Political Thought

Political thought before Plato. The great age of Athenian public life fell in the third quarter of the fifth-century B.C., while the great age of political philosophy came only after the downfall of Athens in her struggle with Sparta. Here, as in so many cases in history, reflection followed achievement, and principles were abstractly stated … Read more

The Invention of Political Philosophy. It is important to stress that Greece was peripheral to Egypt and Mesopotamia but not isolated from them. India, by contrast, was substantially more isolated and China nearly wholly separated. Although they started later, the Chinese seem to have, in many respects, moving through stages of development similar to that … Read more

The Development of Civilization Before the Greeks. Archaeological research over the last several decades-and this research has by no means come to an end-has greatly increased our knowledge of the ancient world. While the man in the broad sense seems to have been born in Africa, a threshold crucial to our discussion was crossed somewhere … Read more

Political Theory as an Attribute of the Western Cultural Tradition. As the preceding discussion clarifies, political theory is no primarily part of a poetic, musical, or artistic tradition. On the contrary, it is, for the most part, to be associated with a philosophical, scientific tradition and style of discourse. Indeed, political theory is more often … Read more

Political Theory and Political Institutions. Political theory as the “disciplined investigation of political problems” has in the main been the province of philosophical writers, most of them distinguished in philosophy and literature considered more generally. Thus, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hegel, and Marx are great names in Western intellectual tradition … Read more

Political Theory and the Evolution of Man. Science in the final third of the twentieth century allows us, with a high level of confidence, to describe the man as a member of that order of the animal kingdom called the primates, like other primates and, for that matter, like all other animals and plants-constantly face … Read more

Principles Classification of State is based on two principles: (1) The number of persons who exercise supreme power. (2) The ends they seek to serve self-interest or benefit of the community. Aristotle was of the view that when the rulers aimed at the good of the community, the states would be a pure form of … Read more

The Idealistic or Metaphysical Theory is an ontological doctrine that holds that reality itself is incorporeal or experiential at its core. Beyond this, idealists disagree on which aspects of the mental are more basic. Statement of the Theory:- The idealist theory of the state, sometimes called the absolute theory, the philosophical theory, often the metaphysical … Read more

In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is a theory of state or model that originated during the Age of Enlightenment and is usually concerned with the legitimacy of the state’s authority over the individual. In this condition, individuals’ actions are bound only by their personal power and conscience. The Theory Explained:- As stated … Read more

The Organismic Theory Distinguished from Other Theories. In a sense, the state’s organismic theory represents the antithesis of the juridical theory, which, at least in the minds of some of its supporters, conceives the state to be a legal fiction or a purely mental concept of the jurists. The organismic-theory goes to the other extreme … Read more