SİYASAL DÜŞÜNCE - Deneme Sınavı - 2

The goods and evils of government stated by Augustine in The City of God might be summarised as follows:

1. Government may be, and must be, rule by the ideal Christian ruler; such a ruler would lead his people in obedience to God.

2. Government may simply be a tyranny-as a realisation of evil and/or love of self, which is an expression of the “earthly city” (civitas terrana/diaboli).

3. Government exists to organise the cooperation of “men of good will” (speaking in modern terms), i.e., citizens of the two cities united by an interest in earthly peace and other earthly goods, valued by both Christians and non- Christians (KilcullenRobinson, 2017: 9).

Canon law (ius canonicum) refers to the body of laws made within certain Christian churches (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, independent churches of Eastern Christianity, and the Anglican Communion) by lawful ecclesiastical authority for the government of both the whole church and parts thereof and of the behaviour and actions of individuals. In a wider sense, the term includes precepts of divine law, natural or positive, incorporated in the canonical collections and codes.

Ideas taken by the medieval thinkers from the law texts might be listed thus:
1. A distinction among kinds of laws, namely natural law (ius naturale), law of nations (ius gentium), and civil law (i.e., the law of a particular community).

2. A notion of rights, including natural rights (currently, “human rights”), which may be attributed to individuals. It is noteworthy that the language of rights, without which many people these days would not know how to talk about politics, did not fully enter political philosophy until the fourteenth century as a borrowing from the law,

3. “The one liberty of all men”, i.e., the idea that human beings are basically equal and
that slavery is contrary to natural law, though in accordance with the law of nations,

4. The origin of property: according to some Roman law texts, property originated by natural law; according to others by the law of nations. According to canon law, property exists by human law (which includes the law of nations and the civil law); compare Augustine’s statement that property exists by the laws of the emperors,

5. The doctrine that the source of political authority is the people, who have, however, entrusted their power to the emperor or some other ruler,

6. The doctrine that either the pope or emperor (or both) has a “fullness of power”,

7. The doctrine that natural law permits an individual to resist force by force; which would provide a premise for arguments for the right to disobey a tyrannical government, used later by John Locke (1632-1704),

8. A distinction between Church and State more exactly, between the priesthood and the power of the emperor, each independent in its own sphere, though the priesthood has the higher function (ibid: 11-12).

Thomas Aquinas cliams that the best form of government is a mixed government combining elements of democracy, aristocracy and kingship (Summa, 1–2, q. 105, a. 1). This claim of Aquinas can be argued to be under the influence of Aristotle (Kilcullen-Robinson, 2017: 17)

Ideas which medieval political thinkers owe to Aristotle (or which could be claimed to be reinforced by Aristotle) might be summarised as the following list:
1. It is natural for human beings to form cities. “Political” [i.e., city] life is natural to human kind.
2. The city or state exists not just for security and trade, but to foster the “good life”, the life according to virtue (Politics III.9, 1280 a32–b35).
3. Women should, in general, be ruled by men (Politics I.5, 1254 b13). The inferiority of women was already the general opinion, but Aristotle reinforced it, not only by what he said in the Politics but also by his biological theories.
4. The good forms seek “the common good”, i.e., the good of both ruler and ruled. The best is kingship, the worst tyranny. “The common good” became a basic conception in medieval political philosophy.
5. “The rule of law” is better than “the rule of men”, i.e., it is better to have rules impartially applied than to leave every decision to the unfettered discretion of the rulers. This accorded with the earlier medieval idea that the difference between a king and a tyrant is that the king observes the law.

Legibus solutus means solved/released from laws; and used to denote the situation when the ruler is not subject to the sanctions of laws, or, when the ruler- a tyrant, or a dictator in this case- sees himself as “above the laws”.

Political ideas in the Bible concerning obedience might be summarised as follows:

- The human beings are usually ruled by kings or emperors. There are very few traces of republican institutions in the Bible.

- Kings are quite often evil; and are tyrants and enemies of God. The ruled often share the bad deeds of the rulers.

- The kingship of King David is a model although David also often sinned

- Subjects must obey rulers, even the wicked. It is wrong to disobey, and especially to make any attack on the person of the ruler

- But obedience to rulers is always limited by obedience to the commands of God. That means, the supremacy and the sovereignty of God is thought as superior to any worldly rule or ruler.

Christianity is agreed to be indifferent to matters of slavery; which is also compatible with the Ancient Greek thought. The different parts of The New Testament show that slavery is not considered as a big social problem in the eyes of Christianity.

Monasticism or monkhood is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work.

The Christian theologians of late antiquity are referred to as the Fathers of the Church. The most influential of them in medieval Europe was Augustine; others included Ambrose, Cyprian, and Gregory. Many of the Fathers were influenced by the Platonism and Stoicism, as every educated person became acquainted with in the ancient world. Augustine, who was particularly influenced by Neoplatonism, especially by Plotinus, could be seen as a milestone on the path from The Fathers of the Church to early scholastics.

Argumentum ad Hominem means argument toward human; and used when the ciriticism/objection is directed against a certain individual/society in person, rather than against the opponent’s thoughts/ideas.

We cannot see or consider Saint Augustine’s thought as a philosophy of “black and white”, of a sharp and clear opposition between the forces of light and the forces of darkness-like the Manichean philosophy.

Natural law, in other words, ius naturale, is a system of right or justice held to be common to all human beings and derived from nature, rather than from the rules of society, i.e., positive law.

An issue that signifies John of Salisbury’s thought as worthy of attention is the analogy he sets between the different offices of political society and the distinct parts of the human body. Like all bodies, the commonwealth is guided by a soul, which John assigns to those who direct the practice of religion. Because the political creature is essentially a secular entity, the body politic is ruled by the prince, who “occupies the place of the head”

Ideas which medieval political thinkers owe to Aristotle (or which could be claimed to be reinforced by Aristotle) might be summarised as the following list:

1. It is natural for human beings to form cities. Political city life is natural to human kind.
2. The city or state exists not just for security and trade, but to foster the “good life”, the life according to virtue.
3. Women should, in general, be ruled by men. The inferiority of women was already the general opinion, but Aristotle reinforced it, not only by what he said in the Politics but also by his biological theories.
4. The good forms seek “the common good”. The best is kingship, the worst tyranny. “The common good” became a basic conception in medieval political philosophy.
5. A good form of government must be stable, not liable to revolution.

Aristotle’s Politics was translated into Latin for the first time in the mid-1260s, in other words, 13th Century. Although the Politics did not become part of the core curriculum, it was closely studied by many of the leading philosophers of the scholastic period. Notable commentaries on the Politics were written by Thomas Aquinas and Peter of Auvergne. William of Ockham gave a concise and profound summary and interpretation of Arsitotle’s political theory, too.

Christianity is indifferent to the concept of slavery.

Equality and slavery are opposite of each other.

Canon law is divine law, natural or positive, incorporated in the sacred book collections and codes

Natural law is a law common to all human beings and derived from nature, rather than from the rules of society