Political Thought What it is and Why it Matters C.

. Wayper Political thought is about the State, its structure, its nature, and its purpose. Its concern: moral phenomena of human behavior in society Questions which political thought is striving to answer explanation of the existence of the State as a justification of its continuance o What is the State and why should I obey it? o What are the proper limits of its authority and when may I refuse to obey it? o How is the authority of the State with which I cannot dispense to be made compatible with the liberty without which I am less than a man? No definite answers it is difficult to separate the purpose of political life from the purpose of life itself Depends upon our conceptions of right and wrong Political thought, not science incapable of exact definition What is the State and why do men obey it? Two views: Organic view: the State is an organism of which men themselves are parts and which is therefore greater than they are o It is real and they are merely abstractions Mechanistic view: it is a machine which men create for their own purposes and which is therefore no other than they are o They are real and it is merely a device At different periods in history, now the one, now the other has been generally accepted: Three traditions: Rational-Natural Tradition o Society and the State can be understood only when they are related to an absolute standard, which exists in nature and which is therefore outside

human control, but which can be known by men through the use of their Reason o Society must copy the pattern offered by nature which Reason has apprehended o If we want to know whether laws and institutions are good, we have only to ask if they are close copies of the existing natural standards Tradition of Will and Artifice o Society and the State are artificial and not natural o They are genuinely free creations of man and not a copying of something that already exists in nature o Thus, it is not the Reason of man but the Will of man that is required to produce the State, and human will has freedom to alter society Tradition of Historical Coherence o Other traditions are defective o Since natural laws have to be changed to suit civil society, the Rational-Natural tradition is neither rational nor natural o Since mans will is always limited by the will of others and by what has been willed previously, the tradition of will and artifice attributes too much importance both to will and artifice o Attempts to fuse Reason and Will o Emphasizes the importance of historical growth and denies that absolute standards exist o Goodness and justice consist of the coherence of the part with the whole, and if we want to know what is goodness, we must seek conformity not with the will and desire of society, but with the standard of coherence in that society as it has developed historically over the years o The State is not a copy of the natural world o To some extent, it can be seen as natural because it is the result of an historical evolution that can be thought of as part of nature o To some extent, it can be regarded as artificial for it is the result of men not following but transforming nature

* Mechanistic Will and Artifice * Organic Rational-Natural or Historical Coherence

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