SİYASAL DÜŞÜNCE - Deneme Sınavı - 8

A comprehensive understanding of the western political thought requires a careful reading of the early Greek and Roman tradition in this field. Political institutions in ancient Greece started with the birth of polis that is today literally known as city. However, the polis, beyond various concrete structures, represented a particular social organization where a vivid and secure atmosphere for social, political, and cultural opportunities as well as discussions about them were being provided to residents.

Considering existing archival information, it is not possible to specify a precise date for the birth of the polis. We already know that there were settlements on the Greek geography starting from the 2nd Millennium B.C. On the other hand, polis, as a social settlement with its ideological and political institutions, appears at the 5th Century B.C., at the middle of the classical age.

Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey that are two epic poems which are the central works of ancient Greek literature. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek Kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the journey to home of Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy.

The first celebrity of Greek philosophers is Socrates who gained his fame through help of his students, namely through Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle. According to Socrates, virtue is a form of knowledge and thus something that could be taught to people. Only the virtues citizens should hold is the power of ruling. He was not interested in dealing with logic, nor chemistry and physics. Socrates was an admirer of knowledge and wisdom. According to him, everyday life of society should not be governed by ordinary citizens, who do not have adequate wisdom and knowledge.

Plato was the founder of Academia -the first academic institution of Europe-, where he taught his philosophy and political views. The institution was sponsored by some rich friends of Plato himself.

Plato was not favourable for democracy. He accepted democracy as a degenerated form and chaotic way of rule.

Six different types of modes of governing can be pointed out in Ancient Greece political thought:

1. The government of a single person who aims the common good: Monarchy

2. The government of a minority group who aims the common good: Aristocracy

3. The government of the majority of the people which aims the common good: Politeia

4. The government of a single person whotargets the interests of single person:Tyranny

5. The government of a minority group whoaims the interests of the rich: Oligarchy

6. The government of the majority of the people aiming the interests of the poor: Democracy

Epicurus developed his philosophy based on four different sources: Platonic lecturers of Athens, atomist doctrine of Democritus, septic views of Pyrrhus, and hedonist philosophy of Aristippus. Even though he was affected by all these philosophers, he was a strong critic of them. Unfortunately, he taught his ideas like dogmas and his school gained almost a semi-religious character. Thus, while the further contributions were restrained by this feature, the Epicurean philosophy became easy to be studied. Investigating only Epicurus’ personal philosophy is adequate for understanding the general conception of Epicurean school indeed.

Augustine believed that the universe was created by the God from nothing. According to him, the God created everything from nothing only in six days. His motto was “God and spirit. That is all I would like to know. Nothing else is needed”. This was a strong negation of reason and philosophy. He thought knowledge was impossible for human being. Human beings were deficient and transgressor. The only way of reaching knowledge would be faith and the scare of God. According to Augustine, justice was a relationship between the God and people.

For Socrates, virtue was the most important value human beings should possess because virtue was a form of knowledge.  And only those who are the most virtuous should be in power of ruling.

Administration is an occupation, not a virtue.

According to Plato, Four elements affect the degeneration of the states: 1. disappearance of internal harmony of society, 2. violation of division of labor within the society, 3. emergence of economical class conflicts, and finally, 4. moral corruption and destruction of unity of the rulers. Democracy, however, is a chaotic atmosphere, for Plato; rather than being an order.

According to Aristotle, 

Monarchy is the government of a single person who aims the common good

Aristocracy is the government of a minority group who aims the common good

Tyranny is the government of a single person who targets the interests of single person

Oligarchy is the government of a minority group who aims the interests of the rich

Politeia is the government of the majority of the people which aims the common good

Epicurus was a materialist philosopher, who followed Democritus. He developed an ethical philosophy, consistent with the materialist philosophy of nature.

All are true for Polybius.

All are true of Cicero except D.  He argued that egoism was against nature, therefore he was against the Epicurean views, which suggested giving up with social issues and searching for individual happiness.

Mercifulness is mentioned in the Roman stoicism.  It is suggested that a monarch should be merciful to his subjects. Otherwise his kingdom might be short.

Augustine was the scholar who located the universality of Christianity instead of universality of the Roman Empire.

Avicenna is considered to be a descendant of Alfarabi as he continued the Neoplatoic emanationist scheme of existence. In contrast with the classical Muslim theologians,  and argued that cosmos has no beginning but is a natural logical product of the divine One; which would later be attacked by Al-Ghazâlî. The superabundant, pure Good- i.e. the One cannot fail to produce an ordered and good cosmos that does not succeed him in time. The cosmos succeeds God merely in logical order and in existence (Rizvi, n.d.).

In the middle ages, the strong relation between jurisprudence and politics was much emphasized by Abu’l-Hassan al-Mâwardi, who could be claimed to be the first Islamic political scientist.