WESTERN SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY

• 6th Century BC in the Ionia

o Ionians were the first to organize city-states and learn self-government
o Commercial exploration
o Coming from different tribes working and living together which eliminates the
rigid tribal beliefs and taboos enabling them to think liberally with other kinds of
people.
o The use of reason as primary tool to unravel the truth or explaining the different
phenomenon that man experience.
• Pre-Socratic
o Milesian School
▪ Miletus – commercial center of Ionia
▪ First three Greek thinkers:
• Thales – water as the basic element
• Anaximander – existence of a primal substance that is
transformed into various elements. This primal substance is
something that is eternal
• Anaximenes – fundamental substance is air
▪ Focused on the exploration of nature
▪ Pre-Greek societies (non-scientific)
• No concept of universal laws of nature that can be explained
through reasoning
• Animistic in nature
o Pythagoras
▪ Mathematics as a form of deductive reasoning
▪ Upheld the Bacchic mysticism dominant in the pre-Socratic ages
▪ Believes in the idea of transmigration of souls
o Heraclitus
▪ Fire as the fundamental substance
▪ Only force will compel mankind to act for their own good
▪ Values power obtained through self-mastery, and despises the passions
that distract men from their central ambitions
▪ Everything changes as product of battle between the dry and moist
portions of the soul (fire and water)
o Parminides
▪ Metaphysics based on logic
▪ The only true thing is “The One”. Sensible things are mere illusions
▪ “The things that can thought and that for the sake of which the thought
exists is the same; for you cannot find thought without something that is,
as to which it is uttered.”
o Empedocles
▪ Air as a separate substance; theory of survival of the fittest;
▪ Strife and love produce change (parallel to that of Heraclitus
• RISE OF ATHENS
o Most of great pre-Socratic Greek thinkers came from Ionia and Italian islands
o After the Two Persian wars (490 BC and 480-79 BC)
▪ 490 – Darius
▪ 480-79 – Xerxes
▪ Anti-Persian alliance with the Ionians needed naval force to which Athens
provided in exchange for money.
▪ As a result, Athens became a naval superpower and a wealthy nation
which was capable of reconstructing the war damages – this paved the
way for the demand for sculptor, artists, historians (including Herodotus)
▪ The Alliance was slowly transformed into an Athenian empire.
o Athens’ heydays were under the leadership of Pericles until 430 BC
o Comprised of battle between tyranny and democracy where aristocrats were able
to situate themselves in the democratic government.
o Until Athens’ expansionism and growing wealth rose tension with Sparta that lead
to the Peloponnesian war (431-404) which brought Athens to the ground.
o Anaxagoras
▪ Carrying the scientific rationalistic tradition of Ionia, he first introduced
philosophy to the Athenians.
▪ Mind as the cause of Physical change
▪ Everything is infinitely divisible
▪ Mind has power over all things that life; it is infinite and self-ruled, and is
mixed with nothing. Mind is the source of all motion.
o Atomists
▪ Leucippus and Democritus
• Everything is composed of atoms; which are physically but not
geometrically invisible. Between atoms there is an empty space.
• Determinism- things are predetermined in line with natural laws
• “The world may be attributed to a Creator, but even then, the
Creator Himself is accounted for.”
o Sophists
▪ Teachers who created subjects by inventing definitions and concepts and
who were paid for teaching them.
▪ Education for Leadership. Art of argumentation
▪ Political institutions are not the product of divine laws but of social
conventions and agreements agreed upon by men for utilitarian reasons
(Concept of a Social Contract)
▪ Concept of “Government by consent”
▪ Discredited for being teachers of political propaganda
▪ The shift from studies about outer world of nature towards man and his
behavior with society.
▪ Skepticism as a form of intellectual challenge to the supposed rationalism
expressed in democratic constitution of Athens.
o Protagoras
▪ “Main is the measure of all things, of things that are that they are, and of
things that are not that they are not”.
▪ When men differ, there is no objective truth in virtue of which one s right
and the other wrong.
 ▪ No absolute truth. Truth is relative or there are multiplicity of truths.
▪ The disbelief in objective truth makes the majority, for practical purposes,
the arbiters as to what to believe.
• SOCRATES
o WHAT IS JUSTICE?
▪ Who can we consider a just man?
▪ What can we consider as a Just act?
▪ Can a Just man do unjust things and can the unjust man do just things?
Two Socrates
• Historical Socrates – the actual persona of Socrates that really existed during his time and
expressed his own thoughts in real terms.
• Platonic Socrates – the character Plato used to express his thoughts via literary ingenuity.

Socrates’ Apology
• “God only is wise; and by his answer he intendeds to show that the wisdom of men is worth
little or nothing; he is not speaking of Socrates, he is only using name by way of illustration,
as if he said, He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth
worth nothing.”
• “If you think that by killing men you can prevent some one from censuring your evil lives,
you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honorable; the
easiest and the noblest way is not to be disabling others, but to be improving themselves.

PLATO (428-7 B.C.)

• A well to do aristocrat who witnessed the defeat of Athens by Sparta to which he among
other young aristocrats of his time attributed to Democracy.
• Philosophy influenced by:
o Pythagoras- Orphic/Bacchic mysticism
o Parmenides- Reality as eternal and timeless
o Heraclitus- Nothing is permanent in the sensible world (reason is supreme, not the
senses)
o Socrates- Teleological explanation of the ethical questions.
• Highly influenced by Sparta
The Composition of a State
• Wise- virtue of rationality that is needed to rule
• Brave- virtue of necessary spirit to protect the state
• Temperate- virtue of control of individual appetite in service to the state
• Just- the over-all state
Plato’s Theory of Justice
• It consists, we are told, in everybody doing his own work and not being a busybody: the
city is just when trader, auxiliary, and guardian, each does his own job without interfering
with that of other classes.
• Stability as an expression of justice is preserved by the proper function of each individual
especially the rulers i.e.:
o Secure the size of the state
o Maintain unity of the Commonwealth
o Education and Nurture.
Programs:
• Education
• Economic
• Biological
• Religious
Education:
• Music (Culture)- Gravity, decorum, and courage seem to be the qualities mainly to be
cultivated in education. There is to be a rigid censorship, from very early years, over the
literature to which the young have access and the music they are allowed to hear.
• Gymnastics (Athletics)- Physical capability and experience with actual wars. A specific
body regimen for the young with no vices to be incurred.
Economic and Biological
• Communism (including auxiliaries/soldiers)
o Small house, simple food, to live in camps, dining together as a group
o No private property (beyond what is necessary)
▪ Gold and silver are to be forbidden
o Equality of Women
o Family (women and children are to all)
▪ Procreation festivals
o Abolition of the Family
▪ Common marriage
• The purpose is to minimize private possessive emotions, and so remove obstacles to the
domination of public spirit, as well as to acquiescence in the absence of private Property

Religious
• “One Royal Lie” God has created men of three kinds, the best made of gold, the second
best of silver, and the common herd of brass and iron.
o Those made of gold are fit to be guardians;
o Those made of silver should be soldiers;
o The others should do the manual work.
Philosopher
• The philosopher is a man who loves the “vision of truth”. The acquisition of such truth is
knowledge.
• Knowledge Vs. Opinion
o Knowledge – super-sensible eternal world (Concerns with Beauty itself)
o Opinion – the world that is presented through the senses (concerned with Beautiful
Things)
The Philosopher King
• To be sought if the ideal state is to be established.
• The merger of intellectual capacity and established authority (previously monarchial in
nature).
• To create the ideal state, the rationalism of the philosopher should be inculcated
“There can be no rest from troubles [for states or for all mankind]. Unless either
philosophers become kings in their countries or those who are now called kings and rulers
come to be sufficiently inspired with a genuine desire for wisdom; unless, that is to say,
political power and philosophy meet together.”

The Allegory of the Cave

• An object has sensible features but this is not reality but rather an interpretation of the
perfect idea or form, i.e., the reality.
• Such reality can only be accessible to the limited few.
• Served as the Philosophical backbone of the ideal ruler that is the Philosopher King.
Particular VS Universal
• Particular sensible things seem have within it, contradictory elements and therefore untrue
since it is subjective/relative.
• Universal (forms) are non-sensible true meaning of things. This is the truth of the things
that is absolute. Its logical proof is the existence of the concept of a thing.
Logic and Metaphysics of the Theory of Forms

Logic
• Has to do with the meaning of general words. These words are not meaningless. Its
meaning is not bound by a particular thing it represents but the universal idea it represents.
Metaphysics
• The thing is certain ideal that is created by god. All other things that are sensible partakes
the nature of a thing – imperfectly. Its imperfection is the cause for its multiplicity.

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

• Came from an upper-middle class family from the colonial town of Stagira in the
Macedonian coasts.
• Entered Athens at the age of 17 to study under Plato’s Academy (20 years) until Plato’s
death.
• Served as a tutor to Alexander, the son of Philip of Macedon who later invaded the Persian
empire.
• Closely linked with the Macedonia Monarchy.
• Went back to Athens by 335 B.C. to establish his own school “The Lyceum”.

THE STATE
• State is a community (organic state)
o Contrary to the instrumentalist perception of the state as forwarded by the Sophists.
o The state is an organism with all the attributes of a living being.
o Human relations being innate in individuals – association is necessary to full certain
desires.
o All associations are political. Man, by nature is political.

• The state is the highest Community

o The state is the natural and final stage in the growth of human relations
o Collective Good
Origins of the State (Evolution of Social Institutions)
• Family (Material) – The first form of association which is the association which is the
lowest in the process of the evolution of institutions. It is established by nature “for the
supply of men’s everyday wants”.
• The Village (Social) – More complex than the family. Established to satisfy cultural
wants or desire for companionship and community.
• State (Moral) – Established for the sake of the “Good Life” (Eudamonia) and not for
the sake of life only. To fulfill the quality that makes him specifically human.

FORMS OF GOVERNMENT

Number of Rulers ‘True’ (Common Interest) ‘Despotic’ (Selfish Interest)

One Monarchy Tyranny
Few Aristocracy Oligarchy
Many Polity Democracy

“Poverty is the mother of rebellion” – Reason why Monarchy and Aristocracy wouldn’t be
implemented

True Government
• Monarchy
o The most ideal kind of government
o Superior virtue of Monarchs give them the right to practice compulsion.
o Virtue of the ruler over the consent of the ruled.
o If a person has a preeminent virtue and political capacity, he should rule for he can
“be deemed a God among men.
o “All should joyfully obey such a ruler, according to what seems to be the originally
of nature.”
• Aristocracy
o Government formed of the best men
• Constitutional Government (Polity)
o The state that the citizens at large administer for the common interest.
o A compromise between the two principles:
▪ Freedom (of the poor)
▪ Wealth (of the city)
o The more empirical approach of Aristotle has led to this concession. While, the
ideal state is that of a monarchial form of government, it is hard to implement given
the circumstances of the real world- more practical.
Despotic
• Tyranny
o Perversion of Monarchy
o Rule of a non-virtuous single person who focuses his pursuit as a rule for his
personal benefits and desires.
• Oligarchy
o Perversion of Aristocracy
 o The same problems with that of Monarchy except that perverted treatment of power
and the benefits out of it
• Democracy
o Perversion of Polity/Constitutional Government
o Governed by the Poor and for the Poor only.
o For Aristotle, the most tolerable of all the despotic forms of governments.
o Characterized by: (incompatible with the stability of the existing moral and political
order)
▪ Popular Sovereignty- absolute will/power emanates from the population
▪ Individual Liberty
CITIZENSHIP
• Citizen – “He who has the power to take part in the deliberative or judicial administration
of the state.”
• The idea of citizenship is that of an individual who is economically independent who has
enough experience, education, and leisure to devote himself to politics.
• A citizen is not to lead the life of mere artisans for it is ignoble and inimical of virtue. A
citizen is considered to be a part of the state.
• To become a citizen, you need to have SLAVES.
Slavery
• Other classes are mere necessary conditions to which the citizens can fully commit
themselves to share something to the state. They are not part of the state but mere
necessities for its existence.
o Freedmen
o Slaves
o Lower class
• Citizenship – the virtue of being human as part of the state is an enough in itself.
• Slavery – a means to achieve purpose of the state. They belong wholly to their masters.

Types of Rules
• Master over slave- The rule is that of a superior element over an inferior subject.
• Statesman over Citizens- The rule of a citizen over his fellow citizens.
• King over Subject- Authority based on virtue of affection and seniority – equivalent to
royal authority.
Domestic Relations
• Master over Slave
• Husband over Wife (Statesman over citizens)
• Parents over children (King over subjects)

Slavery is a naturally determined condition. IT is an inclusively beneficial condition for both the
slave and the master. If such condition is already defined by mere legal sanctions and superior
power. It contradicts the said nature of the condition and may be destructive instead of beneficial.

GOOD MAN
• Good Man (Ruler) – PRUDENCE
o Virtue of excellence/goodness is single and absolute regardless of the constitution.
o Excellence in the order of ruling.
 o POLITICAL RULE i.e., the rule of over equally free men, is developed, and
learned by the ruler both by being ruled and by ruling.
o The goodness of ruler is relative in having his ruled to make them good in the
process.
• Good Citizen (Ruled) – RIGHT OPINION
o Not absolute excellence/goodness.
o Excellence/goodness of the citizens is relative to the constitutions as the
composition of their association.
o Knowledge of rule over free men from both points of view (ruler and ruled).
The Good Life (Eudaimonia)
• It is the ultimate purpose and end of the Polis/State.
• The constitution of a state is a composition of associations and clans in a good life i.e.
SELF SUFFICING/SELF SUFFICIENT.
• Social institutions are a means to the good life:
o Marriages
o Kin-groups
o Religious gathering
• Characteristics of state-leaders
o Wealth (EXISTENCE OF THE STATE)
o Free Birth (EXISTENCE OF THE STATE)
o Temper (EUDAIMONIA)
o Justice (EUDAIMONIA)
JUSTICE
• The greatest and most commonly pursued good.
• Consists in what tends to promote common interest.
• Two factors of Justice:
o Things
o To whom things are assigned – Persons who are equal should have assigned to them
equal things.
▪ The rich few
▪ Birth
▪ Good character
▪ Majority
o Claims to Political Rights must be based on the ground of contribution to the
elements which constitute the being of the state.
The Rule of Law
▪ The supremacy of the body of laws over individual rulers.
o Such is necessary to allow everyone to have the opportunity to be rulers and be
ruled which is at the core of “Justice” among equals.
o The law trains the holders of office expressly in its own spirit, and then sets them
to decide and settle those residuary issues which it cannot regulate “as justly as in
them lies”.
▪ Rule of God and Reason.
o Man’s rule (instead of law) is of beastly characters as perverted by appetite and
high spirit. Reason should overpower the two.
o The Law
 ▪ “Reason free from all passion”
▪ A neutral authority in the search for justice
POLITICS
▪ Four functions of Politics
o The best constitution and its qualities devoid of external factors.
o The type of constitutions in relation to the type of civic body. The best constitution
in relation to actual conditions.
o A given constitution: disposition, origins, and developments.
o Practicable constitutions – easiest and most suitable to states generally.
▪ Constitution – “an organization of offices in state, by which the method of their
distribution is fixed, the sovereign authority is determined, and the nature of the end to be
pursued by the association and all its members is prescribed.”
▪ Laws – “the rules by which the magistrates should exercise their powers and should watch
and check transgressors.”
THE HELLENISTIC AGE
• 338 B.C. – Athens was defeated by Macedonia at Chaeronea (battle of Chaeronea) ushered
at the takeover of the Macedonian Empire under the rule of King Philip.
• Alexander The Great
o Song of King Philip carried on the expansionist dream of his father and set to
conquer the Persian empire.
o (334 – 324 B.C.) Took over the entire Persian empire crossing the regions of Asia
Minor, Syria, Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, Samarcand, Bactria, and the Punjab.
Hellenization
• Introduction of Greek institutions in the newly conquered/established cities under
Alexander’s Macedonia empire.
• Integration of Greek culture (arts and languages) and scientific knowledge to the east.
• Influence of eastern mystic beliefs and superstition to the Greeks.
• Cosmopolitanism
o Polis was no longer the end of political organization (City-states are mere
municipalities of a huge empire)
o Political unity of the world (Mankind as a whole; not excluding non-Greeks)
o Greek civilization, in covering a wider area, became less purely Greek.
• Introduction of the divine right rule where governments are ruled by divine or semi-divine
saintly kings.
o Alexander himself was proclaimed to be the son of God in many cities. Either he
believed in it or used it as a matter of policy to maintain control over the East.
• Alexander died and the Macedonian empire fell into the hands of the families of three
generals: Antigonus, Ptolemy, Seleucus.
o Ptolemies and Seleucids abandoned Greek and barbaric abandoned Greek and
barbaric fusion by Alexander.
o Egypt (Alexander) under the Ptolemies became a haven for intellectual pursuit.
• Specialization in the world of learning and all departments of society.
• Detachment from public affairs in contrast to the naturally political nature of the Greek
polis.
 • In the whole of the Macedonian empire, there was chaos and instability (i.e., rebellions,
conquests, etc.,) attributed to the absence of a despot or a principle that can unite the wide-
ranging empire.

East’s Religious and Superstitious influence

• Primarily of the Chaldean and Babylonian source attributed to:
o Priestly records of religious history tracing thousands of years in of mystic stories
of divinities.
o Prediction of eclipses – resulted to the reception of astrology, belief in late and
destiny as expressed by the stars and heavenly body developed.
• Fate became a primary belief/thought which lies on the Predictability of the future as it is
predetermined against the dominant belief in fortune.
Sceptics and Cynics
• CYNICS
o Diogenes
▪ Doing away with material possessions in pursuit of subjective goods;
virtue and contentment.
▪ Rejection of all forms of conventions (religions, manners dress, food, etc.)
▪ Be indifferent to the goods that fortune has to bestow and you will be
emancipated from fear.
▪ One must submit to virtue therefore for him to be for his redemption since
there are no assurance pertaining to the future of the soul.
▪ Popular Cynicism
• Indifference to the good things of the world; not abstinence from it.
• No sense of obligatory attachment; primarily utilitarian.
• SKEPTICS (Founded by Pyrrho)
o Formalization of older doubts such as skepticism towards the senses.
o There can never be rational grounds for action.
o “Dogmatic Doubt” – Knowledge is unattainable.
▪ Do not concern with what is good since good can only be attained through
reason and there is never a rational ground for a particular course of action.
o Since knowledge is unattainable, there is no certainty that can be achieved. Since
there is no certainty, why bother about the future?
o The concern must be about what is present at the moment, not about the uncertain
future.
o Timon – logic to prove the truth/knowledge assumes the existence of self-evident
principles which Timon demies as it would lead to endless or circular trail of
thought.
o Arcesilaus – Platonian skepticism
o Carneades – unwarranted conclusion on justice.
o Clitomachus – religious skepticism
• EPICUREANISM (Epicurus)
o The Universe is chaotic and anarchic composed of atoms and the void.
o All knowledge is acquired by sense perception
▪ Observation leads to understanding.
o The gods are unconcerned about human affairs
 ▪ They are not to be regards superstitiously or feared. Only to be envied.
o Death is not to be feared. There is no immortality or afterlife. The soul breaks down
into atoms when an individual die.
o Dynamic vs Static Pleasures
▪ Dynamic pleasures consist in the attainment of a desired end, the previous
desire having been accompanied by pain while Static Pleasures consists in
a state of equilibrium, which results from the existence of the kind of state
of affairs that would be desired it were absent.
o Equilibrium:
▪ Absence of pain/Quiet pleasures rather than painful and violent joys
o Materialist – influenced by Democritus as far as atomic composition but not as far
as natural determinism.
o Sources of Fear – Religion and Death
o The aim of life was therefore pleasure and not the metaphysical consequences. The
final end is happiness which can be achieved in the pursuit of pleasure together
Absence of Pain and Achievement of Peace of Mind.
▪ It can be achieved through mastery and control of desires:
• Refusal to be involved in family/political affairs
• Skepticism towards religion.
• Friendship (he defended it and declared it as the most tolerable form
of pleasure)
o Voluntary creation of Society and Law
▪ Society was not a natural phenomenon
▪ It is a deliberate creation at creating order.
o LEUCRITIUS
▪ Student of Epicurus known for his expression and sharing of Epicurus’
Philosophical doctrines through his poems.
▪ Adheres and shares Epicurus philosophy especially against religion.
• STOICISM – teleological form of determinism
o Believes in the Natural order of the universe which is also divine. Man is part of
this natural order. Using reason man is capable of understanding the laws of the
universe.
o Virtue depended on knowledge, knowledge is unraveled through reason.
o The Stoic Life Philosophy is to live consistently with nature and follow its universal
laws.
o Peace of mind leads to happiness and it is a result of internal harmony which means
the suppression of non-rational elements to achieve apathia or inner tranquility.
o Stoic Cosmopolitanism – natural law applicable to all human beings exist and can
be achieved by man through reason. Since reason is necessary to understand the
law, and every reason has reason, natural law must apply to all. Thus, a universal
citizenship can exist. (ANCHORED ON NATURAL LAW PHILOSOPHY)
▪ Promoted equality
▪ Diplomatic approach in settling disputes.
o Cosmic Determinism
▪ No such thing as chance. Everything as part of the course of nature is rigidly
determined by natural laws.
 o Human Freedom
o Teleological determinism – the end that is outlined is to achieve a certain purpose.
o The natural laws are ordained by a Supreme power – God as creator and part of the
natural world (He is the soul of the world)
o Each of us contains a part of the divine fire (soul) – a part of god.
o Virtue of Will (reason) that agrees with nature
o PERFECT FREEDOM – Good and Bad in man’s life is only upon himself since
will, the medium of virtue resides internally within the individual, not in other men.
So long as he is emancipated from mundane desires.
• Early Stoicism
o ZENO (4th Century B.C.)
▪ Influenced by the Cynics but was more eclectic and looked up to Socrates
▪ Materialist view of the reality and the soul (non-platonic) – anti-
metaphysics.
o Cleanthes – The soul survived until the next conflagration
o Chrisypphus – only the soul of the wise survive after death
▪ Good and evil are antithetical (Heraclitus)
• Late Stoicism
o Panaetius
▪ Introduced Platonism in Stoic Philosophy abandoning materialism
▪ Soul perishes with the body
o Posidonius
▪ Continued Platonic elements
▪ The soul continues to live in the air. The good soul rises towards the heavens
to witness the stars. While the wicked soul becomes muddy and hardly to
rise.
• Roman Stoicism
o Seneca (Religious Man/Priest)
o Epectituts (Slave)
o Marcus Aurelius (Roman emperor)
▪ Meditations – a journal of sort that details his personal feeling of weariness
about his responsibilities as Roman Emperor.
o The gospel is of Roman Stoic Ethic was that of endurance instead of hope. There
was never-ending sorrow and pain which virtue needs to surpass.
IMPORTANT POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS IN THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD:
• Different from Socratic philosophy
• Realism is the key
• Negative point of the view towards political environment is towards the Hellenistic Period

ROMAN EMPIRE – due to First and Second Punic Wars

I. Direct effect of Rome on Greek Thought
II. Influence of Greece and East in Rome
III. Unification of Government and Culture
IV. The Mohammedans as vehicles of Hellenism

Neo-Platonism – copes with the negative outlook towards philosophy

 • Plotinus – looking at the decline of the Roman Empire, where it was chaotic.

St. Augustine
• Dualism between the city of god and city of man (Primacy of God over Man)
o Good vs. evil → general dualism
o Perfection vs. imperfection → universalism
o Metaphysical vs. Material → Nature of Forms
o Virtue vs. Desire → dualism of the soul
o Morality vs. Immorality → concerning action
• “What is against Truth cannot be just.” – St. Augustine
• Justice – True Justice is cannot exist in any Republic except that is founded by Christ.
Where eternal peace can be achieved. Justice is the divine guidance of Christ over the
Kingdoms. For without it, “kingdoms would only become great robbers”.
• The desires of the city i.e., peace, although reached through wars and conflicts, cannot but
fully be called evil because it is in its own kind, better than all other human desires. These
things are gifts from God. PEACE SHOULD BE TREATED AS TEMPORAL, AND
THAT IT IS A SINGULAR THING THAT EVERYONE DESIRES.
• But if the victors of Peace and reject the better things of the heavenly city, misery will ever
follow and increase.
• “Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale?... A gang
is a group of men… in which the plunder is divided according to an agreed convention. If
this villainy… acquires territory, establishes a base, captures cities and subdues people, it
then openly arrogates to itself the title of kingdom.” – St. Augustine
• Commonwealth
o The Commonwealth is the assemblage of men under one God. If there is no Justice,
the Republic cannot possibly exist. The true republic therefore, dependent on True
Justice which can only be achieved through Christ, can only be achieved through
Christ.
MEDIEVAL LIFE AND THOUGHT
• Generally dated from the downfall of Rome (476 A.D)
• Weak Central form of Government
• Local government was the norm

Feudal System
• A social system of Barbarian origins fundamentally related to the relationship between
landlords and tenants.
o In the absence of universal public laws, social groups had legal relations to others
exchanging allegiance and services with protection with superior social groups.
• Vassalage
o Vassals are subjects who submit to the authority of a lord who will provide
protection to the vassal in exchange for services and men. Originally military in
nature.
• Fief
o The land that is given by the King to the vassals in exchange of necessary services.
The fief therefore becomes a land of the lord to which the vassals are subjects.
Regnum and Sacerdotium
 • Single society with two governments; each with separate powers
• Theory of Two Swords by Pope Gelasius I
o The pope was superior to the ruler in the ecclesiastical realm.
o The ruler was superior in temporal affairs. (Secular)
• Conflict between the two swords’ authority
o Basing on its knowledge of divine or natural law, the church was acting on secular
spheres.
o On the contrary, for seculars, since the authority was divine origin, secular rulers
were responsible only to God alone unhindered by ecclesiastical interference.
• Gregory VII – The pope was supreme head of the church and could not only control
bishops, but also depose the Emperor.
o The analogy of the Sun and the Moon: Sun is the Church and the Moon is the State.
• Innocent IV – Against Frederic II, the Pope claimed supreme power as pope, as Vicar of
Christ having power over both infidel and Christians.
• Boniface VIII- (Against Philip IV of France) A papal bull was issued called Unam
Sanctam: “For every human creature it is absolutely necessary for salvation to Roman
Pontiff”. He lost.
Early forms of representation
• The kings and lords were making use of juries to perform specific decisions and
consultations on several areas of administration.
• By the 13th century, it has become regular to a point of transforming into council meetings
which later we know as the House of Commons.
• The assemblage of communal representatives was first observed in England by King
Edward I – its original purpose was out of economic necessity for the king to efficiently
collect taxes. Functions cover the presentation of petitions by the community.
John of Salisbury
• Society is an organism which has different body parts that need to function based on their
specific purpose. Their purpose is pre-given by God.
• But if each of these parts are to neglect their purpose and look for something else, then the
entire society will suffer.
• Difference between a Prince and a Tyrant.
• The Prince sometimes becomes a tyrant in the sense that he needs to pluck out those who
rise against the will of god. He himself, as a tyrant who diverts from the will of God needs
to be plucked.
• Justice is impartial – only following the law i.e., God’s Law. The Prince is the minister of
“Common Interest” that is to be achieved through the Law.
Shifting tides of Political Thought
• By the 1300s, the position of the ecclesiastical realm in the struggle between the Regnum
and Sacerdotium had been weakened.
Dante
• Man had two separate ends: Earthly and Eternal.
• Emperor and the Pope were guides to these ends whose authority came from God.
• Everything related to the secular world including the achievement of universal peace and
life of reasons was the realm of the Emperor independent of the Pope and the Church.
 • The Good Life (Eudamonia) was to be achieved through the Monarch that is the emperor.
(achieved by the State)
Marsiglio of Padua
• Man is individualistic and Aggressive
• There is a need for Peace and Order in the community.
• Civil society was dependent on everyone doing their function for the common good.
• Secular rule is of different function from that religion. Religion is private whereas external
acts are subject to control.
• The law is integral in the function of society. The concern must be the creation and
execution of these laws. These laws must however achieve community approval. This gave
the law the validity it must have to coercive power.
• (Introduced one element to consider when making Law: Community)
• In the ecclesiastical realm, it was the “Whole body of the faithful” that should have full
authority.
• It was the General Council, elected by the faithful should be the ultimate governing body
of which the Pope is a Subordinate figure.
William of Ockham
• The whole community would participate, through the hierarchy of elected organizations,
in the choice of a council.
• Independence of temporal authority.
• Highlighted the vow of Poverty of the Church as a matter of following the footsteps of
Christ.
• Pushed the idea of material and temporal authority to the state and welcomed the idea of
taxing the church.
• His most famous contribution was on logical method labelled as “Ockham’s Razor”.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
• The Law – It is the rule and measure of acts whereby man is induced to act or restrained
from acting. Lex (Law) derived from Ligare which means “to bind”.
• Elements of the Law
o Reason – the law in itself has spirit, raison d’etre, a capacity to know the truth and
to guide you towards the truth. Instrument of the law to guide you to the truth.
o Common Good – use reason for personal benefit (which is the not the character of
the law). Law of universal happiness must take place, which is why it needs to be
towards the attainment of the common good. (teleology)
o From competent public authority – creator and the executor of the law, that must
have the sovereign of the law. The king represents the authority given by the people,
therefore authority emanates from the people.
o Promulgated – the idea of the law being accessible to everyone, known by
everyone and that everyone is under it.
• Reason
o The rule and measure of Human acts. It directs human actions to an end (teleology).
o Reason guides the individual to attain the purpose of every individual. An
individual associate himself with family for material purposes; he associates
with the village for social purpose; he associates himself with the state for
Eudaimonia.
 o According to Aristotle, the first principle of human action is the end (purpose), and
Reason is the one that directs towards the end or purpose.
o Reasons power to direct towards the end or purpose comes from the “will”.
• Common Good (Eudaimonia)
o Universal happiness that is a composite of individual happiness.
▪ Happiness is the last end of human life
▪ Humans are part of a perfect community.
▪ Common good is perfect form of Happiness.
o The end-goal of the (just) law is to produce and preserve happiness for the body
politic.
• From competent public authority
o The end i.e., the common good belongs to the whole people.
o The order towards the common good must come from the whole people or who is
viceregent of the whole people.
o Making the laws belongs to those who care for the people.
o For the order to have effect, it must have coercive power.
o Coercive power is vested in the people or some public personage to whom it
belongs.
• Promulgated
o The law should be openly declared to all and known by all.
o Those who are not present in the creation of the law are bound to follow it so long
as it is notified or can notified to them by others.
“Law: an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him or who has care of the
community.” (St. Thomas Aquinas)

• Kinds of Laws
o Eternal Law (God himself) – rules everything; laws of action, laws of existence,
laws of nature, laws of physics. They are created by the primary mover. It is
universal!
▪ The government of things in God the ruler of the universe where in the
world is ruled by a law governed by divine reason.
▪ All other laws partake from it being universal.
▪ The type of divine wisdom that directs all actions and movements being
created by the most divine authority.
▪ Eternal Law is the first, or all mover to which the secondary movers partake
their commands.
o Divine Law – interpreted by reading the Scriptures (Faith).
▪ Law given by God that directs man towards eternal happiness that is not a
part of man’s natural faculty.
▪ Law given by god through the divine scripture (faith).
▪ Given for man to know what he ought to do and not to do given the
uncertainty and subjectivity of human judgement through reason, all people
must be directed to his proper end by a law that cannot err, that is the law
given by God.
▪ Man cannot judge, curb, or direct interior acts, a divine law should
supervene. (In a society of multitude, each and every one has
 autonomous rationality, purpose, actions which may vary from time to
time.)
▪ Human law cannot forbid all evils, the Divine law prohibits all evil and
punishes all evil.
o Natural Law – ruled by reason
▪ Cover things to which a man is inclined naturally. His inclination to act is
based on reason.
▪ Eternal law that can be known to man through reason.
▪ Same among all men both as to validity and recognition.
▪ Since reason dictates the pursuit of good and avoid evil, Man’s natural
inclination is to pursue goodness and avoid evil.
• Human Nature is Good.
o Human Law – either uses Divine or Natural Law, but is lacking Eternal Law.
▪ Despite the natural aptitude for virtue, such virtue can be achieved through
training.
▪ Human law falls short of eternal law.
▪ Came out as a necessity to restrain some from evil, by force and fear.
▪ The law is necessary for man to achieve peace and virtues as he might use
reason the other way.
▪ The second mover.
▪ Derived from the law of nature.
• The law of Nations – derived as conclusions of premises.
• Civil Law – derived in particular (state, people, leader, and action).
• The Power of Human Law
o It is framed for a number of human beings, mostly imperfect in virtue. Thus, Human
law only restricts all vices to which is possible for all to abstain, not all. Specifically,
and especially subjecting acts that hurt others; with which, without prohibition,
society couldn’t be maintained.
o Its purpose is to lead men into virtue gradually.
o Not everything forbidden by natural law is forbidden in Human Law.
• Justice
o The laws are just if they are ordained to the common good.
o When the law does not exceed the power of the lawgiver (the public or god) –
Sovereignty
o Burdens of the law are laid on subjects according to an equality of proportions and
with a view of the common good.
o The laws would be unjust:
▪ If it is contrary to the common good.
▪ If it opposes the divine good.
• The Need for Political Authority
o Social nature of man requires him to live in a society of many men living together.
Such a multitude would be broken and scattered unless there was an agency to take
care of what pertains to the common will.
o Political authority is required in a society composed of multitudes.
o Just Rulership – Political authority directs/orders the multitude of free men
towards the common good.
 o Right vs. Wrong
▪ Right if the direction is towards befitting end.
▪ Wrong if the direction is towards unbefitting end.
• Peace in relation to Political Authority
o Welfare and safety of the multitude formed into a society lies in the unity.
o If peace is removed, the multitude in its disagreement becomes a burden.
o Peace is the chief concern of the ruler/political authority.
o Peace is more achievable through unity and oneness.
o One man rules better than several to achieve peace since the multitude of
composition implies disunity. This is an accord to the law of nature.
▪ The existence of the principal mover.
▪ Every multitude is derived from unity.
• Tyranny
o A force operating for evil is more harmful when it is one than when it is divided.
o The power of one who rules unjustly works to the detriment of the multitude in that
he diverts the common good of the multitude to his own benefit.
o The farther the tyrant departs from the common good towards his private good, the
more unjust the government will be.

• To prevent Tyrannical Rule (Checks and Balances should be placed as Safety Net)
o King must be in such a condition improbable for him to be a tyrant.
o When the King is established, the gov’t must be arranged in a way that opportunities
towards tyranny are removed.
o Provision must be made for facing the situation should the king stray into tyranny.
• The right to revolt
o Tolerate the milder tyranny for a while to avoid more grievous perils, if the
condition is unfit for victory.
o If tyranny is unbearable, it is an act of virtue to slay the tyrant.
o To proceed against the cruelty of tyrants is an action to be undertaken not through
private presumption but through Public Authority.
o Deposing the tyrant is not unjust/unfaithful act since he deserved that the covenant
with his subjects not be kept, given that as the tyrant rules the multitude, he did not
act faithfully as the office of the king demands.

ANCIENT ERA (Concerned with the Universality of the Truth)

MEDIEVAL ERA (The Truth in Ancient Era is translated to the Existence of God)
(Scientific Inquiry: Reason which is subject to God’s Authority)
MODERN ERA
Renaissance Movement (Prelude to the Modern Philosophy)
• (Didn’t contribute much to the Modern Political Philosophy)
• (Science, Philosophy, and Theorizing is not dependent to the Universality of
Knowledge)
• (Science is treated as a technique in how to do things rather than a universality
approach to knowledge)
• (Knowledge should be treated as utility [you need to know it because it is needed to
be known])
Elements of the Renaissance Movement:
• Decay of the Power of the Church
o Early Stages of the Renaissance
• Rule of Science
o Evident in 16th to 17th Century
o Inclined to know and unravel the universal truth which focused on the
technique/activity does not concern with the universal truth itself (Utility)
o Started in Italy (detached with the Roman Catholic Pope)
▪ Known for its trading engagements
▪ Gateway for Eastern Trade (which would be sold to Italian merchants and
bought by European traders)
▪ Economically Advanced City: Florence (City which started the
Renaissance Era)
• Ruled by: Medici and Borgias
o Key Player: Niccolo Machiavelli (Statist)
▪ The Prince (The action is devoid of ethical standard
and also the End is the end in itself)
▪ Types of the End that the State must achieve:
• Economic Prosperity
• Stability/Peace
• Military Capacity
▪ Individual man acts only on his own self-interest
▪ Therefore, the state acts on its own self-interest
o Political Contribution:
▪ It became secular and scientific rather than anchored upon religion.
o Challenges:
▪ Absence of the Roman Papacy, the Smaller Kings would be relied
• Which paved the way to vulnerability to control of power
• Threat of Conquest
• Counter Movement of the Medieval Period
• Different Renaissance Periods:
o Italian Renaissance – very humanistic approach towards philosophy and politics
that is expressed by Machiavelli. It abandons the roles of the institutions (especially
the Catholic Church). Each state has the sovereign right to rule.
o Northern Renaissance (England, France, Germany) – (Centered around theology
and God) It was about reforming the institutions from within (Reformation
Movement during the 1517 by Martin Luther and the rest of the Protestants, when
he wrote the 95 Theses thanks to the invention of the Printing Press which is
distributed to the rest of the Europe, which bred Protestantism); Erasmus (had to
bridge the Ancient Pagan tradition with the Christian tradition) and Sir Thomas
Moore (more radical approach than Erasmus and wrote “Utopia” more heretic in
the eyes of the Catholic Church).
o Spaniard Renaissance – Council of Trent that signaled the Counter-Reformation
Movement, which introduced the brutal approach to address the issue of heresy.
Jesuit Order (missionary goal) = two connected responsibility:
1. Address Heresy
 2. Role of Education (running the education system) (Age of
Exploration)
o 17th Century – (Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Galileo) Ideas are already present
that rival the medieval period. Francis Bacon – Father of Empiricism (Inductive
Reasoning) “Knowledge is power” - BACON Two Characteristics:
▪ Patience in terms of their observation
▪ Boldness of their hypothesis
THOMAS HOBBES
• English philosopher
• Influenced by both Empiricism of English Philosophy and the Mathematics of Continental
Philosophy.
• The first to merge the two, previously opposing elements:
o Empiricism = Perception (Analysis is limited to what could be observed)
o Mathematics = (Platonic) Idealism (Philosophical appreciation of Math like
Cartesian Plane to analyze the previous interpretations)
• Rationalist Political Thinker favoring royalist rule.
o Anti-Catholic
o Anti-Democracy – never wanted any type of assemblies
• Had a background on ancient works and scholastic scholarship (Aristotelian point-of-view)

The Leviathan
• Life, as he says, is nothing but a motion of the limbs, and therefore automata (Descartes’
concept of unconscious beings) have an artificial life. The commonwealth (sovereign
ruler), which he calls Leviathan, is a creation of art, and is in fact an artificial man.
• The sovereignty is an artificial soul.
• The pacts and covenants by which “Leviathan” is first created take the place of God’s fiat
when He said “Let Us make man.”
• There is a need for an artificial being = State
• Reason is something that is developed based on experience
The individual man
• Sensations are caused by the pressure of objects; colors, sounds, etc. are not in the objects.
(It is something that we empirically observed and processed out of it)
• The qualities in objects that correspond to our sensations are motions.
• The first law of motion in relation to Psychology.
o Imagination
o Senses
• There are no universal ideas except for the names that people make to encapsulate the
nominal realities. Thus, the need for language to be able to make truth or falsehood of many
thigs such as “Good or Bad” and “True or False”.
• Motion of things are fully measured by geometry. Geometry is the only genuine science.
• The faculty of language is necessary to create a sense of boundary or standard for
reasoning. The use of language requires non-contradictory characteristics for reason to
prevail and ultimately avoid Absurdity.
 o Examples: Free will and the Accident of the Bread.
Passions – Why Humans Act?
• Reason is not innate but is developed by industry or activity.
• Endeavors – small beginning of motion:
o If towards something = Desire (Love) → Good
o If away from something = Aversion (Hate) → Bad
• Good and Bad are not objectively defined. Differences in desire among men creates a
problem of identifying the nature of the act as either aversion or desire.
• Will – the last appetite/desire or aversion remaining in deliberation.
Nature of Man
• All Men are naturally equal.
• STATE OF NATURE – The state where there were still no governments, only the material
realities of nature dictates human activity. No justice or injustice, no property; only war.
• “War of all, against all”
o Life is “nasty, brutish, and short.”
o In war: Fraud and Force are the two Cardinal Virtues
• In the state of nature, every man desire to:
o Preserve his own liberty;
o But to acquire dominion over others.

The Commonwealth
• Social Contract – a number of people come together to form communities and agree to
choose a sovereign or a sovereign body. Which shall exercise authority over them and put
an end to the universal war.
• Unlike other species like bees and ants, men compete in desire. Men’s agreement unlike
other species are not natural but artificial. The sovereign is not readily existing, it has to be
created and agreed by everyone.
The Covenant
• Product of the social contract that restrain men on the basis of self-preservation from the
universal war.
• Agreement between citizens to choose a sovereign.
• Choice is based on majority but the minority are still bound to the sovereign.
• Enforcement – Conferring to a sovereign to use force.
• After choosing the sovereign, the citizen’s political power ends. Political Power solely
resides upon the sovereign.
• The ruler is not bound by any contract (only the Citizens).
• No Right to Rebellion (obliged to follow the sovereign even if the ruler is a tyrant).
The Sovereign
• The central authority whose powers are undivided and unlimited
• Has the power of censorship and suppress challenges to the state.
• Internal peace is assumed to be his main interest.
• Laws of property are to be created and controlled by the sovereign.
• Despite being despotic, it is still better than anarchy.
• Interests of the sovereign are identical to the subjects.
 • Tyranny is Monarchy that the speaker dislikes.
Monarchy is the best form of Government compared to an assembly:
• A monarch may follow his private Interest but so may an assembly.
• A monarch may have favorites but so may an assembly which multiplies the number of
favorites.
• A monarch can hear advice from anyone secretly but an assembly can only hear from its
members publicly.
• Absence of members in an assembly may mean a change in policy.
• If the assembly is highly divided, it may cause chaos and war.
Critique: Conception of the assembly and the democracy is of ancient character devoid of the idea
of periodical elections.
Liberty of Citizens
• Liberty is the absence of impediments to motion.
• The subjects are free where the law does not interfere.
• Laws could interfere if the sovereign so decided.
• A man has a right to refuse to fight when called upon by the government to do so –
resistance to the sovereign is only allowed in self-defense (highly self-preserving).
• The liberty that should be praised is the liberty of the sovereign from foreign domination.
• A man has no duty to a sovereign who cannot protect him.
• No other bodies or organizations such as trade union etc.
Reasons for the dissolution of the commonwealth
• Giving too little power to the sovereign.
• Allowing private judgment in subjects.
• The theory that everything that is against the conscience is sin.
• Belief in inspiration.
• The doctrine that the sovereign is subject to civil laws.

JOHN LOCKE
British Rational Liberalism
• Bloodless revolution of 1688 – led to the declaration of rights (contains the individual
freedoms of every citizens)
• Revolution of 1832 (parliamentary reform)
• Revolution of 1945 (integration of Labour Party)
Religious Tolerance → Religious matter shouldn’t be given matter to a state, instead the
liberty to give the individuals to have religious diversity.
• Man cannot possible evaluate the truth-claims of competing religions.
• Imposing a single religion won’t work because you can’t be compelled to believe a religion
through violence.
• Religious uniformity leads to social disorder compared to religious diversity.
Two Treatises of Government
• 1st Treatise
o Debunked the idea of divine right (To make sure that the authority of the state is
purely secular)
• 2nd Treatise
o State of nature
 o The state of nature was peaceful rather than chaotic
o Creating the government did not mean had to fearfully surrendered their individual
liberties.
o Liberties are innate.

State of Nature
• There are not natural laws, only natural rights.
• The law of nature through the instrument of reason defines what is right and what is wrong.
• Deficiencies:
o Unclear
o No third-party judge
o Possibility of execution
Social Contract
• A voluntary consensus to cede some of their rights not on the basis of comparative peace
to the chaotic state of nature.
• There is a condition that the state has to preserve their innate liberties.
• People should retain the rights and the means to overthrow government. Provided that the
government has failed its purpose of preserving the people’s rights.
• To establish law and order so that uncertainties of the state of nature will be replaced by
the predictability of known laws and impartial institutions.
State of Nature
• Hobbes – There are not natural laws, only natural rights
• Locke – The law of nature through the instrument of reason defines what is rights and what
is wrong.
• Law of nature rules in the state of nature
• Judgement and execution are on every man’s hands.
• The state of nature still exists in so-called advanced nations especially in terms where there
are no judicature, the aggrieved party is authorized to punish the aggressor. (Customary
Law – practiced through tradition UNCLOS)
• Deficiencies of the law of nature:
o Unclear
o No third-party-judge
o Possibility of execution
Social Contract
• A voluntary consensus to cede some of their rights not on the basis of comparative peace
to the chaotic state of nature.
• There is a condition that the state has to preserve their innate liberties.
• People should retain the rights and the means to overthrow government. Provided that the
government has failed its purpose of preserving the people’s rights.
• To establish law and order so that uncertainties of the state of nature will be replaced by
the predictability of known laws and impartial institutions.
Social Contract
• Within a group, men quickly form society because the advantages of the state of nature
seem to them to be outweighed by its advantages.
• Government is not established by a contract but a Fiduciary Trust.
 • The legislature is the “supreme power” only among other organs of the government. Above
the legislature is the people.
• The authority of the legislature is “Fiduciary Power”.
o Trustee – Legislature (duties)
o Beneficiary and Guarantor – People (rights)
• (Authority is not a right, authority is used to reduced or induced)
Trust
FIDUCIARY = TRUST
• The trustee assumes primarily obligations rather than rights.
• The purpose of the trust is determined by the interests of the beneficiary, not by the will of
the trustee.
• The trustee is a servant of the beneficiary and the trustor (the people) and can be recalled
by them in the event of neglect of duty.
• The covenant was only to setup society, government.
• The society and state are different. Society is more important and enduring. The dissolution
of society. On the contrary, if society is dissolved, the state cannot possibly exist.
• Dissolution of government therefore does not automatically lead to chaos, but an avenue
to setup a new government that serves its ends and purpose.
• Society → Bound to the covenant
• State → Bound to the society
Right to Property
• Property = “Life, Liberty, and estate”
• Its preservation is the principal purpose of government and the main reason why men gave
up the state of nature for civil society.
• Lockean conception of property as liberating the owner rather than enslaving others.
Protection against the power of others rather than exercising power over others.
• Right to property entails the justification of private property.
o Every man has a property in his own person.
o Labor creates property – Human effort mixed with natural resources.
o Natural law – man’s property in his own body also extends to its labor.
• Labor Theory of Property
o Labor determines the value of property.
o The proportion of labor in value is highly enough to say that of the products of earth
useful to the life of man nine-tenths are the effects of labor.
• Right to property is limited but never clear how much property a person may fairly claim
for himself – Its absence led to the use of Lockean theory of property in support of
Capitalism through the emerging social class.
• The limits could have been on the basis of individual capacity to consume.
• Invention of money altered this by putting value on it which all other perishable and yet
truly useful goods could be exchanged with.
On Absolute Monarchy
• No form of civil government at all and is worse than that of the state of nature.
• In the state of nature, everybody is judging his own case. But in absolute Monarchy, only
a single person has that liberty.
 • In which case the very purpose of forming a society away from that state of nature is to
protect individual liberties.
Dissolution of government
• When legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce
them to slavery under arbitrary power.
• When chief executive overrides the laws of the legislature by his own arbitrary will, hinders
the legislative assembly from meeting or acting freely, prevents free elections, or delivers
the people into the subjection of foreign power.
• In this case, the people are at liberty to provide for themselves by erecting a new legislature
differing from the other by:
o Changing forms of government
o Changing persons of government
On the Right to Revolt or Resistance
• The arbitrary ruler is an outcast and a rebel against the law. He doesn’t have public
authority already.
• The people defined the law by revolting against such despots.
• The ruler who uses force without authority should be treated like an aggressor in war and
must be opposed through force.
• Qualifying resistance:
o Must only be used against unjust and unlawful force
o Disobedience must be exercised by the majority who suffered from mischief and
oppression.
On the problem of Rebellion
• When the people are miserable, they will rebel under any form of government.
• Men do not revolt upon every little mismanagement in public affairs.
• The more the channels of free communication and consent are maintained in society, the
less the need for revolution.

JEAN JAQUES ROUSSEAU (LIVED IN THE AGE OF MERCANTILISM)

• Born of a poor family in Geneva
• The first writer in Politics who was of the people – submerged inarticulate masses.
• The first to attack the foundations of traditional civilizations.
• In Paris, he was integrated the rich and powerful as he was constantly in the best salons in
Paris.
• “Has the progress of science and arts contributed to the corrupt or purify morality?” –
Academy of Dijon
• “A discourse on the moral effects of the arts and Science” – JJR
o Our minds have been corrupted in proportion as the arts and sciences has improved.
o The glory and politeness of civilized refinement is a veil that covers ‘jealousy,
suspicion, fear, coolness, reserve, hate, and fraud’.
o Causal relation between luxury, constantly expanding needs, and the rise of arts
and science.
▪ Example: Rome
o Philosophers and orators are charlatans who sow confusion among men.
• Emile (on Education)
 o Traditional education was too vocational and too highly specialized
o Children are ignorant of their own language while being taught other languages
o Moral virtues are neglected
o “We have physicists, geometricians, chemists, astronomers, poets, musicians, and
painters in plenty; but we have no longer a citizen among us.”
• Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
o Natural inequality – Age, health, bodily strength, and the qualities of the mind and
soul:
▪ This inequality is not substantial and it only becomes a problem with the
formation of society.
▪ Nature destined man to live a healthy, simple life and satisfy his essential
needs (“food, a female, and sleep”)
o Moral/Political Inequality – wealth, honor and power created by social institutions.
▪ Man in society has developed varied and unhealthful habits of eating and
sleeping, and his mental and physical exhaustion is the result of the pains,
anxieties, and torments of civilized living.
▪ Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evil it produces.
• Human understanding is not the sole domain of reason but is greatly indebted to passions.
• In the state of nature, man was guided by two sentiments:
o Self-interest and pity
o Having no moral obligations with others
• Compassion
o The original sentiment from which all virtues flow.
o While reason alienates man, compassion unites him with others.
Inequality
• The natural voice of compassion was stilled by the usurpations of the rich and the robberies
of the poor, and the newborn society thus led to a “horrible state of war”.
• The rich devised a plan to maintain power and possession without the threat of constant
war:
o Set up a system of law and government for the maintenance of peace.
o Employ the forces of the poor for the creation of government, under which all
would be protected and their possessions be safeguarded.
• Society and Law “bound new fetters on the poor, and gave new powers to the rich; which
irretrievably:
o Destroyed natural liberty
o Eternally fixed the law of property and inequality
o Converted clever usurpation into unalterable right.
o Subjected all mankind to perpetual labor, slavery and wretchedness in the
advantage of a few ambitious individuals.”
• The extreme inequality of fortunes and conditions spring divisions that undermine the very
fabric of society and government.
o Towards despotism – despotism is the last term of inequality
o Popular insurrection (revolution) deposes a despot
The Social Contract
• Political obligation
 • “The problem is to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole
common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting
himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before.”
• Combination of security (collective association) and liberty (individual freedom)
• “Total alienation of each associate, together with all his rights, to the community.”
• Surrender of individual to the sovereign community should not renounce liberty.
• SOVEREIGN = INDIVIDUAL WITHIN THE CIVIC SOCIETY (BODY POLITIC)
• To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, for there can be no obligation that is not,
to some extent, at least, mutual.
• Man does not surrender completely to a sovereign ruler, but each man gives himself to all,
and therefore gives himself to nobody in particular.
• Through the social contract man loses natural liberty but gains civic liberty and property
rights in all he possesses.
• Natural liberty is no true liberty but merely enslavement to uncontrolled appetite. While
Moral liberty which man acquires through the civil state, makes him master of himself.
“Obedience to a law which we prescribed to ourselves is liberty.”
Three forms of liberties
• Natural Liberty – devoid of any reflective or rational elements. It is simply the strength
of the individual to assert himself.
• Civil Liberty – firmer and more rational. Laws and rules of the political community which
determine what each member may and may not do in relation to other members.
• Moral Liberty – if the laws and rules that define civil liberty is created by all of the
political community’s members.
The Law
• Makes man both free and subject.
• “It is to law alone that men owe justice and liberty”.
The Sovereign
• The sovereign is the people constituted as a political community (Body Politic) through
the social contract
• The sovereignty of the people inalienable and indivisible. It cannot be given away or
transferred.
• Unlike Hobbes, Government is not the sovereign but only a temporary agent of the people.
• Unlike Locke, Supreme authority is direct from the people rather than transferred.
Government agencies is subordinated to the sovereign people.
General Will
• The expression of sovereignty that is unmitigated – unmitigated popular sovereignty.
• Sovereignty lies on Will. Will cannot be represented.
• Body politic – “Possessed of a will; and this general will, which tends always to the
preservation and welfare of the whole and of every part, and is the source of the laws,
constitutes for all the members of the state, in their relation to one another and to it, the
rule of what is just or unjust”,
• A revival of the organic conception of the state.
• The general will cannot be legislated against the people from the outside, but a moral
attitude in the heart of citizens, and nothing can take place of morality in the maintenance
of government.
 • Two elements of the General Will:
o It aims at the general good (Object).
o It must come from all and apply to all (Origin).
• Will of all is not General will. Will of all is sum of all particular private wills of individuals.
General will only considers common interest.
• Its generality is not so much as matter of number as of intrinsic quality and goodness.
Majority over Minority
• In direct popular government, vote of the majority binds the minority.
• It doesn’t mean that the minority’s liberty is curtailed.
• But in being forced to follow the common interest, the general will, means being forced to
be free.
• MERCANTILISM – To know if you are rich, basically if you have a bulk amount of gold
• INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION – Paved way for the rise of capitalism, that is geared
towards human productivity. Changed the Character of Labor: From MANUAL to
MECHANIZATION.
o Faster production which means faster and greater production → productivity
→ produces by Surplus Wealth (not owned by the Poor but by the Rich because
they own the means of production) → How to utilize Surplus Wealth for the
benefit of everybody? (Smith, charot) → Conservative – tax them, Religious =
pakonsensyahon (SMITH DISAGREE WITH BOTH) → Smith’s answer?
Appeal to the Vanity of the Rich → they eat not because they need to survive but
because they want to. Encourage the Rich through AWARDS so that the
surplus wealth would be utilized for the benefit of everyone. → How does this
happen? → He introduced the Division of Labor (mechanization enabled this
concept) → Specialization Problems:
▪ Meaning – you don’t find meaning because you only work on a part of a
product rather than the whole product itself. This results to the alienation to
the product.
▪
o This is explained by Adam Smith that it results to an increase in wealth, which is
directed to “THE WEALTH OF NATIONS” – accumulated wealth of everyone
in the participation of labor. → individual economic growth → produces Wealth
of Nations

• State must:
Individuals can partake in economic activity (Economic Liberalism). Individuals
must be in the economy, expressed in trading and production. Government should
not intervene in the economy. Economy must be governed by Market (Supply and
Demand) results to price.

Invisible Hands- paradox by Smith in describing economy. It goes back into an

Equilibrium Point.

Free economy, independent of any intervention.

Supply- supplier
 Demand- consumer

Economic Liberalism- 18th until World War

Post War situations- IMF, WB, GATT

Economic Model- framework

Keynesian Model (Protectionist character)- US and British had to convene for the
economy after World War
Brettonwoods Agreement- WB, IMF, GATT to help economies to reinvent and reestablish
for GLOBAL ECONOMIC CONSTRUCTIONS, must have a protectionist principle.
World Bank- loans
IMF- regulation of international currencies, gold, dollars, sterling
GATT- trades, standards for prices, trading (tariff, tax investments)
Government intervention

1970s- oils crisis, problems in oil producers, most protectionist had a problem, when oil prices
rise, most of all other commodities that are dependent on oil, it increases, it rises.
Cost of production rises.
INFLATION- high price, low consumerist
Third World- social economic turmoil
1980s-
Neoliberalism- creation of WTO (GATT b4) dealt with international trading, but fostered
the idea of Opening Markets. Where economies had to follow.
Reforms:
- Liberalization of the economy
- Privatization
- Deregulation
Market reforms serves as conditions to the loans.

MARXISM
• DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM – More conceptual; ideas are conflicting
o According to Marx, the Dialectics of Material Conditions
▪ You create a whole new material condition traced back to MARXIST
THEORY OF SUPERSTRUCTURE:
• Economy – base of the pyramid (whoever controls the economy
controls the instruments of:
• Politics
• Socio-Cultural Institutions
▪ Assumption: Ruling Class controls the Economy, which controls the
Mode of Production
▪ MODE OF PRODUCTION (Elements)
• Means of Production – raw materials, factory, machineries
 • Forces of Production – people working to make the labor
o Owner
o Laborer
• Relations of Production – relationship of owner and laborer and
forces of production towards the means of production
o Highest form of association: STATE
o Ideas form ASSOCIATION and then the ASSOCIATION form STATE
• HISTORICAL MATERIALISM – concerned applying the dialectics into history
o STAGES OF SOCIETY
▪ Primitive Communal (Hunter-gatherer Society) – Nature (Supreme) vs.
Man
▪ Master/Slave Society (MAYAN CIVILIZATION UP TO ANCIENT
GREECE) – Forces of Production: Master (Alpha Male during the PC)
vs. Slave (cannot own any piece of land) Means of Production:
AGRICULTURE (BUT THE LAND IS STILL SMALL): IT DOES
NOT CONTROL ANY POLITICAL AUTHORITY
▪ Feudalism – Means of Production: Agriculture and Land (source of
political authority), Forces of Production: Landlords vs. Peasants
-----Emergence of -------MERCANTILISM-----Bourgeoisie--------------
▪ Capitalist Society (enabled Mass Production due to Industrial
Revolution) – Forces of Production: Bourgeoisie vs Working
Class/Proletariat
• Crisis of Overproduction
o Fetishization - marketing
o Export of Surplus Wealth – they have to look for another
to sell the surplus products
• LABOR EXPLOITATION – Amount of Labor uncompensated
(ENABLED BY THE WAGE SYSTEM)
▪ Socialist Societies (there are still classes) (STATE SOCIETY)–
Working Class vs Bourgeoisie, State is just a culmination of class and an
instrument of the Ruling Class
▪ Communist Society (World Society) – ABOLITION OF NATION-
STATE