POLI 202 Western Political Heritage Hancock BYU Independent Study

Edmund Burke; "On this scheme of things, a kind is but a man, a queen is but a woman; a woman is but an animal, and an animal not of the highest order..."

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then the dauphiness, at Versailles, and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision." Who wrote these words, and what conclusion does he draw from this recollection?

The spiritual and the temporal jurisdictions.

"Now, these two, as we have divided them, are always to be viewed apart from each other. When the one is considered, we should call off our minds, and not allow them to think of the other." What two spheres or domains does John Calvin refer to in this quotation?

Knowledge has become separated from life, and is seen as merely utilitarian.

According to Beneton (in the prologue of Equality by Default), what is the main obstacle to true education in the contemporary world?

Repentant attention to what is ("Being") vs. impersonal method.

According to Beneton, between which two opposing views of knowledge must we choose?

The Christian idea that all humans are worthy of God's sacrifice. The natural sense represented in great literature that we share a common humanity.

According to Beneton, what is the basis of "substantive" (or "substantial") equality?

Rebellion against truth

According to Beneton, what is the essence of pure, modern freedom?

Nature is "wisdom without reflection," and natural rights are reflected through sound institutions.

According to Burke, what is nature, and how do we perceive natural rights?

"The laws of nature and nature's God"

According to Hancock, in what framework is the American assertion of rights set (as discussed in the Declaration of Independence) that makes those rights more than "simply human assertions?"

For Plato, politics has a limited and subordinate place in relation to things above politics, but for Machiavelli, politics has its own rules and is not limited to anything higher.

According to Harvey Mansfield's Introduction to Machiavelli's Prince, the essential difference between Prince and Plato's Republic is that ______________.

An external body or object which impacts a sense organ either immediately or mediately.

According to Hobbes, the origin of all the thoughts of man is ________.

The good will

According to Kant, what is the only unconditional good?

Utility supported by custom and belief in God

According to Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding," what is the basis of morality?

Protection of property and protection from foreign enemies.

According to Locke, what are the two main purposes of political power?

Uneasiness

According to Locke, what feeling or experience determines will?

The Romanists claim that the pope, bishops, priests, and monks belong to a special "spiritual estate" exempt from temporal power, but in fact all Christians belong to a "royal priesthood."

According to Luther in "The Three Walls of the Romanists," what is the first "wall" the "Romanists" (Roman Catholics) have built around them, and how does Luther attack this wall?

Faith--that is, belief in God's promises.

According to Luther in Concerning Christian Liberty, what is needed for justification and salvation?

Use the appearance of morality but don't be bound to it.

According to Machiavelli, how should the prince deal with morality?

The tension between individual self-interest and the greater good of society would vanish.

According to Marx, how would mankind overcome conflict among human beings at the end of history?

The means and relations of economic production.

According to Marx, what is the driving force of history?

1. The moderate liberal version associated with the American Founding. 2. The ideological subversion associated with the radical phase of the French Revolution. 3. The extreme liberal version prevalent today.

According to Philippe Beneton (in Equality by Default ch. 1), what are the three stages of the idea of the "rights of man"?

His repudiation of the hierarchical view of nature and of human nature which makes it possible to speak of what is "high" and "low."

According to Professor Hancock (in Thinking Politically part two, ch. 2), Calvin's radical break with classical moral and political philosophy consists of _____________.

Modern political philosophy repudiates the classical question of the good.

According to Professor Hancock in Thinking Politically, what is the key difference between ancient (or classical) political philosophy and modern political philosophy?

The invitation for humans to create values that humans look up to.

According to Professor Hancock, what is fundamentally incoherent in Nietzsche's attempt to overcome nihilism?

Reflection on the question of the good.

According to Professor Hancock, what positive content is missing from Mill's utilitarianism?

Democratic tyranny bypasses the body and goes right to the soul. It prevents democratic individuals from even imagining any alternative to mass opinion. The democratic power of the majority undermines the very meaning of truth. The democratic passion for equality overwhelms commitment to liberty.

According to Tocqueville, how can a democratic tyranny be worse that the old kind?

The indirect influence of religion Practical experience in self-government The wisdom and authority of the Founding Fathers The art of association

According to Tocqueville, what are the factors that moderate and ennoble American democracy?

Religion supports the belief in progress that weakens anti-democratic prejudices.

According to Tocqueville, what is the indirect role of religion in American democracy?

The individual's need for answers his own individual reason cannot provide. Society's need for common beliefs to rally members for common purposes.

According to Tocqueville, which of the following is an inevitable source of "dogmatic belief" in every society?

Wonder

Beneton believes that anyone who lacks ______ "surrenders himself bound hand and foot."

The Good as normative for life Nature understood as the necessity of self-preservation History as a rational process of human self-realization

Each wave of modernity is created by questioning a premise assumed by an earlier wave of modernity. Correctly list the premise of each of the three waves of modernity in chronological order from the first wave onward?

A power "above" themselves (traditional) A power merely other than themselves (Hobbes's rationalism)

Edmund Burke argued that men have a right to a "power out of themselves." According to Professor Hancock, which of the following are possible meanings of Burke's argument, which together create a deep ambiguity in this statement?

Is fear an unavoidable natural fact for Hobbes, or does he argue that we should see it as the most rational response?

Fear as the dominant human motive is a key premise of Hobbes. What question is unresolved in Hobbes's argument concerning fear?

Ranked order of commanding-obeying

For Nietzsche, all human meaning takes the form of ______.

By necessary process predictable by the science of dialectical materialism. By ruthless and violent revolutionary action.

How did Marx believe the end of history would be brought about?

Marx turned Hegel's idealism right-side up into materialism.

How did Marx describe his relationship to Hegel?

Men covenant with each other to lay down the right to judge the best means to their own self-preservation.

How do men escape the state of nature?

The philosophy that holds that each person is free to choose for himself what is right and wrong.

How does Elder Oaks define the term "moral relativism"?

Spirit emerges from Nature to master it, then absorbs Nature as a moment in the development of Spirit.

How does Hegel understand the relation between Spirit (or Mind) and Nature?

Continual success in getting what one wants.

How does Hobbes define happiness or "felicity"?

Natural equality prevails. There is war of all against all. There are three causes of conflict: competition, diffidence, and glory. Nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

How does Hobbes describe the state of nature?

His text was intended to limit the realm of causal necessity in order to make room for moral freedom.

How does Kant intend The Critique of Pure Reason to serve the cause of morality?

Power to do as one wishes.

How does Locke define freedom?

My property is the product of my labor. Private property brings increase of property and does so to everyone's benefit.

How does Locke justify private property?

Mill argues that the same sanctions that have made traditional morality effective can be applied by even more power by a progressive, scientific society.

How does Mill address the concern that utilitarian morality might not have an adequate "sanction"?

External and internal sanctions, the former divided into human and divine.

How does Mill classify the "sanctions," or motives, that drive morality?

Modern deterministic science seems opposite to personal freedom, but in fact these opposites attract.

How does Professor Hancock describe the relationship between modern science and modern freedom?

Hobbes pursues Machiavelli's project of an "effectual truth", but aims to make it an airtight theory that is scientific and universal.

How is Hobbes's project like and unlike Machiavelli's project?

Consent of the majority The rule of law Separation of legislative from executive power

How is just government limited to Locke?

The Christian cooperates with secular authority only for the benefit of his neighbor, not for the benefit to himself.

In "The Limits of Secular Authority," how does Luther explain the Christian's duty to uphold secular authority, even though a Christian has no need of it and must be willing to "turn the other cheek" rather than demand justice under the law?

Satisfaction and stupefaction.

In chapter 7 of The Prince, Machiavelli describes the effect that Cesare Borgia's (also known as the Duke Valentino) bloody sacrifice of his henchman Remirro de Orco had on the people as a combination of ____________.

He says we must pick a direction and go with it, treating our decision as if it were the certain truth.

In part 3 of Descartes's Discourse, Descartes compares himself to a man lost in a forest with no sense of direction. What does he propose could overcome the basic uncertainty and the repentings and pangs of remorse that are part of human existence?

Yes, because the combination of determinist realism and revolutionary idealism is inherently potent.

Is Marx substantially responsible for Marxist-Leninist tyranny?

The power to make and to execute just laws.

Locke defines political power as supplying what two defects of the state of nature?

He rejects the classical view of humanity as oriented towards the divine.

Machiavelli proposes that effective action requires alternating between two animals, the lion and the fox. What does this tell us about his view of humanity?

Yes, substantially, because Nietzsche invited his readers to go "beyond good and evil."

Was Nazism Nietzsche's fault?

He wants assistants to help carry out his method, not philosophical conversations that question his method.

What assistance does Descartes solicit for his project, and what assistance does he refuse?

Sovereignty depends upon promising, and promising depends upon sovereignty.

What contradiction of confusion is involved in Hobbes's theory of political authority?

The moment of the human mind's complete and perfect self-consciousness. The moment after which no further fundamental religious, philosophical or political questions will arise. The moment of perfect and permanent union between form (freedom) and content (nature).

What does Hegel mean by the "end of history"?

The absence of external obstacles, which has nothing to do with "free will".

What does Hobbes mean by freedom or "liberty"? Does freedom or liberty require "free will"?

The rights of nature are hardly relevant to human beings in society. We only know "nature" as mediated through institutions and traditions. Some duties are prior to our rights; consent is not an absolute principle. Obligations to our particular "little platoons" may trump general, "rational" principles.

What is Burke's critique of the modern natural rights doctrine?

True: Poetry or literature is lovely but cannot be a rational science. We do not need theology because we have revealed truth. Traditional education is like a pretty palace built on a foundation of mud. Traditional virtue promotes apathy, pride, despair, and parricide. False: Mathematics is impressive but can provide no more than a kind of mental gymnastics.

What is Descartes's assessment of his traditional education? What is not?

He argues that parents are free to fashion their children's education subject only to state verification of requirements in positive, factual sciences.

What is Mill's proposition for addressing the conflict between the individual's liberty and the state's interest in the education of the individual's children?

Platonism invents the idea of a pure, impersonal "Truth" abstracted from actual life.

What is Nietzsche's critique of Platonism?

The "free thinkers" unknowingly assume the slave morality inherited from Christianity.

What is Nietzsche's critique of the "rationalism" of the Enlightenment?

There is no pure philosophical alternative to modern liberalism; one must prudently separate the wheat from the tares.

What is Philippe Beneton's practical response to modern liberalism (as discussed in "Epilogue 1")?

Hobbes does not go back far enough to discover man's true nature.

What is Rousseau's critique of Hobbes's idea of the state of nature?

Civilization alienates man from his true self.

What is Rousseau's objection to modern civilization?

A complete alienation of the individual will to the General Will

What is Rousseau's political solution to the problem of modern civilization?

His method promises to make human beings masters and possessors of nature so they can enjoy the fruits of the earth without any pain.

What is the huge public significance (part six) of the project that Descartes first described as a merely private speculation?

Tyranny of the majority; the harm principle

What is the problem Mill addresses in On Liberty and what principle does he propose as a solution?

Consent

What is the source of political obligation for Locke?

Our tolerance and respect for others and their beliefs does not cause us to abandon our commitment to the truths we understand and the covenants we have made.

What is the third absolute truth that Elder Oaks affirms?

How can a good tradition be distinguished from a bad tradition? What is the ground and content of this traditional "wisdom"?

What key question(s) is (are) left unanswered in Burke's doctrine of "prescription" (or traditionalism)?

A "soft" or "mild" despotism masked in the form of a democratic institution.

What kind of despotism does Tocqueville say a democracy has to fear?

The education of citizens in Hobbes's new rational morality. The reform of Universities to teach the new science of morality and politics. Equal taxes and other laws that encourage economic growth.

What recommendations does Hobbes give the sovereign in fulfilling his "office"?

The sin against the law obliging us to procure the common good of all.

What sin does Descartes say he is avoiding by going public with his project?

Locke and Rousseau; Hobbes

What two thinkers were important influences upon the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, respectively? Which thinker influenced both of those thinkers?

The right to preserve one's own life.

What unalienable right does Hobbes recognize?

The bourgeois belief in "eternal," moral, and religious truth is merely the product of capitalist economic relations. Capitalism has already reduced bourgeois family values to a purely monetary relation.

What was Marx's critique of bourgeois morality and bourgeois freedom?

The tendency of modern rationalism to set opinions and beliefs at odds with tastes and character.

What was Tocqueville referring to in his assertion that the intellectual world was experiencing a time in which "all laws of moral analogy" seemed "to be abolished'?

self-preservation + increase of property

Which formula best expresses the continuity between Hobbes and Locke?

Skepticism regarding received truths will finally bring about the universal recognition of the truth.

Which of the following best represents John Stuart Mill's position regarding moral truth?

"frequent appeals would... deprive the government of that veneration which time bestows... The reason of man... acquires firmness and confidence" from opinions "ancient as well as numerous."

Which of the following citations represents the clear departure from modern rationalism in Federalist no. 49?

Locke's state of nature at first appears more peaceful than Hobbes's Locke's state of nature includes stages, unlike Hobbes's Locke's state of nature includes the development of property, unlike Hobbes's.

Which of the following comparisons is true concerning Locke's idea of the state of nature as compared with Hobbes's?

The appeal to natural rights as grounded in "laws of nature and nature's God" The grievances that refer to the traditional rights of Englishmen The basing of government authority on the consent of the governed

Which of the following features of the Declaration of Independence makes it more "conservative" document?

Rousseau vs. the Enlightenment Conservative vs. Progressive Pagan vs. Christian

Which of the following form the three pairs of opposing viewpoints that Mill gives as examples of partial truths that ultimately must be combined?

The maxim of your action must be a universal law. Each rational being must be seen as an end in himself. Your action should aim at a "kingdom of ends."

Which of the following is included in Kant's formulation of the "Categorical Imperative" of moral duty?

"Effectual truth" versus "imaginary republics".

Which of the following relationships best reveals The Prince as a declaration of intellectual war against tradition?

For Aristotle, moral virtue is an intrinsic part of the common good.

Which of the following statements best represents how Aristotle's views differ from Machiavelli's views on the meaning of the common good?

The individual can appeal to no authority higher than that of actual statutes legislated by "all the citizens or by their representatives."

Which of the following statements represents the pure modern rationalism of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen?

The subject has authorized or "owned" in advance all the actions of the sovereign.

Why can a subject have no legitimate complaint against any act of the sovereign?

The modern self-purchases mastery at the cost of all meaningful human content. The price of technological progress is an ever-increasing dependence on inbred education elites. The ideology of individual autonomy in facts leads to increasing conformism.

Why does Beneton believe modern equality is a fool's bargain?

He has no interest in a religious or metaphysical understanding of free will. He does not ultimately believe that reason can rule over the passions and appetites. He scientifically presents human nature as nothing more than a complex machine. He shifts the question from freedom to some undefined perfectibility.

Why is Rousseau's definition of freedom in "A Discourse" problematic?