Political Philosophy - Hobbes, Locke and Machiavelli

After some alphabetic mixed with scoobydoo spaghetti I am spending the remainder of my Sunday evening with blogger. So here are my notes on political philosophy covered on Tuesdays HCJ lecture.

Plato's Crito: 

When Socrates was imprisoned after his trial, his friend Crito tried to persuade him to escape prison. However, Socrates dismisses this suggestion and explains why he believes he must face his sentence. He introduces the idea of a contract between him as a citizen and the state. (This is known as the social contract*) He explains how he has lived in the city and benefited from it therefore he must abide by the laws; if he breaks the laws he believes he is attempting to destroy the whole city. 

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

Hobbes was an empiricist and an admirer of mathematical method. His most famous book 'Leviathan' was written during the English Civil War and later published in 1951; it sets out his theories on the social contract. 

Hobbes speculates what life would be like with no government, a condition which he calls 'State of nature". To sum it up Hobbes argues that because everyone would have the right to everything in the world, there would be 

"Bellum omnium contra omnes" Translated from Latin to English: "War of all against all"  

Hobbes believes that man is nasty, brutish and short, he strongly believes that society cannot exist without a higher power thus to avoid chaos it is necessary for a strong government to be in place in order to rule people and their property. 

John Locke (1632 - 1704)

One of Locke's Doctrines which I found particularly intriguing was his theory that we are all born with a blank slate. He believes our knowledge is derived from experience, and our ideas through sensation and perception.  

"Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas; how comes it to be furnished?"

Locke teaches that we have three kinds of knowledge of real existence:

1. Our Knowledge of our own existence is intuitive

2. Our Knowledge of God's existence is demonstrative

3. Our Knowledge of things present to sense is sensitive

In the year 1689, a year later from the Revolution, Locke wrote two treaties on Government.

First Treaties-

THE HEREDITARY PRINCIPLE:

• Attacks the concept by Sir Robert Filmer on the "Divine Right of Kings" as he believes it will be the downfall of all governments.

Second Treaties:

THE STATE OF NATURE AND NATURAL LAW

• This is the idea that everyone enjoys natural freedom and equality but they must obey natural laws. As it states in the declaration of independence "no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions for we are all God's property".  Locke believes people are born with the rights of life, liberty and property. In contrast to Hobbes, Locke believes authority is meaningless, he supports a democratic government whereby power is separated so that no one person is in charge.
• The laws of nature are moral laws whereby every man has knowledge to differ right from wrong, he believes we shouldn't have to be told what is right or wrong because we all have our own minds.

Niccolo Machiavelli (1467 - 1527)

Machiavelli is the founder of modern political science, his most famous work was 'The Prince' was written during the Renaissance for the Medici Rulers of Florence. Machiavelli's central concern was the welfare of his country, he explores power; how to achieve power, and keep hold of this power, whilst maintaining trust and support. Machiavelli introduced a new attitude of humanism- "Man is the measure of all things".