Up@dawn 2.0

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Political Philosophy

      (H3)

      I find it interesting that during the time of the Renaissance and modern day philosophy, political philosophers backtracked from the well established democratic form of government in the birth of philosophy- ancient Greece. I would think that philosophers progressing from the times of ancient Greece would grow upon the model with the most freedom for thought and expression. The political theories we get in these "progressive" periods, however, seem to be barbaric. Machiavelli's theory that a ruler's success is the achievement of your purpose whatever the goal may be has an extreme lack of morals. Thinking like this is what leads to rulers like Hitler and -- dare I say it-- Donald Trump. Hobbes' theory is better than Machiavelli's, but he still misses the mark. Insisting that a population needs a strong ruler to decide the best for the people whether they like it or not is definitely not ideal. Hobbes' theory dramatically underestimates the power of people to decide what is best for themselves as whole and rebel against such rulers that try to repress that right. Both Machiavelli and Hobbes' political philosophies are deceitful and therefore unmoral. They encourage politicians to lie, do whatever is necessary to get the means, and do what they think is best instead of what the people think is best. Government is meant to protect people in exchange for giving up some certain rights to the government. If there is a Leviathan in charge, the people aren't safe from the government itself, making government useless. A population would not stand their rights being stomped on for very long, so I don't think that Machiavelli or Hobbes' political philosophies would be utopian or even ideal at all.

1 comment:

  1. I firmly agree with you about the peculiarity of these philosophers political ideals. You'd think that their open-mindedness would cause them to value individuality and freedom of expression over conformity and blind obedience to deceitful figures of authority. Perhaps existing in the conditions implied by their own "Utopias" would change their outlook on what they should value in their political ideals. (H2)

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