History of Political Thought

October 22nd

Marcus Aurelius (died around 180 AD)

-influenced by Epictetus
-was an emperor => involved in public life by necessity
-led a sort of a double life: for many, he was Marcus Aurelius the (co-)emperor,
whereas let to his own devices, he was a Stoic philosopher, hence we see at
work a distinction which will become famous - public/private life.

Epictetus (died around 135 AD) - Stoic philosopher

-was a slave, who later became a free man
-small manual: Enchiridion (The Manual / The Handbook of Epictetus.
-The distinction between reality and our judgement of reality
-the question of happiness - What does it take for us to be happy?
-the main obstacle in our becoming happy is the estate of our mind - the sum of
judgements that we make. For instance, death is not fearsome, but our
judgement of it is.
-the purpose of the Stoics was to provide a set of rules for the individual to
discipline himself, to mount an effective opposition against thoughts,
judgements, passions etc that would harm oneself.

Patristic political thought

-the term "patristic" comes from the term "father" and it refers to the fathers of
the church.
-100 AD to 8th century
-political doctrine that is specifically Christian
-the Christian dogma
-two cathegories:
-Greek fathers of the Church
-Latin fathers of the Church
-the first states based more or less on a Christian ideology are established (i.e.
Armenia, Ethiopia)
-the basilica was meant for the purpose of public meetings and it gradually
evolved into a special kind of building which became common to the first age of
Christianity.

The Christian Theory of Politics

-The Apostolic Fathers
-Christianity was an Apocaliptic doctrine, not dealing with politics. Its basic
message was that the world is going to end, rather sooner than later.

Ambrose
-the Bishop of Milan
-lived in the second part of the fourth century and his work is an attempt to
come up with a theory of Christian Kingship
-the difference between the Roman Emperor and the Christian Emperor
-the Emperor himself is first and foremost a son of the Church, thus he could be
censored by the authorities of the Church when his behaviour becomes
unchristian. Ambrose censored Theodosius for his behaviour, thus forcing future
emperors to take into account the authority of the Church.
The theory of just war
-is it legitimate for a Christian to be a soldier?
-two directions:
-pacifists
-imperialist - being a Christian and a citizen are not incompatible
-Byzantine theory of Kingship - during the Byzantine age, though it became more
complex, it did not evolve to a theory of priesthood.

Eusebius

-limit given by a relative absence of an elaborate ritual of royalty.

Procopius
-famous work "The Secret History" - the reign of Justinian - written behind the
emperor's back
-it shows that the status of the emperor was not always taken for granted
-this genre (secret history) proved to be very important later on, esp in the 18th
century
e.g.: Mirabeau - secret history of the court in Berlin.

Augustine
-died in 435
-the City of God
-theory of history
-the status of the Roman Empire (as a political miracle) itself.

-a number of Christian writers started to speculate that the Roman Christian

Empire is the purpose of God
-distinction between the City of God (virtue, faith) and the City of Man (unbelief,
corruption, sin).
-the main question: Why is the empire in decline? Was it God's will?
-he laid a foundation for what would later become in the West a full-fledged
theory