Apes, Tribal Culture & Early City States
Ape
hierarchy, tension between authority and individuality, owning, lying.
Human thought pairs of opposites, belief (positive) and doubt
(negative), conservatives believing and affirming the institution
(stability of the past), progressives doubting and questioning the
institution (openness of the future). Philosophy as "thinking about
thinking", questioning and answering. All cultures have philosophers,
question and change traditions. Radin argues same distribution of
intelligence in all societies, philosophers are rare but in all
societies. Individuals relative freedom and individuality, no complete
agreement to truths. Sumer has first writing, schools, bicameral
congress. Barthes in Myth Today, magazine supports colonial French
mythology.
Mencius, Xun Zi, Mo Zi & Human Nature
Times
of war good for thought, warring states/hundred philosophers period,
mandate of heaven. Confucius, heart center, right mind over right
act/ritual/tradition, civil service system, treating others as equal,
developing/examining the self. Mencius, human nature is
good/compassion, child/well proof of essential goodness, four part heart
(compassion, shame, courtesy/modesty, right/wrong), battle with Moists
over degrees of love, parental compassion/burial as basis of culture,
sister-in-law drowning and discretion, compassion like water, barley on
various ground. Xun Zi, human nature is evil/desire, city vs.
countryside, compassion can be taught given law, tradition and effort,
children as immature, environment important. Mo Zi, universal love,
possible if accepted by princes, war as killing and theft, Confucians
focus on ritual and support warfare and rebellion.
Plato, Aristotle, Caste & Class
Republic
three level city corresponding to head, chest, stomach/hands, caste
system very like India, one job per person, noble lie, common
property/family, allegory of the cave, republic as meritocracy not
democracy. Aristotle, each a single job/ergon, thought/philosophy as
highest human activity and goal of society, slaves and women as inferior
by nature, human as political animal, balance of common and private
property vs. Plato.
Machiavelli & Power
Misunderstood,
Republican writings vs. the Prince, possible lesson to ruled not
rulers, realism vs. Plato & Aristotle ideal city models, necessity
of brutality and deception for despot, completely crush the enemy,
better feared than loved, everyone reads but also despise work.
Hobbes & Sovereignty
Supporter
of Monarchy vs. Parliamentarians, life “solitary, brutish, short”, all
more equal than unequal, state of nature as unhappy war of all vs. all,
self-preservation as natural right, declaration of social contract
transfers liberty of harming others to sovereign, sovereign acts as
everyone, has right to kill anyone in name of everyone, can’t commit
injustice, like “sun to the stars”.
Locke, Rousseau, Mill, Thoreau, Liberty & Freedom
Locke
influential on American Revolution, sided with Parliamentarians vs.
Hobbes’ Royalists, need checks and balances vs. unchecked power of the
sovereign, natural rights to life and property, social contract
necessary to preserve these satisfactorily, right to fruits of labor
(for self and servants/slaves), money accumulation unproblematic, blank
slate/tabula rasa. Rousseau for individual liberty, state of nature
innocent, noble savage, society and progress/technology a mask that
conceals brutality, human nature an undefined freedom that can be
corrupted, turned to machines and slaves, society must preserve liberty
or social contract not valid, bandit with gun metaphor, social contract
founded on general will & agreement, society grows out of family but
has no love, problem of minority vs. general will. Tutored by Bentham,
Mill the great Utilitarian, rethink principles and assumptions based on
usefulness/overall happiness (long view & social view), two sides
(max happy, min pain) and capitalism vs. socialism, continuous problems
& rethinking, paradox of bad example, problem of authority,
egalitarianism for slaves and women, democratic economics vs. economic
tyranny, problem of “primitive” societies, freedom of speech as best.
Thoreau for simple living and nonparticipation in the corrupt and
brutal state, comforts and luxuries as hindrance to humanity, balance of
nature and society, jail for tax evasion, nonparticipation with
Mexican-American war and slavery, Civil Disobedience as opposing the
machine with humanity, American democracy not the final step in
political evolution.
American & French Revolutions
American
calls for checks on sovereign but fear of mob rule, Bill of Rights as
compromise with states for federal government, terrorists vs. freedom
fighters, most still wanted a monarch, African and Native
between/outside the two sides. Paine’s The Rights of Man attacks Burke,
authority must arise out of people not over people. Constitution,
checks & balances, impeachment, freedom of speech. French
Revolution hard times, third estate declares self National Assembly,
throwing off the clergy and nobility, left vs. right wing factions,
Assembly goes radical left with Paris Commune, Great Terror atrocities,
gang warfare till Napoleon takes over as dictator.
Capitalism & Adam Smith
Practiced
most extensively in America with privatization so far, other movements
as opposition to industrialization/capitalism and problems. Money as
better than barter, device to amass and divide, ancient Assyria ruling
empire primarily through trade. With industrialization, owners become
capitalists, own business/materials/land and make profits while workers
trade labor for wages, profit sharing and co-ops as socialist counter to
economic tyranny (Mill). Adam Smith argues invisible hand of markets
and everyone acting in self-interest more efficient than government
trying to provide a planned economy. Mixed economies lean either way,
social market capitalism vs. free market capitalism, debate over
democracy hand in hand with capitalism.
Short Answer (Pick 4, 15 points each)
A) Mencius vs. Xun Zi on Human Nature
B) Mencius vs. Mo Zi on Universal Love
C) Hobbes vs. Locke on the Social Contract
D) Hobbes vs. Rousseau on the State of Nature
E) Bentham vs. Mill on Utilitarianism
F) Locke vs. Thoreau on Property
G) Plato vs. Aristotle on Property
