Political philosophy is very important to the way that life works because people can take the ideas of political philosophers and incorporate them in to their own government system. Political philosophy is the ideas of politics and governing, while incorporating deep thinking and philosophy to perfect these ideas.
Jean Jacques Rousseau was lived from 1712-1778; he was born in Geneva, Switzerland. His mother died after he was born and his father fled from Geneva when Rousseau was 10, to avoid being imprisoned (For a minor offense.) Rousseau was raised by his aunt and uncle, and left Geneva at the age of 16. After wandering he settled down in Paris in 1742.
Rousseau's philosophy was based around the idea that a man is a good person, a "Noble savage," when he is in the "State of nature," which is the state that all other animals live in. It is the condition that man lived in before civilization was created the condition. He said that in society, people are corrupted and made unhappy because of their experiences. He thought of society as something that was fake and corrupt, and made men unhappy.
In 1750 he wrote the essay, "Discourse on the Arts and Sciences," Which said that the advancement of arts and science wasn't helping man. He said that more knowledge gave the government more power, which suppressed the individual's liberty. He said that progress undermined friendship, and replaced it with jealousy and fear.
He also wrote " The Social Contract," which is considered his most important work. It showed the relationship between man and society. Despite what the things he'd written before said, this stated that the state of nature is a condition that doesn't work. He said that good men are a result of law and mortality, and that in the state of nature, man is likely to be in competition with other men. He can be more successful by joining with men rather than fighting with them, and when he does this forms society.
Rousseau said that the purpose of government should be to secure freedom, equality, and justice. A primary principle that he has is that politics and mortality shouldn't separate, because when a state isn't moral it doesn't give correct authority over a person.
Locke was lived from 1632-1704, and was born at Wrington, Somersetshire, England. He studied at Oxford in philosophy and natural sciences. Locke had very many political positions. In 1683, he went in to exile in Holland.
Locke said that the natural rights of a citizen could limit the power of a king. He said that rights like life, liberty, and property existed in the state of nature, and these rights couldn't be taken away. These rights also couldn't be given up by people. Locke said that the "social contract" that Hobbes believed in was really an agreement between the people and king.
Locke said that the king didn't get absolute power. His only purpose was to enforce and protect the natural rights of the people. Locke thought that although the freedom of thought, speech, and religion were important, property was the most important natural right. He said that the owners of a property could do whatever they wanted with it, as long as it didn't create a problem with the rights of others. Also, Locke believed that if the king violated the natural rights of the people, then the social contract that was formed between them was broken, and the people could revolt against him.
Montesquieu lived from 1689-1755, in to a noble family and educated in law. He traveled through Europe and studied the English Parliament. He wrote a book in 1722, which ridiculed the rule of Louis XIV, who was the absolute king when he was born.
His greatest work was The Spirit of the Laws, which was published in 1748. Montesquieu believed that in the state of nature, people were fearful, and avoided war and violence. He believed that the need for food caused them to join together with others and form society. He believed that once man entered the state of society, he'd lose his sense of weakness and equality, and creates the state of war. He said that the state of war in society led to laws and government.
Montesquieu believed that the main purpose of government was to keep law and order. He didn't like the absolute power of the king, as there was in his home country. He instead liked the English system of government.
He believed that the best form of government contained the legislative, executive, and judicial branch that kept each other in check and were separate. This was to avoid any branch becoming too powerful.
Plato was a student of Socrates. So he followed a lot of what Socrates believed in. after Socrates died, Plato moved to Egypt and Italy and studied with students of Pythagoras. Later on he went back the Athens and started his own school for philosophy at the academy. When Plato was teaching he tried to reflect Socrates style of teaching. He also contributed his own theories into the dialogues he taught. Plato's writings often modify or completely didn't reach the formal structure of dialogue. The writings included the theory of forms in ParmenidhV ( Parmenides ), an further discussion of the problem of knowledge in QeaithtoV ( Theaetetus ) he had included more in his teachings and discussions.
Socrates didn't actually write any of his teachings down, so we relied a lot on his students such as Plato. He based on his teachings on genuine knowledge. In the fifth-century Athenian Socrates set the standard for all Western philosophy. Socrates was big about scientific theories of Anaxagoras. He later on started to have interest in the development of moral character. With the rest of Socrates life he attended discussions with young citizens of Athens. He didn't take any fund for working with the people. Many of the parents of the students that Socrates was talking to weren't happy with the beliefs that he was teaching the students. We are relying most of our sources on Plato's because he was a student of Socrates and we are pretty certain he followed most of Socrates studies.
Hobbes was pretty much the most complete materialist philosophy of the 17th century. He does believe in Cartesian dualism and believes in the mortality of the soul. He also doesn't agree in free will in favor of determinism. He was an English philosopher. Hobbes was known as a scientist, as a mathematician, as a translator of the classic, as a writer on the law, and many more things. Some of the writings that Hobbes were famous for are, The Elements of Law, De Cive. His most famous work is Leviathan he deals with questions on religion and some of the arguments follow through that were in De Cive.
Our team uses the political ideas of Montesquieu in that there are multiple leaders, and each gets their own power. The leaders have all of the power, which also incorporates the ideas of Hobbes, in that the leaders of the government have all power, and the people have no power.
