POLITICAL

THEORY:
A SURVEY
What is Political Theory?
• are principles initiated in the
past to answer, criticize and
propose something about the
political issues and problems
of a certain place for its own
good
We study political theories
because…
1. Simply to study the
works and ideas of those
who are regarded as its
master practitioners
We study political theories
because…
2. The questions they
raised are the same
questions we raise today
such as…
Questions…
• Why should I obey the law?
• What is a citizen and how he
or she be educated?
• Who is a lawgiver?
• What is the relation between
freedom and authority?
• How should politics and the
sciences be related?
We study political theories
because…
3. There are no permanent
answers in the study of
politics but only
permanent questions
We study political theories
because…
4. A prelude to
formulating one’s own
philosophy or theory in
politics
We study political theories
because…
5. Philosophy as its origin
is an erotic activity and
the study of political
philosophy/theory may be
the highest tribute paid to
LOVE
The POLIS (CITY-STATE)
EDUCATION is the HEART
of the POLIS
Aim of Education in the
Polis

To produce civic-minded
individuals with a sense of
social obligation
The Pre-Socratic
Philosophers (Sophists)

Sophists are new kind of

professional intellectual
and thinker in late 5th
century B.C. Greece
The Sophists

They debated on fundamental

moral and political issues, and
especially the question of the
origin of justice, and the
question whether it was better
for the community, and better
for the individual, to be just or
unjust
The Sophists

Most of the Sophists

could be understood
through the writings of
Antiphon, Sophocles and
through Plato’s dialogues
in which he used them in
contrast to Socrates’ ideas
Protagoras of Abdera (490
– 420 B.C.)

He teaches political skill

and makes his pupils
good citizens
Protagoras…
A pupil must gain good
judgment about domestic
matters, so that he may best
manage his own household,
and about political affairs, so
that in affairs of the polis he
may be most able both in action
and in speech
Protagoras and the Politics
of the Community

Read Protagoras 319b-e…

protagoras.docx
 Interpretation…
Knowledge is not natural in
the sense of innate, one is
not born with it, but, like
specialized knowledge
such as medicine, it must
be learned and it must be
passed on
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Interpretation…
Knowledge of how to behave
politically, respecting other
people, accepting obligations
to them, and acting justly, is
indispensable if people are to
live together in a city; it must
be possessed, and acted on,
by everyone in the city
Interpretation…
The Athenians are right to believe
that on technical matters only
expert few should be heard,
whereas on issues concerning the
general running of the city every
citizen can be presumed to be
qualified and should be allowed to
participate
Interpretation…
The Athenians assume that
everyone knows about
politics and justice for it is
teachable and can be
acquired by diligence, that
they get rebuke and get angry
with anyone who does not
make the necessary effort
Interpretation…
The point of punishment for
those who refuse is not
vengeance but instead it is
inflicted so that both the
wrongdoer and anyone who
sees him punished will be
deterred from doing wrong
again
Interpretation…
The very idea of deterrence
implies that people can
change their behavior, can
be educated through
punishment to act justly
Interpretation…
Justifying the work of
Protagoras, everyone has
enough knowledge of
political skill to be able to
teach it to the basic level, but
it is hard to find someone
competent to teach it at the
higher levels
Interpretation…
So if any one of us is even a
little better at helping others
advance…he should be
welcomed. I believe that I am
one of these, that I do a better
job than others do in helping a
person become fine and good,
and that I am worth fee I charge
(Protagoras 328a-b)
Protagoras on Social
Relativism
A human being is measure of
all things…each thing is to
me such as it appears to me,
and is to you such as it
appears to you (Theaetetus
152a)
Social Relativism…
Whatever each city judges to
be just and fine, these things
in fact are just and fine for it,
so long as it holds those
opinions (Theaetetus 167c)
Social Relativism
If you should ask all people to
select the best from among all
the various conventional
practices, each group would
choose their own, even after
examining them all; for they
would consider their own
practices to be by far best (The
Histories)
Social Relativism
• In terms of justice, man as
its measure must think that
in order to live together as a
single political entity, the
members of the community
must agree on a common
measure and work
constantly to ensure that it
is effective
Social Relativism
…is strongly communita-
rian, indeed anti-
individualist, political
position
Analysis
Politics for Protagoras
shows that an
understanding of justice
and other virtues is
indispensable and
foundational to living
with other people
Analysis
In fact, if you lack it all
together, you have to be
excluded…It is what everyone
must share in…what
everyone must follow in
doing whatever else he wants
to learn or do, or else not do
it all (Protagoras 325a)
Analysis
I think that practicing
political skill and justice
towards each other is to
our advantage; that’s why
everyone is so eager to
teach everyone else what is
just and lawful (Protagoras
327a)
Analysis
Protagoras’ teaching was well
suited to Athens in practice:
all citizens had equal status,
with no official government
and most administrative
posts rotating and filled by
lot, the Athenian democracy
was led by a handful of
outstanding men
Analysis
Athens was in name a
democracy, but in fact was
a government by its first
man (Pericles)
Thrasymachus of
Chalcedon
A teacher of rhetoric and
stylist and was used by
Plato in his book Republic
Thrasymachus and the
Politics of Individual
The dialogue started with the
fundamental question: Which
whole way of life would make
living most worthwhile for each
of us? and specifically whether
or not one should be ‘just’
(following the rules and laws of
one’s society)
Politics of Individual…
Justice is nothing other
than the advantage of the
stronger (republic 338c)
Politics of Individual
The rules are made by the
stronger in each society, by
the tyrant in tyranny, by
the democrats in a
democracy and so on, and
always made to their own
advantage
 Politics of the Individual
If you obey the stronger’s
rules, you act to the
advantage of the
stronger, and against
your own interests

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Interpretation
Those who understand
this, and have the sense to
break the rules and take
advantage of others, are
in that sense the stronger,
and gain from their
impositions
Interpretation
Those who are simple as
to let themselves be
imposed upon are the
weaker, and by following
the rules they make the
one they serve happy, but
themselves not at all
Interpretation
There are two kinds of
people: the strong – they
live the unjust way of life
and the weak – they live
the just way of life
Interpretation
Read the Republic 343d-e

thrasymachus.docx
Analysis
Thrasymachus’ case is the
tyrant, who wields
despotic power and lives
above the law
Analysis
Justice is a mug’s game
which only the stupid play,
while injustice is preferable
and is chosen by anyone
with their wits about them
Analysis
Herewith, he sees the
individuals as isolated beings,
each with his own interests,
they are in pursuit of limited
goods and therefore in
competition with one another
and in exchange or relationship
between individuals, when one
of them gains, the other must
lose
Analysis
The sensible way to live
your life is always to put
yourself first as much as
you can
Analysis
Politics is viewed as a power
relation between stronger and
weaker (ruler and subjects) in
which parties have opposed
interests and the strongest
satisfy their interests at the
expense of the weaker
Analysis
The stronger are able to make
rules, and lay down as ‘just’
what advantages them, so that
justice is what is against the
interests of the weaker
 Sophocles
• A philosopher and a
playwright
• He wrote the Antigone, an
ancient tragic drama

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Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
• His Antigone deals with
the tension between
human reason and
ancestral piety, between
the city and the gods
Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
Antigone, a daughter of Oedipus, has buried
her brother Polynices, a traitor to Thebes,
against the orders of the king, Creon.
Antigone disobeys Creon’s edict in the
name of the sacred ancestral law of family
with its ties of blood and kinship. Creon in
turn orders Antigone to be buried alive as
punishment for her disobedience. But
before the order is carried out Antigone
kills herself, and Haemon, Creon’s son,
takes his own life in protest against his
father’s cruelty. Finally, Creon’s wife
commits suicide when she learns of the
death of her son
 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
The challenge is…Who is
more justifiable?
Antigone?
Creon?
or Both?

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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
It is a clash of two VALID
yet conflicting sets of
social morality, each of
which is equally binding

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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
Creon represents the voice of
public legal authority, he is
not mere tyrant, rather he
is the voice of the polity, of
public life, and its claim to
supremacy over all matters
affecting public behavior
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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
The quality of being agathos
(a good man) is
inseparable from one’s
value to the city thus, to
give honorable burial to
Polynices, a traitor, would
be to confer equal benefits
on the good and bad alike
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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
Never shall I, myself honor
the wicked and reject the
just. The man who is well-
minded to the city from
me in death and life shall
have his honor (Antigone
207-10)
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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
On the other hand, Antigone
is the representative of the
world of the household and
the family (religion as
others translate it) and
one’s obligation to it are at
the core of her being
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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
Antigone’s action is not
dictated by some man-
made law of reason but by
a higher law the origin of
which she admits are
unknown (probably by
their ancestors or religion)
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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
She views the idea that the
family is a deeper source of
moral attachment because
it is older than the city,
that the family can exist
without the city, the city
cannot exist without the
family
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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
Their claims are indeed
conflicting

The CITY vs. THE FAMILY

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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
CREON represents the
virtue of maleness: reason,
order, self-rule and
autonomy
ANTIGONE represents the
virutes of femaleness:
piety, obedience, tradition
and respect to ancestors
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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
Is there a way out for
reconciliation?

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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
CREON: It’s best to
hold laws of old
tradition to the end
of life (Antigone
1113)
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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
Sophocles tries to bring out the
inherent tension between a
politics of pure reason – the
sophistic claim that man is
the measure of all things –
and the attitude of sacred
awe and piety before those
things that reason cannot
control
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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
Sophocles tried to present
profound dangers in reason’s
tendency to reduce the
multiplicity of things to some
underlying unity and order

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 Sophocles’ Politics of
Conflict
A politics based on reason
alone will be a politics
indifferent to difference, to
the natural differences
between men and women,
between family and polis and
others

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