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Chapter 6 — The Quest for the Good Political Life Study Chapter Summary One of the key ways to gain a better
appreciation of politics is to explore the thinking of the great political
philosophers. These philosophers have illuminated what the good political life
is, and they have bequeathed to us a heritage of profound reflection on the
meaning and importance of politics. The earliest political thinkers in the
Western tradition include such philosophers as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
Each of these men was dedicated to the idea of excellence and to the belief
that human excellence and happiness could be achieved as part of a greater
political community. Plato is famous for his classic work The Republic, which
has as its central theme the question: What is justice? Plato believes that
justice is the harmonious ordering of the different classes in a political
community. He argues that justice would be achieved when cities are ruled by
philosopher-kings, who can use their wisdom to see and do what is right. Plato
places much importance on the role of education and intelligence in overcoming
the problems that sometimes arise between power and justice. Aristotle, a
student of Plato, was critical of his teacher for being unrealistic about what
the just community would look like. Aristotle believes that the best regime
combines elements of democracy and oligarchy. Plato and Aristotle represent two sides of the ongoing debate about how
political ideals should guide our actions and the need to be realistic about
politics. These questions continued to concern the
Christian tradition that dominated Europe for over a thousand years. Two of the
most important Christian thinkers were St. Augustine and St. Aquinas. St. Augustine
argued that the best that people could hope for on earth was peace and order.
Aquinas was more optimistic about the good political life on earth and believed
that political communities were necessary to fulfill man’s nature. The Renaissance and the modern era, which
in important ways shaped modern thinking about politics, opened with a deep
concern about order and with the belief that, in thinking about politics,
people should be realistic. Machiavelli, although a complex thinker, was
clearly a proponent of realism and a champion of the lion and fox approach to
politics. Hobbes, who lived through the turbulent seventeenth century, was an
exponent of the need for order and the need for an all-powerful sovereign who
can guarantee that order. While the contributions of these thinkers
are vital to our thinking about politics, modern political theory involves a
concern for democracy, freedom, and the difficulties (and hopes) posed by a
changing economy. John Locke praised limited government, defended the right to
property, and insisted that governments can only exist by the consent of the
people. Rousseau articulated what he called the general will, which supposedly reflects the true will of all the
people. As such, Rousseau is a great defender of democracy. Edmund Burke, the
founder of modern conservatism, believed that the French Revolution had gone
too far, that a healthy politics was built upon tradition--the successful
inheritance of those who had gone before, and that we must be prudent in
statesmanship. In On Liberty John Stuart Mill
defended the ideal of personal liberty, which he took to mean that, “the only
purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a
civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” Karl Marx
reminds us that economic forces shape politics to a significant degree. For
Marx, human freedom can only be achieved when a classless society becomes
reality after the inequalities of capitalism are overcome. What each of these great writers reminds
us is that when we think about what to do in politics, we need to understand
what ideas are guiding our actions. Do we want to achieve excellence, freedom,
equality, or justice? Of course, these are not necessarily mutually exclusive
ideals; however, reality has a way of making us decide how to prioritize our
goals. Chapter Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be
able to...
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