III.

THOMAS MORE ON
REPUBLICANISM AND THE
FAMILY AS BASIC UNIT OF
SOCIETY

What can you do to promote world peace? Go home love your family.
– Mother Theresa, 1979 Nobel Peace Prize recipient
 Sir Thomas More
Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6
July 1535), venerated in the Catholic
Church as Saint Thomas More, was an
English lawyer, judge, social
philosopher, author, statesman, and
noted Renaissance humanist. He also
served Henry VIII as Lord High
Chancellor of England from October
1529 to May 1532. He wrote Utopia,
published in 1516, which describes the
political system of an imaginary island
state.
 Republicanism
Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a
state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasizes the idea of
self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or
oligarchy to popular sovereignty.
 Utopia

Sir Thomas More (1477 - 1535) was the first

person to write of a 'utopia', a word used
to describe a perfect imaginary world.
More's book imagines a complex, self-
contained community set on an island, in
which people share a common culture and
way of life. He coined the word 'utopia'
from the Greek ou-topos meaning 'no
place' or 'nowhere'. It was a pun - the
almost identical Greek word eu-topos
means 'a good place'. So at the very heart
of the word is a vital question: can a
perfect world ever be realised? It is unclear
as to whether the book is a serious
projection of a better way of life, or a satire
that gave More a platform from which to
discuss the chaos of European politics.
 The Familial State
The first government in the natural society is the family, where as free beings, we are ordered to
love and care for others.
– A Treatise on the Passion

A large family is the basic unit of society. The whole island of Utopia itself is
– Utopia

Ruler would be like a father to his children rather than a master to his subjects. This recalls the
Roman Standard of “pater familias” or due care of a good father of the family.
– Latin Poems

Sir Thomas More believed in relative divorce which we call in the Philippines as “legal
Separation,” but not absolutely divorce that allows remarriage, especially from the guilty party.
 The Rule of the Law

In Richard III, More wrote that, “unlimited power has a tendency to weaken good minds,
even in the case of gifted men”

In Utopia, More advised: “What you cannot turn to the good, you must at least make as
little bad as you can.”

More believed in the separation of Church and State, but not the absence of conscience or
morality in politics.
 IV. UNLOCKING
INALIENABLE RIGHTS
 Thomas Hobbes

(born April 5, 1588, Westport, Wiltshire, England

—died December 4, 1679, Hardwick Hall,
Derbyshire), English philosopher, scientist, and
historian, best known for his political philosophy,
especially as articulated in his
masterpiece Leviathan (1651). Hobbes
viewed government primarily as a device for
ensuring collective security. Political authority is
justified by a hypothetical social contract among
the many that vests in a sovereign person or
entity the responsibility for the safety and well-
being of all. In metaphysics, Hobbes
defended materialism, the view that only
material things are real.
 John Locke

(b. 1632, d. 1704) was a British philosopher, Oxford

academic and medical researcher. Locke’s monumental
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) is one
of the first great defenses of modern empiricism and
concerns itself with determining the limits of human
understanding in respect to a wide spectrum of topics.
Locke’s association with the First Earl of Shaftesbury led
him to become successively a government official
charged with collecting information about trade and
colonies, economic writer, opposition political activist,
and finally a revolutionary whose cause ultimately
triumphed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Among
Locke’s political works he is most famous for The Second
Treatise of Government in which he argues that
sovereignty resides in the people and explains the nature
of legitimate government in terms of natural rights and
the social contract
 The People’s Trust
The sovereign is simply replaced but communal and civil laws that preserve
social order remain. Locke, hence, defended the Glorious Revolution, also
known as the Bloodless Revolution, which overthrew King James of England.

To obtain a balance of power, Locke, proposed that the legislative, executive,

and federative powers must be separated in “tripartite system” so that no
government body could be all-powerful.

Locke, opted for a parliamentary form of government, majority rule, and

popular representation.
 “doctrine of non-delegation”
Sovereign power cannot be transferred to those whom the people did not
entrust their power.
 End.
Shukran.
Ansarie D. Sultan, Reporter, Chapter 9
JD-1-D, Philosophy of Law