● Lenses or “illusions” of politics

○ There is a single answer to political questions, this answer is epistemologically

knowable
○ there is a perfect order created from the sum of all perfect political solutions
● Rule by scientific expertise
○ Idea that experts should lead
● Politics as ideology
○ One person or group has the solution to social and political problems
○ Politics is an endless battle of good and evil
● Politics as soulcraft
○ Belief that politics is concerned with the salvation of souls
● Populism
○ “I alone can fix it”
Difficulties of politics
need to be able to respond to unique and changes problems and circumstances

errors: pride, arrogance

politics is often a question of what is acceptable vs detestable as opposed to good and evil

● Study of political theory begins with study of the great books

● ideas of economists and political philosophers rule the world, madmen in authority
hearing voices on the wind are slave to the utterances of yesterday’s mystics
● Political theory tells us how things ought to be as opposed to what they are

Should the many, the few, or the one rule?

What is the best political regime?

How should property be distributed?

What are our rights as citizens? Our duties?

Who should I obey? Why obey them?

What is freedom and how might it be promoted?

How should power be exercised and limited?

What is Justice?

What should be the relation between religion, morality, and politics?

Political theory is normative and historical

Most of the most important works written during times of crisis

Ultimate solution to most questions are unknowable

Study of politics and history guides leaders and citizens alike in the execution of their societal
roles

Ancient Greece

Athens
● 700 magistrates chosen by lottery, 500 chosen for the council
○ All served for 1 year and could have one more term at most
○ Every magistrate who steps down from office had to submit his accounts to
examiners which investigated wrongdoing
● Election of generals
○ 10 generals elected of each tribe, commander chosen from this 10
● Lottery
○ Viewed as the most democratic manner of choosing leaders
● Assembly
○ All men over 20 permitted to vote and attend the assembly so long as they were
not criminals nor debtors

Peloponnesian War
● 27 years; Athens (Delian League) v Sparta and her allies
● Corinth wanted corcyra to ally with them against Athens
○ Corinth emphasized the speedy risk-taking behavior of Athens
● Sparta’s militant monarchy vs Athen’s erudite democracy
● Athens believed they were entitled to leading the Hellenes because of their perceived
value in Greek War against Persia and because of their way of life
● Spartans believed Athenians wished to dominate the Aegean and Greek peninsula,
responded by shoring up allies in the region
● Spartan king called for prudence not to rush into war with Athens
● Rough equality invites war
● Athen’s sea power vs Spartan armies
● Pericles feared Athenian blunders more than Spartan armies

Age of Pericles
● Unprecedented development of arts, science, literature, philosophy, architecture, drama,
history, & philosophy

Pericles Funeral Oration

● Inspiration for Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
● Reiterates Athenian ideology and culture as superior
 ● Commemorates Athenian war dead and reminds the city what’s worth fighting for (their
democratic, educated way of life)

The Plague 430 BC

● Plague killed around ¼ of Athens
● Chaos in the city
● Pericles last speech II:59-64
● Two Athens,’ funeral oration & plague account — which is true?

Civil War in Corcyra

● “War is a violent teacher”
● War caused by envy and egalitarian zeal
● Civilization collapsed; extreme cruelty, perversion of language, lawlessness, low social
trust, extreme polarization
● “In brief, a man was praised if he could commit some evil action before anyone else did”
— establishing proto-government

Mytilenean Debate
● Cleon
○ Rash, vindictive
○ Chief principle is justice
● Diodatus
○ Intends to pardon the rebels for Athen’s greater interests
○ Chief principle is pragmatism
Melian Dialogue
● Cleon-like plan instituted
● subjugating the Melians, the Athenians hoped not only to extend their empire, but also to
improve their image and thus their security
● Demonstrates Athenian arrogance that led to their defeat

Plato

“Western philosophy is a footnote to Plato’s Dialogues”

Martyrdom of Socrates
● Life devoted to examination
● Hubris, pride

Plato (427-347 BC)

● Disciple of Socrates, taught Aristotle

● Founded the academy in 387 BC
● Plato’s works:
○ Early dialogues (the apology and gorgias)
 ○ Middle dialogues (meno, protagoras, symposium, republic)
○ Late dialogues (parmenides, sophist, laws)
● Relation between philosophy and power: subversive or affirmative
● The Republic is a defense of philosophy
● Platonic theory of forms
○ World of appearances vs world of ideas or pure forms
○ Forms are fixed and may only be apprehended by the mind, not by the senses
○ Only forms are truly real
○ Visible world reflects world of forms, no true knowledge of the visible world
without first comprehending the eternal forms
● The Republic
○ What is Justice? How are we ought to live? What is a good life?
○ Open ended exchange of ideas, dialogue
○ “I went down to Piraeus”
■ Symbolism of descent
■ Piraeus is a port city associated with democracy, cosmopolitanism, and
commerce
■ The philosopher descends to converse with men aggregate (the Sun is
only happy when it shines on others)
■ Dismissal of Cephalus
● Represents age, tradition, piety
● Only after preconceptions are abandoned may philosophy be
derived
○ Connection to Marx’s conception of ideology
○ Plato rejects Cephalus’ traditional thinking
● Piety as dutifulness, speaking the truth and paying debts
■ Polemarchus
● Justice defined from the distinction between friends and foes,
doing good to friends and harming foes
■ Thrasymachus realism
● Might makes right (Thucydidean)
● Justice secures benefit for the strong and the subjugation of the
weak
■ Glaucon
● An agreement aimed at securing the most benefits for all parties
contracted while protecting them from suffering injustice
● Justice as a compromise between two extremes: just behavior
motivated by weakness; justice self motivated by reward or
reputation
● Other definitions of justice at 370B-C, 444d, 432a, 433b
■ Justice is not an autotelic good
■ Justice only relevant insofar as the reputation, prestige, and rewards it
brings
■ Myth of the ring of Gyges
 ● No man capable to remain just when given the opportunity to
commit injustice
○ Second start of dialogue
■ “Let’s search for justice in the city at large”
■ What is a just city? One in which each citizen does whatever he is
naturally fit best to do
■ Natural inequality is justice?
● City of pigs and luxury
■ Good city depends on the quality of its leaders, the guardians
● Qualities of the guardians: 377-383, 411-412, 401-404
○ Strict education of guardians in poetry, music, and
gymnastics
○ Harmony and balance, elevation of the soul
○ Immune to avarice, sense of propriety, and vigorous
fortitude
○ Censored reading list, only approved writings to be studied
○ Noblesse oblige, enslaved to the happiness and well-being
of society
■ A just city must have an elite, the guardians, sequestered from the
remaining population in education and office
■ Guardians will have no private property, even wives are communal
■ “Noble Lie” — falsehoods propagated in society for social harmony and
cohesion, for Plato the lie is that class is divinely inspired
■ rulers artificially made immune to human temptation
■ Eugenics among guardians
■ Just city isn’t possible without moral elites and citizens
○ Analogy of the city and the soul
■ 427-444
■ City representing a man and his struggle to overcome his evil inclination
■ Three classes, three aspects of the soul: rulers/wisdom/head,
auxiliaries/courage/heart, and producers/self-discipline/limbs
■ Justice defined as each class and soul aspect performing its function
effectively and harmoniously
○ Third start of dialogue
■ The individual
○ The beginning of injustice great or small is the conflict between the godly soul
and the animal soul
■ A tzaddik has overcome his animal soul and performs only good, a
beinoni does more good than bad, and the animalistic man more bad than
good
○ Philosopher-kings, enlightened Tzaddik-esque rulers that amalgamate political
power and philosophy
○ Philosophers are those with true knowledge, who overcame ideology and illusion
to distilled knowledge
 ○ Characteristics of true philosophers
■ Lovers of knowledge vs defenders of opinions, eternal truths, hatred of
falsehoods, true philosophers will be few, Radicalism
■ True philosophers regarded by masses as stargazers
● Tension between philosophy and democracy
● True philosophers never ascend in democracies as they see
through the madness of the many
● Able to enter politics at their full potential
● Classification of Political Regimes
○ Political regime: institutions + individuals (character traits of individuals
accentuated by institution types)
■ Institutions and the spirit of a people work to reproduce one another and
can only be overcome by major disruption
■ Political stasis in vacuum
○ Aristocracy — rule of the best
○ Timocracy — pursuit of honor and victory
○ Oligarchy — pursuit of wealth
○ Tyranny — pursuit of (arbitrary and absolute) power
■ Drunk, deranged, mad with power
○ Democracy — equal share in public office, freedom of speech and movement,
diversity and variety
■ Shamelessness
■ Shallowness
■ Lack of discernment
■ Pursuit of instant gratification
■ Lack of controlling order
■ Licentiousness
○ Democracy is unjust and based on false order, lack of moral direction and self
discipline
○ Produces impoverished individuals — spiritually and even materially
○ Subjects true art of politics since it is slave to the whim of the majority, not
beholden to truth or justice
○ Most attractive to the superficial eye
● Myth of Er
○ Immortality of the soul
○ Moral: to impart the idea that our mortal actions have consequence in the
immortal fate of our soul; choices in this life have consequences
○ The pursuit of Justice is a sisyphean struggle in the mortal life

Aristotle
Macedonian Student of Plato, teacher of Alexander the Great

Founded Lyceum as a competing school to Plato’s Academy

● cities exist for the sake of the good life, not life itself
● Political regime — formal institutions of a community and the way of life of a people
○ Matter — citizenry
○ Form - manners of the individuals composing that city
● To Aristotle residence or both does not qualify someone as a citizen
○ Must share in the administration of Justice and in city offices
○ Have the power to take part in the deliberative or judicial administration of the city
● Civic virtue is closely related to citizenship
○ Interplay between the ability to rule over other citizens and in turn obeying those
with power
○ “Our definition of the excellence of s citizen will not apply to every citizen, nor to
every free man as such, but only to those who are freed from necessary
services”
● “Man is a political animal”
● What is a constitution and what makes a constitution good?
○ Organization of offices in a state and determines who belongs to the governing
body and determines the ends of each community
○ Promoted a particular type of life (therefore it is not neutral between types)
○ Allows for reciprocity between governors and the governed
● Different types of constitutions
○ Two criteria: goal of power (justice or factionalism); the number of those
exercising power
○
perverted righteous

rule of one tyranny monarchy

rule of few oligarchy aristocracy

rule of many democracy constitutional

government / politeia
● 5 types of democracy in general IV:4
● 4 types of democracy based on relation between legislative and executive IV:14
○ Commercial democracy
○ Pastoral democracy
○ Mob rule — majority will overcomes law and customs
● Democracy as a potluck dinner
● Wisdom of the many
○ Virtues of Democratic deliberation
○ Defense of pluralism and diversity
● Democracy and the middle class
○ Least likely to shrink from rule but not overly ambitious
● Democracy & the rule of law
○ Strong rule of law prevents arbitrary exercise of power
● Mixed government III:13
 ○ Acknowledges and balances duties and rights of aristocracy, commercial
plutocrats, and masses
● Supreme excellence allows men to transcend the state and law
○ L’etat c’est moi — Louis XIV
○ City could vote to exile such a man
● Avarice drives revolutions
○ Greedy rulers or the greedy ruled can precipitate these conflicts
● Regimes can fall as a result of carelessness in allowing the disloyal to attain positions of
power
○ Corrected by informed and prudent voting
● Revolutions may occur when:
○ Wealthy merchants are excluded from power
○ Personal rivalry of oligarchs
○ Demagogues take power
● Chapter XI talks about oligarchs and oligarchy
● Aristotelian virtues are the middle states between two extremes; temperance

Cicero
● Major Roman lawyer, politician, and philosopher
● Served as consul, known for his commitment to republicanism
● Author of On the Laws, On the Republic, On the Rhetoric
● On Duties written following Caesar’s assassination
● Machiavelli’s The Prince written as a refutation to On Duties
● Major influence on Kant
● Natural law, stoicism, and precursor to Republicanism

● Stoicism — Indifference to the vicissitudes of pleasure and pain

● Cicero analyzed the virtues required to keep a republic alive
● Addresses how to prevent corruption and decline
● Res Publica — association of individuals who live together in justice for the common
good
○ A free people is one in which all enjoy equal rights before the law
● Strong relationship between res publica, civic virtue, rule of law, and the common good
● Societal harmony brought about through reasoned balance of the highest and lowest of
society
● On Duties:
○ Part I: what is honorable
○ Part 2: what is beneficial
○ Part 3: what is expedient
● On duties written as long letter to his Son
○ Also written as a commentary on Panaetius
● Justice — crown of all virtues
○ Harming few or none while serving the most
○ Creates social bonds, enables common life
 ○ Justice must be maintained towards even the lowliest
○ Nothing can be true, generous, or courageous in the absence of justice
○ No occasion from which justice should be absent
○ Justice should take precedence over truth
○ Avoid passive justice and injustice
■ Latter can be voluntary and involuntary
○ Injustice — inflicting harm or witnessing someone being harmed and doing
nothing, benefiting oneself at the expense of another
○ Injustice may arise from excessive desire for honor, command, power, and glory
○ Fox & Lion vs Trickery as a form of passive injustice
○ Several degrees of fellowship between men
○ Closer the relation, the stronger the duty
○ Love of country is the highest fellowship
● Wisdom
● Fortitude — no one has won praise who has pursued the glory of courage by treachery
and cunning
● Temperance
○ Careful to moderate all things that may affect our appearance and standing as
gentlemen
● Public service as duty
○ Management of the republic is like guardianship
○ Beware of greed and glory hounding
○ The higher one is placed in society, the humbler they must be
○ Deidre to serve the community, eager to risk one’s own welfare rather than
common welfare
○ To sustain the seemliness and standing of the city, the preserve the laws, to
administer Justice, and to be mindful of the things that have been entrusted to
me in good faith by the citizenry
● Focus on what is beneficial for the whole, instead of the part
● Critiques electioneering
● Don’t be too angry with your opponents
● Be fair, firm, and impartial
● Avoid arrogance, scorn, and haughtiness
● Limits of pursuing military glory
● Importance of generosity and kindness
● Secure goodwill of the people by keeping promises and maintaining justice

St Augustine
● Preference for platonists
● Faith and reason
● Detested the Vainglory of the Romans but admired their patriotism
● Moral decline and decadence of Roman, prior to the barbarian invasions resulted in its
decline
● De Civitate Dei
 ○ How can one live in the material world while keeping with God’s commandments
and eschewing corrupted values
Theology
● Arianism, Manichaeism, Donatism, Pelagianism
○ Heresies rebuked by the Council of Nicaea
● Sin, human nature, free will, self-love, pride, and the fall pp.83-90, 102
● Problem of evil in history XIV: 11, pp. 100-101
○ Free will allows men to freely choose to obey God, compelled obedience
worthless to God
○ Origin of sin is pride, as men believe they know more than God
● Faith and reason
● Augustine on the Eternal Law p. 217
● Two Cities books XIV, XIX
● The City of God and the City of Man (XIV: 4-6, 95-97, 108-109, XIX: 19, pp. 158-159
○ Origin, development, and differences
■ Coexist in time and space and are hard to distinguish by outward
appearance
○ Two loves, of God and oneself, and two cities
■ Many who believe to be or seem to be among the saved may in reality not
be
○ Who are the enemies of the city of God? pp. 4-6
● Augustine on just war (pp. 179-49, 220-23)
● The church, state and the proper role of politics (pp. 202-12)
○ State is a necessary consequence of man’s sinful nature
○ Christians must obey the state unless forced to do impious things
○ Peace and order are the criteria for governments to be judged in terms of
effectiveness
○ The government has the right to restrain heretics (pp. 232-47)
● Condemnation of kingdoms and empires
● Just war tradition as balance between realism and pacifism
○ Conflict between interest and justice, might and right
● Typology of wars:
○ Wars
○ Crusades
■ Aims to convert on religious or ideological grounds
○ Legitimate defense, illegitimate conquest
● Jus ad bellum
■ What does justice require when choosing to go to war?
● Jus in bello
■ What does justice require in prosecuting war
● Jus post bellum
■ What does justice require in the aftermath of war
● Alexander of Hales (1240) 6 preconditions for just war
○ Right state of mind
 ○ Authority to declare war
○ Persons engaging in war must not be clerics
○ Participants must have just intentions
○ Those warred against must be deserving of it
○ There must be a legitimate casus belli
■ War must be waged in support of the good, in order to coerce the evil,
and to promote peace for all
● Aquinas is a medieval successor to Aristotle
○ Synthesis of Aristotle (reason) with Augustine (faith)
○ Makes distinction between original and actual sin
■ Sin is part of human nature but not derived from original sin
● Human nature is not defined by Adam’s sin
■ Men are capable of making distinctions between good and evil
● Both spiritual and secular powers are derived from divine power
● Church’s role: inculcate moral virtues in society
● Secular rules should assist the spiritual power of the church but not replace it
○ Should defer to church in cases of moral or religious conduct
● Power of kings is subject to moral standards
● Aquinas distilled Augustine’s just war doctrine to the following
○ Authority
■ Individual citizens may seek redress from their sovereign, yet the
sovereigns of the world are not bound to a higher arbitrator, thus
sometimes wars must be fought between them
○ Just cause (causa iusta)
○ Right intention (intention recta)