Notes on "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 20

For episode 19, see here

The Theory of the Nation State

XX. England: Preparation for Civil War
 A. Lines between rival political ideas not clearly drawn in early 17th Century
      England.
       1. No need to support royal absolutism with the theory of divine right.
       2. None had to seek theoretical defense for right to resist.
 B. Thomas Moore's Utopia (1516) was political satire expressing dislike of 
      growing acquisitive society.
       1. Harked back to Platonic conception of community of cooperative
           classes.
       2. Illustrated "looking back" from coming economic age.
 C. Richard Hooker argued that Puritan refusal of obedience to establish church
      was denying all political obligation.
       1. Reason was accepted universally as soon as it was understood.
       2. Law of reason was manifestly binding on all men.
       3. Man cannot satisfy all their needs in isolation and therefore form society.
       4. Ground of political obligation is common consent by which men agreed
           to be ordered by someone.
       5. Society could never withdraw its consent to authority it has set up after
           the fact.
       6. Ecclesiastical law of England not contrary to Christian faith and therefore
           binding -- as was all law -- upon all Englishmen.
 D. Calvinists and Catholics objected to royal supremacy in the Church as an 
      invasion of it's spiritual independence.
 E. Independents split church from state, seeing the former as a voluntary
     association.
 F. Erastianism of John Seldon saw the relationship between religion and the
     king in utilitarian, secularist and rational terms not common or typical
     for times.
 G. King, courts and Parliament each seen as having inherent powers, none
      claimed supremacy until the civil war.
 H. First conflict between king and courts over royal prerogative.
       1. Francis Bacon defended the right of the King to overrule the courts.
       2. Chief Justice Edward Coke argued for supremacy of common law over
           the King and Parliament.
      3. Coke saw law as indigenous growth within the realm that defined all
          rights and obligations.

Next week:  Thomas Hobbes


     

Notes on "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 19

For episode 18, see here

The Theory of the Nation State

XIX The Modernized Theory of Natural Law
 A. Political philosophy released from association with theology in early 17th
      Century.
       1. Possible because gradual recession of religious conflict,
       2. Gradual secularization of issues of political theory,
       3. Secularization of intellectual interests bought on by the spread of
           scholarship to antiquity,
       4. Progress in mathematics and physical sciences.
 B. Althusius -- Calvinist, anti-royalist
       1. Separated jurisprudence and politics in reaction to Bodin
       2. Based natural society on contract
           i. contract explained relations between ruler and ruled (contract of
            government)
           ii. also explained existence of any group whatever (social contract)
       3. State is built up from series of contracts of lesser social groups 
           down to the individual level
       4. Sovereignty resided in the people as corporate body and could not
           be alien to it
       5. Government holds power for the sovereign
 C. Grotius -- Natural Law
       1. On the state, less clear than Althusius
       2. Importance was on conception of law regulating relations between
           states
       3. Sought to base common (natural) law in pre-Christian thought
       4. Argued against view of natural justice as motivated by
           self-interest and therefore merely a social convention
           i. appeal to utility is ambiguous since man is inherently social
           ii. maintenance of society is a major utility
           iii. peaceful social order is intrinsic good and conditions required
             for it just as binding as those which serve private ends
           iv. certain conditions or values must obtain if society is to persist
             and are thus necessary to man's nature
           v. these natural conditions are the basis of positive law of states
           vi. natural law no more arbitrary than arithmetic
       5. His attempt to rigorously ground reason part of move toward 
           "demonstrative" systems of philosophy
       6. Natural law seen as basis for social and philosophical geometries

Descartes' method (427): "resolve every problem into its simplest elements; proceed by the smallest steps so that each advance may be apparent and compelling; take nothing for granted that is not perfectly clear and distinct."

 D. Natural Law was introduction of normative element into law and politics.
 E. Contained possible ambiguities not immediately apparent.
       1. Differences between factual truth and logical implication
       2. Ambiguity between logical and moral necessity
       3. Critical analysis of these awaited Hume
 F. Unity of system based on some general agreement on what was
       important to insist on:
       1. Obligation to consent
           i. meant there were two parts to political theory -- contract and state
             of nature
           ii. this implied two contract, one as basis of the community and one 
             between the community and governing officials
       2. Human well-being required enlightened intelligence
       3. Middle class notion of individual human nature
       4. Society seen as mode for man not the other way around
       5. Relations in society less real than the individuals in themselves

Next week:  England: Preparation for Civil War
             


 

Interlude: Ex nihilo nihil fit

Wisdom is the highest goal of man; our knowledge as such is obscure, but it is illumined by searching.

Xenophanes in Bruno Snell’s The Discovery of the Mind: The Greek Origins of European Thought

Some 2500 years ago, having moved beyond the anthropomorphic religion of Homeric Greece, the Greek Pre-Socratic thinkers began seeking to understand reality through reason and observation. They were doing science in the sense of trying to explain the fundamental facts of existence according to logical standards and the kinds of observational tools then available. They sought to explain two basic elements of reality, that anything exists and the process by which things change.

Heraclitus saw only change: “Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.... It is in changing that things find repose.” For him, the universe was uncreated, it always existed, coming apart and back together again. He saw fire – the most visible form of energy – as the principle force of change, as could be seen in the cool becoming hot and the wet, dry.

Parmenides and the Eleatic School made central the logical claim that nothing can come from nothing. Parmenides, like Heraclitus, saw no reason to explain existence as “to be is possible and not-to-be is impossible.” The Eleatics saw the universe as unique, uncreated, unchanging and unbound. They argued that if the universe was bound in space or time, that would mean that it was not unique. If it was not unique, it could not be the universe. The Eleatics denied the existence of change. Zeno used various paradoxes of logic to argue, for example, that things cannot move as “if anything is moving, it must be moving either in the place in which it is or in a place in which it is not” and neither is possible.

Despite the Eleatics, the fact that things appear to change needed explanation. Empedocles accepted the monist view of reality: the universe is singular and unbounded. He pictured it as a circle containing the All. But while the underlying reality is unchanging, the four basic elements – fire, air, water and earth – produce change by combining and separating driven by the opposing forces of Love (philia) and Strife. Anaxagoras developed this approach further by positing a universe made up of an infinite number of particles of all possible qualities while “in everything there is a portion of everything else.” In the original cosmos, all these fundamental particles already existed but were mixed and therefore left the total without quality. Mind (nous) set them in motion and caused them to be separated into what now exists.

In their answers to the questions of why anything exists and how things change, the pre-Socratics said everything that we can logically say. The cosmology of Empedocles and Anaxagoras could be read as an early premonition of our modern version. Our understanding of reality includes seemingly unchanging fundamental particles and forces making up the changing observable. Love and Strife can be read as Gravity and Dark Energy, one pulling matter together and the other pushing it apart. More generally, the essential dynamic of everything that exists – natural and human – can be seen as either a coming together or a coming apart.

It was while reading Empedocles that I went back to reconsider the modern theory of the creation of the universe from the Big Bang. The Big Bang theory essentially explains nothing. Literally. It does not and cannot explain where whatever it was that went “bang” came from. Ex nihilo nihil fit, nothing can come from nothing. Further following the Eleatics, it is not possible to understand the universe as expanding since that would require space to expand into. Modern cosmology seeks to sidestep this by positing that space itself expands as the surface of a balloon expands as it’s pumped up. (Where does it expand into?) Or perhaps our universe is one of many in some higher dimensional multi-verse. (And in what space and from where does that come?) Obviously, these too explain nothing.

That the universe exists, that we exist, must mean that something always existed. That the universe seems to be expanding may be better understood as an unchanging totality without boundaries of time or space. Everything that exists – in the “past, present or future” actually exists at once, whole. Stephen Hawking once hinted at this by noting that the universe could be understood as one big wave function, a singluar All. That the universe appears to be expanding under the influence of dark energy and will eventually decompose into its constituent particles may simply be the state of this All. It is we – individual living beings – that move through reality that experience change and time.

This leaves the question of why there should be something rather than nothing in the first place unexplained except by the very fact that we exist. I don’t know where any of this leads except to wonder.

Notes on "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 18

For episode 17, see here

The Theory of the Nation State

XVIII. Jean Bodin
 A. His work Republic took the idea of sovereign power out of the shadow of
      theology.
 B. Sought to put the king above religious conflict, as a center of national
       unity. 
 C. Mix of old and new philosophy
 D. Took method and form, such as it was, from Aristotle.
 E. Saw basis of society in pater familias who acted with others outside the
      family as citizens.
       1. Property was natural right of the family
       2. State could not alienate property because it was not the proprietor
 F. Mark of sovereign power is distinguishing characteristic of the state.
       1. Citizens are such only by their subjection to the rule of a common
           sovereign
       2. Sovereign is the source of law
       3. Sovereign is undivided, no mixed state but only forms of government
       4. State consists in the possession of sovereign power
       5. Government is apparatus through which power is exercised
       6. All lesser bodies were subordinate to the state and any authority they
           might have is delegated by the state
       7. Sovereignty is perpetual, humanly unlimited and with unconditional
           right to make, interpret and execute the law
 G. Sovereign limited by will of God and natural right
 H. F7 and G (above) lead to possible conflict
 I. Confusion arose from:
       1. View that sovereign was bound by God
       2. Fidelity to the constitutional law of France
       3. View of inviolability of private property

Next week: The Modernized Theory of Natural Law

Notes on "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 17

For episode 16, see here

The Theory of the National State

XVII: Royalist and Anti-Royalist Theories
 A. Religious wars brought two sides of philosophy to fore,
     especially in France, people's right of defense vs divine right.
 B. Protestant attack om absolutism
       1. Constitutional argument based on medieval practices
           showing absolute monarchy to be an innovation
       2. Attempt to show philosophically that monarchy was
           contrary to universal rules of right supposed to underlie
           all government
       3. Vindiciae contra tyrannos was chief work of the French
           Protestants
           i. saw ruler as servant of the community, one that could do
             whatever its own life required
           ii. established two contracts, one of the people and king with
             God and another between the people and the king
           iii. king may be disobeyed when he goes against the 
              commands of God because people share the covenant
              with God and if they didn't take action would become
              co-conspirators
           iv. the second covenant justifies resistance to tyranny
              in secular government
           v. form of contract based largely on utilitarian agreement to
              render obedience to king to gain the benefit of protection
              of life and property
           vi. limits on the king based on his subjection to law
           vii. resistance was an expression of religion, a corporate right
               expressed through magistrates rather than by individuals
       4. Anti-royalists assumed law of nature and as defense of ancient
           liberties 
 C. Jesuits and the Pope
       1. Militant force of counter-Reformof the Roman Church
       2. Sought to reinstate spiritual leadership of Pope
       3. Kings power was from the people, only the Pope's authority
           came from God
           i. thus the king could not demand absolute obedience from
            subjects and;
           ii. Pope still could control the secular realm on spiritual
            matters
       4. Juan de Mariana saw the state of nature giving way to 
           civil society and saw the growth of government as a
           natural process and contended that the community
           controlled the rulers whom its needs created
       5. Francisco Suarez defended spiritual authority of the Pope
           but saw power of society to rule itself and its members as
           inherent property of social groups
 D. The Divine Right of Kings
       1. The attack on absolutism led to falling back on longstanding
           belief on the divinity of civil society
       2. Defense of a national establishment
       3. Rested on notion that authority had religious origin and
           sanction based on faith rather than on reason
       4. Saw law as residing 'in the breast of the king"
       5. James I defended monarchy's freedom from interference
       6. Pushed analogy of king as father to his children

Next week:  Jean Bodin

Notes on "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 16

For episode 15, see here

The Theory of the National State

XVI: The Early Protestant Reformers 
 A. Reformation mixed political theory with differences of religious 
     belief and questions of theological dogma.
 B. Diversity of religious belief did not lead to toleration because all
     still saw themselves as right and their opponents as stupid
     and/or wicked.
 C. Religious reform and conflict depended on secular power thus
     strengthening royal power.
 D. Under the surface were strong minority groups that were potential
     sources of disorder.
       1. Out of diversity and necessity, minority groups led towards
          mutual political toleration 
       2. Right to resist "heretical" pope became right to resist a
          "heretical" king
 E. Led to conflict between divine right and popular right, both
     originally grounded in theology
 F. Martin Luther
       1. Remade arguments and charges of past centuries, especially
          the conciliar controversy
          i. saw church as the assembly of all believers 
          ii. saw clergy as serving callings useful to the community
           and answerable in temporal matters
       2. Using government to reform the Church led to creation of
           national churches 
       3. Asserted duty of passive obedience to the ruler
       4. Stressed other-worldliness of religion with acquiescence to
           worldly power 
 G. Calvinism and the power of the church 
       1. Impact of sect in opposition to specific governments meant
           the spread of the justification of resistance 
       2. Viewed the church as the standard bearer of morals with
           secular power as the enforcing arm; as in the Middle Ages
       3. Taught self-control and discipline in the struggle of life
       4. God seen as sovereign, saving men by fore-ordination rather
           than own good works
       5. Secular institutions existed as the "external means of salvation"
       6. Not given to monarchical attachments, therefore often in
           opposition to the monarchy 
 H. John Calvin taught passive obedience to secular authority, had
     no theory of popular rights
 I. John Knox turned supremacy of the church to mode of resistance
     to the state (Scotland) that did not recognize "true faith"
       1. This involved rejection of passive obedience
       2. Resistance became part of the duty to sustain religious reform

Next week: Royalist and anti-Royalist Theories
     

Notes on "A History of Political Theory" -- Episode 15

For episode 14 see here

The Theory of the National State

XV. Machiavelli
 A. Medieval representative system suffered eclipse
       1. Growth of national unity  
       2. Growth of royal absolutism
       3. Corresponding changes in political thought
       4. Extended trade broke through localized economies:
          i. led to formation of class of men of wealth and enterprise
          ii. and allied with king against nobility
 B. Italy of Machiavelli (early 16th century) divided and weak
 C. Naked individualism of Italian republics' political life presaged modern age
      of individualism
 D. Writing in diplomatic tradition, Machiavelli lost sight of ends, seeing method
      (politics) as its own end*
 E. Saw two standards of morals
       1. Ruler -- judged by success in keeping and increasing power
       2. Private citizen -- judged by strength which his conduct imparts to the
          social group
 F. Assumed human nature is essentially selfish
       1. Meant desire for security on part of the masses...
       2. ... and desire for power in rulers
 G. Also saw man as aggressive and acquisitive; that there are limited resources
       leads to:
       1. condition of continued conflict, restrained by ...
       2. ... for of law, leading to ...
       3. ... the power of the ruler who provides security.
       4. became the political philosophy of Hobbes 
 H. Lawgiver constructs not only political life but also social
 I.   In society of egoists, only force behind law could hold society together
 J.  Favored popular, liberal and lawful government when possible, monarchy
       when necessary
 K. Was an Italian nationalist  

* Note:  Sabine gets Machiavelli not so much wrong as incomplete.  He did not loss sight of ends --  seeing only method -- but rather sought to bring The Prince to see that the best way to maintain power was to act with prudence (and at least appear to be moral) even when using force.  (The Prince was in effect a job application.)  In The Discourses, Machiavelli essentially encourages the rulers towards a Republic based on law as the best way to ensure stability.
 
Next week:  The Early Protestant Reformers