Political Science 1020E Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-9: Sophist, Socalled, Robert Nozick
1 Jul 2018
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Pg 1-17
● We must know the possible way things can be to determine the way things ought to be
● In political philosophy there is no agnosticism because in every society someone (or no
one) holds political power and property is distributed
○ Those who prefer not to participate will have their political decisions made for
them
The State of Nature
● Was there ever state of nature?
○ Rousseau (1712-78): Too much time is needed to move from nature to civil
society and this is longer than age of the world
○ John Locke (1632-1704): state of nature existed in many groups in 17 century
America
Hobbes State of Nature
● Aristotle (382-322 BCE): Maybe we would not be human beings if we lived in a society
without a state
● Two keys to understand human nature is self-knowledge and knowledge of general
principal of physics
○ Materialist view of human beings Ex. Happiness is just nerves connecting. Desire
is an ‘internal motion towards an object’
○ Humans always searching for something and never at rest
● Human’s seek felicity: continual success in achieving objects of desire
● Search for power and desires will create conflict
● Hobbes believes humans all equal: we are all equal in that all humans possess roughly
the same level of strength and skill to kill each other
○ ‘Weakest strong enough to kill strongest either by secret machination or by
confederacy with others’
● Scarcity of goods: If i have things, I fear that others steal it from me. If I have nothing,
people might think Im a threat and attack me.
● People seek immediate satisfaction and power to get future desires
● Not constant war, but everyone will be ready to fight
● Hobbes argues that there is no injustice because there is no laws
● Even if people are just defending themselves, as preemption is a form of defence,
invading others can be seen as a rational form of defence
● Natural Right of Liberty: no right or wrong
● Collective rationality: what is best for each individual on the assumption that everyone
else will act the same way
● Laws of Nature bind ‘in foro interno’ (in the internal forum), but not always ‘in foro
externo (in the external forum)
○ We should require the laws to take effect but we shouldn’t obey them in all
circumstances
Page 18-33
● Locke says state of nature
○ State of perfect freedom
○ State of equality: no person has the natural right to subordinate another
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○ Bound a Law of Nature
● The Law, says locke, is that no one ought to hurt another, our superior is not on earth
but is G-d
● Locke says don’t harm others except limited purposes of self-defence
● Locke ses natiral liberty as liberty todo what law of nature allows, which is what is
morally permitted
● Locke concludes that its the natural right held by each person to punish those against
the law of nature
● Those that break the law are threat to everyone,
○ Executive Power of the Law of Nature: citizens outragd by offence team ip to
bring justice
○ Hobbes might argue that ppl wont punish because the bad guy can retaliate
unless there is a state
● Locke most important right is right to property
○ G-d didnt put us on earth to starve
● Locke says people rather cultivate crop than steal
○ Hobbes says stealing is easier, if one person steals no one is safe to cultivate
● Locke thinks people will disagree about the interpretation of law of nature
● Invention of money causes scarcity
○ No one would take more than necessayr because it would rot but money doesnt
rot
● Rousseau believes that humans have an innate repungance to see his kind suffer
○ Argues that science and arts do more to corrupt than to purify morality
○ Two drives, self-preservation and conflictt
○ People will be savages living in solitary, no language, no desire for power
○ Human beings unlike brutes have 2 attributes
■ Free will
■ Capacity for self-improvement
○ Innovation not competition as first response to scarcity
○ Start to make tools, live in groups, leisure time,and develops “corrupted needs”
○ Private property leades to mutual dependence, jealousy, inequality, and slavery
of the poor
Anarchism
● William Goodwin
○ When humans perfected can be non-aggressive and cooperative
○ State of nature is not past it will be future
● Peter Kropotkin
○ Species profitied through natural ‘mutal aid’ not evolution through
competition
● Rousseau suggests: anti-social behaviour doesnt mean we need gov, gov
creates anti-social individuals
● Without gov, still will be social control like social pressure, public opinion, fear of
poor reputation, even gossip
● Anarchist rules and structures are voluntary so anti-social people will cause a
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dillemma
Pg. 34-49
● Argument as to why we have moral duty to obey the state
● Naturally free so legitimate power relations are human creation
○ Voluntarily put self in this position through consent (social contract theorists)
● Utilitarianism: doesnt matter if we consent to the state as long as it brings us maximum
happiness
● First define state
○ Political entity distinct from the “nation”
○ Clearly possess or claim to possess political power
■ Possess monopoly of legitimate force
● Argue that existence of illegitimate violence is irrelevant
■ Responsibility of protecting everyone
● Political obligation to obey the law because it is the law
● Universal obligation: political obligations for all people within the borders of the state
● Voluntaristic obligation
● Self-assumptin principle: No one has any duties until they have assumed those duties
that is, voluntarily undertaken them
● Even though state is to my advantage, doesnt mean its justified
● Social contract
○ Contract made by ancestors in state of nature
○ Citizenship through naturalization
○ Consent through voting
■ Refusing to vote isn’t consent
■ Force voting cant be consent
○ Political obligations only in participatory democracy
■ Participatory democracy: all citizens take active role in government more
extensive than modern democracies
● Tacit consent
○ By quietly enjoying protection of state you are giving tacit consent
○ Locke believed that only express consent can make you full member of political
society, political obligations can still be made through tacit consent
○ Those who don’t like benefits and protection can leave
■ Hume’s idea is residence alone can’t be consent
■ Roussea says residence is consent only in free state
● Family or goods render you unfree
● In contemporary world, doctrine of tacit consent is less approprite
that roussea
○ No where else to go, other countries won’t have them
● Hypothetical consent
○ Social contract is hypothetical
■ What we would do or would have done in the state of nature
■ If we were without state, it would be rational to create a state
■ How does it relate to voluntaristic assumptions of social contract theory?
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Document Summary
We must know the possible way things can be to determine the way things ought to be. In political philosophy there is no agnosticism because in every society someone (or no one) holds political power and property is distributed. Those who prefer not to participate will have their political decisions made for them. Rousseau (1712-78): too much time is needed to move from nature to civil society and this is longer than age of the world. John locke (1632-1704): state of nature existed in many groups in 17 century. Aristotle (382-322 bce): maybe we would not be human beings if we lived in a society without a state. Two keys to understand human nature is self-knowledge and knowledge of general principal of physics. Desire is an internal motion towards an object". Humans always searching for something and never at rest. Human"s seek felicity: continual success in achieving objects of desire. Search for power and desires will create conflict.
