corporate power
              of the people (and only to be exercised by law)
           iii. state itself and the law is subject to God, in effect to moral or
               natural law
   D. Roman lawyers
       1. Classical period of development of Roman jurisprudence , repetition and
           elaboration of Cicero in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries AD
       2. Speaking in terms of right and justifiable powers (legalistic argumentation)
           remained a generally accepted method of political theorizing
       3. Positive Law was seen as approximation to perfect justice and
           definition of the right, lawyers seen as "priests of justice"
       4. Emperor's will has force of law because people transfer to him their
           power



Next week: Seneca and the Fathers of the Church


 

Notes on "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 8

Continuing recording here notes made in grad school on A History of Political Theory by George Holland Sabine.  

For episode 7 see here to begin from the start see here

The Theory of the Universal Community

VIII. The Law of Nature

 A. The passing of Aristotle, and the city-states, is the only sharp break in the

      history of Western Political Thought

       1. Continuity since then

       2. Theory of natural law goes from Stoics down to the revolutionary

           doctrine of the Rights of Man

 B. Man cut off from the life of the polis and left to live in a new, enlarged

      and impersonal social union

 C. After Aristotle, philosophies tended to become vehicles for ethical

      instruction and consolation

       1. Took on characteristics of religion

       2. Religious feeling grew

       3. Result of new impersonal world

 D. Distinctions between citizen and other lost usage 

"Political thought had, therefore, two ideas to make clear and to interweave into a common scheme of values: the idea of the individual, a distinct item of

humanity with his purely personal and private life, and the idea of universality, a  world-wide humanity in which all are endowed with a common human nature. (143)

 E. Greek notions (Aristotle) of two essentials of citizenship, relations

      between equals and voluntary loyalty to lawful government, were

      reworked to become part of Western consciousness 

 F. Chrysippus the Stoa gave Stoicism form last quarter of Third Century BC

       1. Idea of concord between Greeks and from the east

       2. Theory of Kingship

       3. Result of Alexander's Empire and its breakup

       4. Divinity of king seen as the best way of achieving unity and

           homogeneity of the state and legitimize his rule

       5. Gave positive moral meaning to idea of a world state and universal law

       6. Made achieving self-sufficiency and individual well-being an ethical

           imperative

       7. Taught self-sufficiency by rigorous training of the will

       8. Virtues were resolution, fortitude, devotion to duty and 

           indifference to solicitations of pleasure

       9. Sense of duty re-enforced by religious training -- the duty of every

           man to play well the part assigned by Divine Providence

          i. Man and nature seen as one

          ii. Man shared in the rationality of God, who animates nature

          iii. Right reason is the law of nature

          iv. All men are equal under God (reason), but most are fools not wise

       10. Saw law of the city as customary law and inferior to the law of the world-

           city which is the law of reason

          i. Customary law of several cities combined under a king became the

           common law

          ii. Law of reason is higher that customary law and a separate standard

             of justice

          iii. Law of reason provided an appeal to equity in the

             elaboration of common law

       11. Resulting in part from criticism by the Skeptic Carneades, Stoicism

          underwent reform at the end of the 2nd Century BC

          i. Went back to Plato and Aristotle

          ii. Became less logical but more urbane in appeal and more attractive to

              Roman aristocrats

          iii. Became a philosophy of self-control and public devotion which

               appealed to the Romans

          iv. Ideal of a world-city was of use to idealize Roman conquest

          v. Reason became law for all men, not only the wise

          vi. Contact between Polybius and Panaetius with the Roman Scipionic

               Circle

 G. Scipionic Circle

       1. Brought Stoic thought to bear on earliest studies in Roman jurisprudence.

       2. Roman Law enlightened by inclusion of ius gentium (common law) that

            grew alongside civil (or ceremonial) law based on good business practice

       3. ius gentium coalesced with ius naturale of the Greek Stoics as translated

            into Latin

Next week: Cicero and the Roman Lawyers

  

Notes on "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 7

For episode 6 see here.

Theory of the City-State

VII. The Twilight of the City-State
 A. Plato and Aristotle had little immediate influence of contemporary political 
      thought 
 B. More influential at the time was protest against the conception of the good
     life as participation in the life of the polis
 C. Individual self-sufficiency became the basis of the good life
 D. Plato and Aristotle both failed to take note of the effects of foreign relations
       on the Greek city-states
        1. City-states constantly balancing between isolation and inter-dependence
          on question of self-sufficiency
       2. Conflict and inability to work together left them open to outsiders
 E. Faced with decline of importance of city-state, two resulting philosophic
          moods:
       1. Withdrawal -- Epicureans and Skeptics
       2. Withdrawal and protest -- Cynics
       3. Represent questions about first principles(as embodied in Plato and
          Aristotle)
 F. Epicureans
       1.  Aimed to lead students towards individual self-sufficiency
       2. The good life seen to consist of enjoyment of pleasure
           i. Avoidance of pain, worry and anxiety
           ii. Congenial friendship, withdrawal from public life
           iii. The good, privately enjoyed
       3. The state formed solely for the sake of obtaining security
           i. Man essentially selfish
           ii. So they make tacit agreement with each other to leave each other be
       4. There are no moral imperatives
       5. Hobbes not unlike Epicureans
 G. Cynics
       1. Reject the lifestyle, virtues and social distinctions of the city-state
       2. Wise man should be completely self-suffcient
       3. Morality was living with nature according to reason and caring for others
       4. Involved a kind of equality of nihilism and anarcho-communism

For further reading on ancient (Greek) philosophy, I can recommend the classics from my grad school days (before the days of political correctness about Western Civilization):

The Discovery of the Mind: The Greek Origins of European Thought by Bruno Snell

History of Ancient Philosophy by W. Windleband

Greek Political Theory: Plato and His Predecessors by Sir Ernest Baker

And for how the Greeks became the Greeks:  The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East by Robert Drews


Next week: The Theory of the Universal Community: The Law of Nature


Dedicated this week and every to grandson William, who arrived today.