|
Edmund Burke
By: Steven Witt (Fall 2005)
Edmund Burke, the oracle for all right-wing
politicians.
The Danger of Abstract Theory
Burke states that circumstances are what
render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.
We need to suspend judgment on issues until the "dust" settles so to speak.
However, a state without the means of some change is without the means
of its conservation.
The Conservative Approach
Burke states that the idea of the fabrication
of new government is absolutely disgusting as we derive all that we possess
as an inheritance from our forefathers. Therefore, everything made hereafter,
should be formed upon analogical precedent. People will not look forward
to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. Therefore, improvements
in government are never new nor are retentions ever obsolete.
The Need for Aristocratic Rule
Burke states that everything ought to be
open, but not indifferently to every man. The road to eminence and power
should not be made too easy or too short. Therefore, only few will actually
make it. Naturally, the wealthy aristocrats obtain possessions passed down
from inheritance and understand this concept, in turn they are able to
apply it to government.
The Rights of Men
Burke states that whatever each man can separately
do, without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself,
and he has a right to a fair portion of all which society, with all its
combinations of skill and force, can do in his favor. However, in this
partnership all men have equal rights, but not to equal things. Government
is not made in the virtue of natural rights.
The Virtues of the British Constitution
Burke states that prejudice is of ready application
in the emergency. It previously engages the mind in a steady course of
wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment
of decision, skeptical, puzzled, and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man’s
virtue his habit and not a series of unconnected acts. Through just prejudice,
his duty becomes a part of his nature.
Religion and the State
Burke states that religion is the basis of
civil society, and the source of all good and of all comfort. All persons
possessing any portion of power should be strongly and awfully impressed
with an idea that they act in trust to one great Master.
The Wisdom of the Past
Burke states that destroying the whole original
fabric of society leaves those who come after, a ruin instead of a habitation.
He said society is to be a contract. Each contract is to link the lower
with the higher natures, connecting the visible and invisible world, according
to a fixed compact sanctioned by the inviolable oath which holds all physical
and all moral natures in their appointed place. Ultimately, the means taught
by experience are better suited to political ends than those contrived
in the original project.
Top of Page
Edmund Burke
Sierra R. Turner. 2004
Circumstances are what render every civil
and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.
A state without the means of some change
is without the means of its conservation. Without such means it might
even risk the loss of the part of the constitution which it wished the
most religiously to preserve.
The two principles of conservation and
correction operated strongly at two critical periods of the Restoration
and Revolution, when England found itself without a king. During both of
these periods the nation had lost the bound of union in their ancient edifice;
they did not, however, dissolve the whole fabric.
Burke did not believe in anything like
abstract moral codes or rights. Things are right or wrong only in relation
to other things. He was skeptical of the overweening faith placed
in human reason, which was a large part of why he was hostile toward
abstract ideas and the belief in natural laws. Such abstract ideas, Burke
believed, would always be too simple to fit the facts of the "real world."
As mentioned above, Burke was convinced that
all rights and all morality were purely matters of convention rather than
arising from nature. While he strongly believed that some social conventions
are inviolable, he would never consider them inviolable because they were
natural. These conventions that govern the workings of society arise from
our habits and the arrangements that have made a particular group of people
into a civil society. Sabine notes that for Burke, "a people is an organized
group; it has a history and institutions, customary ways of acting, habitual
pieties and loyalties and authorities. [It is a] true politic personality."
Burke is considered - with good reason - the
founder
of a self-conscious political conservatism. While conservatism certainly
existed before Burke, he is the founder of a conservative philosophy. His
conservatism can be summarized by the following beliefs:
a. a respect for the wisdom of established
institutions, especially religion and property;
b. a strong sense of continuity in
the community's historical changes;
c. a belief in the relative impotence
of individual will and reason to deflect the community from its course;
d. a deep moral satisfaction in the loyalty
that attaches community members to their stations in its various ranks.
Government is not made in virtue of natural
rights, which may and do exist in total independence of it; and exist in
much greater clearness, and in a much greater degree of abstract perfection:
but their abstract perfection is their practical defect.
The nature of man is intricate; the objects
of society are of the greatest possible complexity: and therefore no simple
disposition or direction of power can be suitable either to a man’s nature,
or to the quality of his affairs.
Religion is the basis of civil society,
and the source of all good and of all comfort.
The consecration of the state, by a state
religious establishment, is necessary also to operate with a wholesome
awe upon free citizens; because in order to secure their freedom, they
must enjoy some determinate portion of power.
Edmund Burke from Curtis v2
Larry McLemore, 2001
Edmund Burke, a British political philosopher
of the 18th century, is still regarded as the leading apologist for political
conservatism.
Reflections
on the Revolution in France
The Danger of Abstract Theory
Those who govern should revere precedent
even as they make changes. To completely fashion our government to a new
theory would be to apply an abstraction. The test of time would reveal
the flaws in such a theory. We should strike a balance between conserving
old theories of government and creating new ones.
The Conservative Approach
Our government is an inheritance from our
forefathers. We must revere precedent and consider the political
institutions formed by our predecessors as an entailed inheritance.
Without looking backward to our ancestors, we cannot effectively look forward
to the future. Thus, when we improve government it is neither totally
new nor obsolete.
The Need for Aristocratic Rule
In a free society, everything ought to be
open, but not to every man. The road to power and prominence must
not be too easy or be traveled too quickly. Generally, aristocrats
are best suited to govern. They have acquired possessions and the
power that attends them over a course of time. In fact, the experience
of preserving individual wealth has helped to preserve society. It
is dangerous for the masses to have much power because they lack the experience
in dealing with it.
The Rights of Man
All men have equal rights but not to equal
things. If civil society is made for the advantage of men, then men
have a right to all of the rights created in it. Law is a gift that
acts through a rule. Men then have a right to live according to that
rule--they have a right to do justice between themselves and others; a
right to enjoy the fruits of their labor, to give and receive inheritances,
and nurture their offspring. Natural rights are not a creation of
government; they exist independent of government. Because these rights
are abstract, they cannot be imposed as a practical matter. By claiming
a right to everything, men claim no real rights.
The Virtues of the British Constitution
Because the British people are reluctant
to change, our government retains the stamp of our forefathers. We
do not have a faith in the reason of a few individuals but in the reasoned
judgment of men that has accumulated through the centuries of British rule.
The monarchy, the parliament, the ministers of law and the Church are all
revered as a part of this collective wisdom.
Religion and the State
Civil society is based on religion.
All good and comfort are derived from religion. Atheism is against
our reason. We hold fast to our religion. At the same time
we understand that the other establishments are necessary in the degree
that they exist--Church, monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. Religion
is the basis of society, and the British idea is that we hold political
power in trust and are answerable God for our actions in that position
of trust.
The Wisdom of the Past
If we were to change government as often
as the fashion changes, we would lose the continuity that is so important
to maintaining the reason of government. Society is not a partnership
that can be dissolved at the whim of any partner. It is a contract--but
it is a contract with past and future generations, as well as the present
generation. When generations and generations have cautiously constructed
and adjusted government to make it workable, we should respect that government.
By forming government in this way, it is not based on any particular theory.
Rather, theories are formed by generations of government.
Top of Page
Thomas Paine
Ben Cheney, Fall 2009
• Life & Times
o 1737-1809
o Born in England, emigrated to US at 37
in 1774
o Participated in American Revolution through
writings
o Aided in French Revolution, arrested by
Robespierre
o Died in 1809, unpopular due to political
and religious views
• Should we accept the rules and government set
by past generations?
o Believed that thirst for power
was the disease of monarchy
o Each institution that does not benefit
the nation is illegitimate — especially the Monarchy, the Nobility, and
the Military.
• Do men have natural rights -- and if so, what
are they?
o All men are created equal
o Slavery opposition/civil rights
o Representation
o Liberty, property and security
• Do we have a right to rebel against the government?
o Revolution is permissible
o Government is inessential
o Natural right to representation
Thomas Paine
Todd Adams, Fall 2008
Rights of Man (1791) argues
that popular political revolution is permissible when a government does
not safeguard its people, their natural rights, and their national interests.
It defends the French Revolution against Edmund Burke's anti-democratic
attack upon popular government in Reflections on the Revolution in France
(1790).
The publication of Rights of Man caused
a furor in England. Paine was tried in absentia, and convicted for seditious
libel against the crown, but was unavailable for hanging, having departed
England for France.
Rights of the Living
• Paine opposes the idea of hereditary
government & the belief that dictatorial government is necessary, because
of Man's corrupt nature
• Denounces Burke’s assertion of the nobility's
inherent hereditary wisdom; countering the implication that a nation has
not a right to form a Government for governing itself
• Paine refutes Burke's definition of government
as "a contrivance of human wisdom.” Instead, Paine argues that Government
is a contrivance of Man, and it follows that hereditary succession and
hereditary rights to govern cannot compose a Government since the wisdom
to govern cannot be inherited
Natural Rights
• Every generation is equal in rights
to the generations which proceeded it; every individual is born equal in
rights with his contemporary
• Human rights originate in Nature, thus,
rights cannot be granted via political charter, because that would imply
that rights are legally revocable, and instead would be privileges
Society and Government
• Society performs for itself almost
everything which is ascribed to Government
• Government's sole purpose is safeguarding
the individual and his/her inherent, inalienable rights; each societal
institution that does not benefit the nation is illegitimate
• The more perfect civilization is, the less
occasion it has for Government
Top of Page
Thomas Paine
by Mark Colson, Fall 2006
Introduction
Thomas Paine, a deist pamphleteer, was born
in England on January 29, 1737. His early life seemed to be filled with
failure. He failed from school, from his job with his father and from being
a seaman. He then met Benjamin Franklin who convinced him to immigrate
to America. He lived in Philadelphia where he wrote two of his famous pamphlets,
Common
Sense and Crisis. Two other notable writings included
The
Rights of Man and The Age of Reason. Thomas Paine was very influential
and inspiring in the American and French Revolutions. Although later shunned
for his religious views, Paine’s writings helped to form some of the most
important principles that the United States was found upon.
II. Paine’s Views
-
Natural Rights and Civil Liberties
-
Paine believed that all men are created equal
and that every person is granted the same rights as those before them.
-
Believed that politics are essentially simple
-
Believed in a set of principles as universal
truth and that civil rights are derived from ones natural rights.
-
Very opposed to slavery
-
Opposed the death penalty
-
Role of Government and Society
-
Paine was very much against hereditary monarchy.
-
Representative government would replace aristocracy
and divine right.
-
Paine believed that government should aide society
only in promoting the natural rights of liberty, property, security and
preventing oppression.
-
Proponent of social security, free public education
and minimum wage
III. Pamphlets
A. Common Sense
This pamphlet was a major influence in the
American Revolution and was one of the first writings to call for American
independence from England. This writing helped to inspire many, such as
George Washington, to join forces in a rebellion against British oppression.
-
Crisis
Crisis was written during the Revolutionary
War were it achieved its written purpose of inspiring and motivating American
leaders and troops. George Washington thought so much of it, he ordered
his troops to read it.
C. Rights of Man
This pamphlet was written after Paine returned
to England in support of the French Revolution. Because Paine criticized
the British monarchy in it, he had to flee to France.
D. The Age of Reason
Paine wrote this just before his imprisonment
in France. It has been called the "anti church text." In this writing Paine
expresses his deist beliefs. He claims that religion and organized churches
are all man made. He goes on to say that salvation through the death of
Jesus Christ, and the Bible are all "fabulous inventions" by man and are
a disgrace to the real Almighty God.
IV. Conclusion
Thomas Paine died a lonely death on June 8,
1809 in New York City. Because of religious views he was disregarded as
an important figure, but because of his significant writings, his name
is imprinted in history.
Top of Page
Thomas Paine
by Rachel Nixon, Fall 2005
* Wrote Common Sense
* Considered to be the clarion call to Americans
who were hesitating on the threshold of independence
* Felt that politics was essentially simple
* Believed that with basic politics
the monarchy (which he viewed as the enemy and the source of misery) would
be abolished
* As a result of this abolition Paine believed
that sovereignty would be restored to its natural and original place.
* Also believed that a representative government
for the people would replace hereditary monarchy and aristocracy.
* As a result of supporting the revolution,
Paine received an election to the National Assembly.
* He opposed the king’s execution and extremist
polices resulting in him spending time in prison and a narrow escape of
the guillotine.
(The Rights of Man)
1. The rights of the Living
* Wrote “The vanity and presumption of governing
beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.
Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the
generations which are to follow…the people of the present day have {no
right} to dispose of, bind or control those who are to live a hundred
or a thousand years hence. (Parliament of 1688 had no right to control
the people). Every generation is, must be, competent to all the purposes
which its occasions require. It is the living not the dead, that
are to be accommodated.”
* “I am contending for the rights of the
living against their being willed away by the manuscript-assumed authority
of the dead; and Mr. Edmund Burke is contending the authority of the dead
over the rights and freedom of the living…What possible obligation, then,
can exist between them; what rule or principle can be laid down that of
two nonentities.”
* Wanted to Mr. Burke to prove “the right
of any human power to bind posterity (people in the future, all descendants)
forever.
2. Natural Rights
* “Every generation is equal in rights to
the generations which preceded it, by the same rule that every individual
is born equal in equal rights with his contemporaries.”
3. Society and Government
* “…Society performs for itself almost everything
which is ascribed to Government.”
* Believed that the only need for government
is to aide in the cases in which the people are “not conveniently competent.”
* Believed that from man’s natural rights
flowed his civil rights (can not be carried out by the individual alone
i.e. security and protection).
* Although Paine voiced that he believed
in simple politics, it is evident that a small fraction of anarchism existed
within him.
* In a nut shell Paine believed that the
more civilized that people were the less there was a need for government.
Top of Page
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) "The Rights
of Man"
by Steven Witt, 2004
Biography
Thomas Paine came from a lower class family and was given a short basic
education. He was an unsuccessful young man
until he met Benjamin Franklin. Franklin
advised him to emigrate to America. After
establishing himself in America, Paine
observed that a revolution was taking place.
America was on the verge of
Independence. Paine became very interested
in the revolution and formulated ideas in
his famous pamphlet Common Sense. This pamphlet
had an eminent role in the American
Revolution and in the writing of the Declaration
of Independence. Among this, Paine
wrote three more literary works on his ideas
of government. Crisis, The Rights of
Man, and The Age of Reason also played significant
roles in the French and American
Revolutions.
The Rights of the Living
No man has the right or power to control another man. Every age, race,
and
generation is to be as free as its predecessors.
The generation of today needs to be
content with its needs and not with the needs
of their predecessors. Thomas Paine
once said, “It is the living, and not the
dead, that are to be accommodated.” Laws
that proceed to pass through generations
are not just allowed through because they
are not able to be repealed, but because
of the consent of the living. The living
chooses to allow these laws to remain because
they are still content with them.
Natural Rights
All men regardless of race and origin of birth are created equal with equal
natural rights. Everyone has the given option
to share their rights in society and
in doing so better secure them. A man’s natural
rights are the foundation to his
civil rights. Natural rights are what make
up a man’s existence and therefore are on
the basis of the intellectual side. They
do not directly affect the natural rights
of others.
Society and Government
No man can satisfy his wants or needs without society. Without social
affections, a man can remain in existence
but never happy. We were all born into
society and will remain there until our days
end. It is easy to infer that the idea
of having a Government is basically pointless.
Everything that a Government is
designed to accommodate has been preformed
by the common consent of society. Society
works in such a way that even if a problem
surfaced, it would not take long for
society itself to take care of it, leaving
a Government rendered useless.
Top of Page
Thomas Paine
Sierra R. Turner, 2004
The Rights of the Living
Thomas Paine believed that the Parliament
of the people of 1688, or of any other period, had no more right to dispose
of the people of the present day, or to bind or to controul them in any
shape whatever, than the Parliament or the people of the present day have
to dispose of, bind or controul those who are to live a hundred or a thousand
years hence.
Every generation is, and must be, competent
to all the purposes which its occasions require. It is the living, and
not the dead, that are to be accommodated.
Thomas Paine argued for rights of the living
against their being willed away by the manuscript assumed authority of
the dead while Edmund Burke contended for the authority of the dead over
the rights of the dead over the rights and freedom of the living.
Natural Rights
Every generation is equal in rights to the
generations which preceded it, by the same rule that every individual is
born equal in rights with his contemporary.
A man’s natural rights foundation for all
his civil rights…
Paine defines natural rights as being those
which are appertain to man in rights of his existence. Of this kind are
all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also those rights
of acting as individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not
injurious to the natural rights of others.
Society and Government
Society performs for itself almost everything
which is ascribed to Government.
Government is no farther necessary than to
supply the few cases to which society and civilization are not conveniently
competent; and instances are not wanting to show, that everything which
Government can usefully add thereto, has been performed by the common consent
of society, without Government…..
Formal Government makes but a small part of
civilized life; and when even the best that human wisdom can devise is
established, it is a thing more in name and idea than in fact.
The more perfect civilization is, the less
occasion it has for Government, because the more it does regulate its own
affairs, and govern itself; but so contrary is the practice of old Governments
to the reason of the case, that the expences of them increase in the proportion
they ought to diminish.
Top of Page
Thomas Paine
By: Krista Leachman Fall 2003
-Thomas Paine, the gifted journalist who’s
Common Sense had acted as a clarion call to Americans hesitating on the
threshold of independence, leapt to the defense of the French Revolution
in The Rights of Man of 1791, dedicated to an unwilling George Washington.
-argued for the right of the nation to do
what it chose to do
-Every generation was equal in rights to the
generations which preceded it, in the same way that every individual was
born in equal rights with his contemporaries-
the natural rights which all men have formed the basis of civil rights.
-The Rights of Living
-I am contending for the rights of the living
and against their being willed away, and controlled and contracted for,
by the
manuscript assumed authority of the dead.
-Natural Rights
-Man did not enter into society to become
worse than he was before, not to have fewer rights than he had before,
but to
have those rights better secured.
-Natural rights are those which appertain
to man in right of his existence.
-The natural rights which retain are all those
in which power to execute it as perfect in the individual as the right
itself.
-Society and Government
-No one man is capable, without the aid of
society, of supplying his own wants; and those wants, acting upon every
individual, impel the whole of them into
society, as naturally as gravitation acts to centre.
-Formal government makes but a small part
of civilized life; and when even the best that human wisdom can devise
is
established, it is a thing more in name and
idea than in fact.
Top of Page
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
by Jennie Pratt, 2001
Biography
-
-lower class family
-
-formal education included reading, writing and
arithmetic
-
-various unsuccessful jobs
-
-married twice, divorced twice
-
-met Ben Franklin who advised him to seek better
life in AMERICA
-
-wrote four literary works
-
-Common Sense (influence on American Revolution)
-
-Crisis (influence on American Revolution)
-
-The Rights of Man (defense of French Revolution)
-
-The Age of Reason (place of religion in
society)
Philosophy
-
-disagreed with divine law/right
-
associated “governing beyond the grave”
with tyranny
-
thought it was ludicrous to favor rights
of dead before living
-
-rights of current generation=rights of previous
generation
-
referred to these rights as natural rights:
liberty, property and security
-
which form the basis of civil rights
-
all creation stories and myths agree that
all men are born with the same natural rights
-
-favored representative gov’t as opposed to hereditary
monarchy or aristocracy
-
-pointed out that laws continue and are not NOT
changed because they can’t be changed,
-
but because people just don’t change them
Society/Government
-
-Natural wants> (greater than) Individual power
-
Everyone has wants
-
No one is capable of satisfying his/her
own wants
-
Others can help satisfy these wants
-
Therefore society is formed
-
Person becomes dependent on society (not
for survival but contentment)
-
-Basically, no need for gov’t when we have this
system we call society
-
Formal gov’t is more a name or an idea;
pointless
-
-Whether gov’t enforces laws or not, society
will enforce them in the end
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
by Kim Keith, 1998
I. Quick Background
A. Born to
lower class London family in 1737.
B. Little
formal education
C. At age
37, came to United States with Ben Franklin
D. Published
three major works:
Common Sense (helped inspire American
Revolution)
The Rights of Man (written in response
to Burke)
The Age of Reason (poorly received,
thought to challenge the church)
II. Rights of People
A. No generation
should be linked to another
B. All men were
born equal with equal natural rights
C. Natural rights
are foundation for civil rights (rights that make us feel like a part of
society)
D. Rights cannot
be granted, if they were they could be revoked, if they can be revoked
then they are luxuries
III. Role of Government
A. Government not
necessary if members of society can help to support one another
B. The more perfect
a society, the lesser need for a government
C. Government should
not be controlled by monarchy but by the people in the form of
representatives.
Top of Page
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Sierra R. Turner, 2004
Problem: “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.” This
is the reason behind the Social Contract.
The clauses of the Social Contract can be
boiled down to one which states that “the total alienation of each associate,
together with all his rights, to the whole community; for, in the
first place, as each gives himself alone, and remain as free as before.”
The act of association comprises a mutual
undertaking between the public and the individuals, and each individual,
in making a contract, as we may say, with himself, is bound in a double
capacity; as a member of the Sovereign he is bound to the individuals,
and as a member of the State to the Sovereign.
What man loses by the social contract is
his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to
get and succeeds in getting: what he gains is civil liberty and the
proprietorship of all he possesses.
The first and most important deduction from
the principles we have so far laid down is that the general will alone
can direct the State according to the object for which it was instituted,
i.e. the common good: for if the clashing of particular interests made
the establishment of societies necessary, the agreement of these very interests
made it possible.
Sovereignty can never be alienated,
and that the Sovereign, who is no less than a collective being, cannot
be represented except by himself: the power indeed may ne transmitted,
but not the will.
Every service a citizen can render the State
he ought to render as soon as the Sovereign demands it; but the Sovereign,
for its part, cannot impose upon its subjects any fetters that are useless
to the community, nor can it even wish to do so; for no more by the
law of reason than by the law of nature can anything occur without a cause.
The social compact sets up among the citizens
as equality of such kind, that they all bind themselves to observe
the same conditions and should therefore all enjoy the same rights.
Top of Page
Excerpts from Adam Smith - An Inquiry
in to the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)
By Devon Beaty, Spring 2009
I. The Division of Labor
A. Human nature has the tendency
to trade, barter, or exchange one item for another.
B. On gives an item to someone who wants
it in order to receive to gain what he or she wants (goods, services, or
something with monetary value)
C. Humans do not appeal to the goodness of
their contemporaries to gain a specified item or service but they appeal
to their contemporaries own self-interest and the advantages of giving
to that person.
D. Certain people who excel at a specific
skill, sells their surplus goods or services in order to receive the goods
and services that they need.
E. Without the ability to trade or exchange,
one must produce their own goods and services for the necessity of life,
which would:
1. Increases workload
2. Diminishes innovation
F. The most different skills are of use to everyone.
II. Private and Public Benefit
A. Employment must be equal or nearing
equality to prevent crowding in one industry.
1. In a free society, every person’s
interest will cause them to pick an advantageous employment, rather than
disadvantageous.
B. Anyone who is liberal with money and resources
is a public enemy and anyone who is thrifty is a public benefactor.
1. Every extravagant or wasteful
project diminishes funds for productive labor.
2. The wastefulness of some is compensated
by the thriftiness of others in a nation.
C. Glut or expense is caused by the passion of
enjoyment which generally occurs in rare and momentary occasions.
D. Saving and to accumulation is caused by
the desire to better one’s condition and “never leaves us till we go into
the grave.”
E. Nations are never deprived by private
wastefulness but is harmed by public extravagance and wastefulness.
1. Unproductive labor that is maintained
by government revenue, may consume such a great amount that the productive
and thrifty individuals may not be able to compensate for the waste and
deterioration of government revenue.
F. Every individual is looking for the most advantageous
employment, which leads him or her to prefer an employment that is most
advantageous to society.
G. Every individual wants to employ his or
her money and resources closest to home, which support the domestic industry.
1. Upon equal or near-equal profits
a merchant naturally refers domestic-trade because he or she is accustomed
to the people and the laws of the nation in which he or she can redress
issues.
a. Investing money and resources
to the domestic trade increases the quantity in domestic industry, thus
giving more revenue and employment to the country than foreign trade.
2. Every individual who invests in a domestic
industry directs the industry to produce the greatest possible value.
H. Annual revenue of a nation is directly equal
to the exchangeable value of the annual produce of industry
1. Therefore, by a person supporting
domestic industry he or she increases the wealth the country, not because
of patriotism, but by their self-interest.
I. Political leaders who try to direct private
industry would increase unnecessary work and assume authority that no single
man, council, or Senate should have.
1. To give a monopoly (tariffs) to
and domestic market would be either useless or damaging.
a. If a product can brought cheaply
from both foreign and domestic industry than the tariff is useless.
b. But if foreign goods are cheaper than
the tariff is hurtful.
J. If a foreign nation can produce an item more
cheaply than domestic industry can, it is better to buy it, and employ
resources to an industry that would be advantageous to the domestic industry.
K. Distant or foreign employment (outsourcing)
can be better for domestic industry because foreign employment may be able
to produce goods essential to domestic industry more cheaply than the domestic
industry can produce itself.
Adam Smith - An Inquiry in to
the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)
Summary of the book by Todd Adams, spring
2008. Summaries of the Curtis extracts are below.
National wealth is the “exchangeable value
of the annual produce of land and labor of a country.”
The division of labor starts the process of
economic growth and capital accumulation keeps it going.
Three benefits of division of labor.
1. increase in skill and dexterity
2. save time in moving from job to job
3. invention of new machinery
Division of labor is dependent on the “extent
of the market” and capital accumulation.
Division of labor determines the productivity
of labor
Economic growth is also dependent on the proportion
of productive to unproductive labor. Productive labor is that labor
that produces tangible goods that have value in exchange. Unproductive
labor is not useless; it just does not produce tangible goods to be exchanged.
Smith focuses on value in exchange. Smith
has 4 “prices”
1. “Real” price is the real value
of a good determined by the “toil and trouble of acquiring it.” It “consists
of the necessaries and conveniences of live which are given for it.” In
rudimentary society labor, in other societies a cost of
production. Real prices are always
the “same.”
2. “Nominal” price is of different
values depending on the value of gold and silver. It is the price in quantity
of money.
3. “Market” price is the “actual price
at which any commodity is commonly sold. It may either be above, or below,
or exactly the same with its natural price.”
4. “Natural” price is “When the price
of any commodity is neither more nor less than what is sufficient to pay
the rent of land, the wages of the labor, and the profits of the stock
employed in raising, preparing, and bringing to market,
according to their natural rates, the commodity is then sold for what may
be called its natural price.”
Wages are based on bargaining and contract.
Wages fund argument. Wages is the amount necessary to bring up a family
and more workers
Profits are subject to variations. Wages and
profits are inversely related.
For Smith, profits include interest. Reduced
capital stock increases profit, increased capital stock reduces profit.
Profits equalize across industries
Rent is a residual profit. It may
or may not be used for improvements. Wages and profit are causes of price
of rent.
Money is regarded primarily as a medium
of exchange. It is the “wheel of circulation.” Paper money saves resources
of extracting gold and silver
Role of government in an exchange economy:
1. provide for national defense
2. provide for domestic justice and
3. those things not “in the interest for
any individual to
provide.” (public works, roads, bridges, schools, etc.)
Government should prevent workers from becoming
as “stupid and ignorant as possible” due to division of labor.
Government revenue:
1. Mercantile projects
2. Public lands
3. Taxes
Smith on taxes:
“Subjects of every state ought to contribute
towards the support of government, as nearly as possible, in proportion
to their respective abilities: that is, in proportion to the revenue
which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”
Taxes should be:
1. “certain and not arbitrary”
2. “levied at the time, or in the manner
which it is most likely be convenient for the contributor”
3. “take as little as possible out of the
pockets of the people.”
Top of Page
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
By Jarret Layson, 2001
1. The division of Labor
· "give me that which I want and you
shall have this which you want"
· we do not expect goods from the
kindness of the manufacturer but from their regard for their own interest
· from the beginnings man has applied
himself to an occupation for the certainty of being able to exchange the
surplus from his labor for another man's surplus
· difference of talents between man
is useful to society
· summary: " the most dissimilar geniuses
are of use to one another"
2. Private Interests and Public Benefit
· The advantages and disadvantages
of different employments must be equal or continually tending to equality
· every prodigal appears to be a public
enemy, and every frugal man a public benefactor
· it seldom occurs that a nation can
be much affected by either the prodigality or misconduct of individuals,
because it's always compensated by the frugality and good conduct of others
· principle which prompts man to save
is that to better one's condition
· bankruptcy is the most "humiliating
calamity" and every man attempts to avoid it
· Great nations are never impoverished
by private, but sometimes by public prodigality and misconduct
· The general industry of the society
never can exceed what the capital of the society can employ
· Man's quest to find his most advantageous
employment naturally leads him to prefer that employment which is most
advantageous to the society
· Man generally neither intends to
promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it
· Those who pursue their own good,
frequently promote the good of the society more
· The security that man shall enjoy
the fruits of his own labor is alone sufficient to make any country flourish
· Summary: without law private interests
of men naturally lead them to divide and distribute the stock, which is
most agreeable to the interest of the whole.
Top of Page
Locke notes have moved
to Volume 1 Notes.
Top of Page
|
|
Immanuel Kant (p. 42-47)
by David Abbott, Spring 2001
Fundamental Principles
of the Metaphisics of Morals
Prop. #1: an action,
to have moral worth, must be done from duty (deontological
ethics; principle-based)
Prop. #2: an action
done from duty derives its moral worth, not from the purpose
which is to be attained
by it, but from the maxim (principle) by which it is determined,
and therefore does
not depend on the realization of the object of the action, but
merely on the principle
of volition by which the action has taken place, without regard
to any object of
desire. (It's not how you win, but how you play the game; or, it's the
thought that counts)
Moral value of any decision or action does not come from the
end achieved, but
from the principle of will; the will stands between its a priori
principle, which
is formal, and its a postiori spring, which is material.
Prop. #3: Duty is
the necessity of acting from respect for the law.
Moral good consists
in nothing other than the conception of the law, which is only
possible in rational
beings.
Laws must come the
general concept, not specific to some; it must be applicable to all
(absolute, not relative)
The Categorical Imperative
The will of men is
not only influenced by reason, which would always cause them to
do good; there are
other (subjective) influences as well; thus, to counter these other
influences, obligation
to laws determined by pure reason (objective principles) must
serve as an impetus
to follow the moral reasoning of which the will on its own is not
capable of attaining.
" The conception
of an objective principle, in so far as it is obligatory for a will, is
called a command
(of reason), and the formula of the command is called an
Imperative." The
imperative is expressed by the phrase "ought to"; it is an obligation,
indicating the relationship
of an objective law of reason to a will.
Imperatives are
either hypothetical or categorical; hypothetical applies to actions
which are means
to an end; categorical refers to actions which are in themselves an
end. The first is
necessary to achieve an end; the second is necessary in itself,
objectively. Morality
is always a categorical imperative.
There is only one
categorical imperative: "Act only on that maxim whereby thou canst
at the same time
will that it should become a universal law"...in other words, actions
should always be
guided by principles which are consistent with a universal moral law.
Whatever we do,
we should only do if we believe that the principle on which our
action is based,
should be a universal law; if we think everyone else should also hold
that principle.
Man as an End
All people, and rational
beings, should be thought of as an end in themselves, having
objective and absolute,
not subjective or relative, worth; that is, their value is inherent,
not dependent on
their usefulness to our own ends. Thus, we should never use others
only as a means
to an end; we should treat them as a worthwhile end in themselves
Top of Page
Karl Marx
(Amy Garrett, 2001)
I. Fundamental Proposition of Marxism
A. History of Mankind is history
of class struggle
B. It is the exploitation vs the exploited,
ruling vs oppressed
II. Theory of Class Struggles in History
A. All societies have had some form
of class structure
B. Bourgeois must settle everywhere,
establish connections everywhere
C. They have created enormous cities and
turned semi barbarian and barbarian countries dependent on civilized ones,
east dependent on the west
D. Laborers are slaves to the bourgeois state
and develop a proletariat (people who sell their labor to live)
E. Stages of proletariat:
1. Struggle with bourgeois individually
2. Become workers in factory
3. Operatives of 1 trade in 1 locality fight;
proletariat begin to grow in mass and strength as their work becomes less
valuable
4. form trade unions
5. Become a class and political party
F. Bourgeois is no longer compatible to society
because it causes working class to sink further rather than rise up
G. The formation and augmentation of capital
essential condition for bourgeois => condition for capital is wage labor
=>this rests solely on competition between laborers => allows laborers
to fight as a unit
III. Utopian Socialists
A. First movement of proletariat
failed because proletariat was not developed and economic conditions were
good
B. Socialists and communists societies want
to improve condition of everyone in society
C. useful for the enlightenment of the working
class but purely utopian in nature
IV. World Revolution
A. Communist fight for the present
and the future of the movement to instill working class with the idea that
bourgeois are against the proletariat turning most of their attention to
Germany
B. Communist everywhere support every revolutionary
movement that goes against the existing political and social order
C. "Proletariat have nothing to lose but
their chains."
V. The Materialistic Conception of History
A. Proposition that the production
and the exchange of things produced is the means to support life is the
basis of all social structure
B. Revolutions should be sought in the changes
in the modes of production and exchange
C. Men are producers of their conceptions
and the existence of men is their actual life process. Consciousness is
determined by life
D. The ultimate determining element in history
is the production and reproduction of real life.
E. Humans make history themselves but under
definite conditions, of which economic ones are ultimately decisive.
VI. The Inevitable Doom of Capitalism
A. The more the proletariat grows,
the more they will gain strength, and soon the laborers will overcome capitalism
B. Centralization of production and the socialization
of labor will eventually reach a point where they are no longer compatible
with capitalism.
VII. The Withering Away of the State
A.The modern state is a capitalist
machine
B. Society must take possession of production
C. The proletariat must seize political power
and turn the means of production into state property.
D. There have been societies who have done
without state and state power.
E. Soon the existence of classes will become
a hindrance to production and cause the state to fall; those who reorganize
society will do so on a basis of a free and equal association of the producers
Top of Page
Outline for Curtis chapters on Marxism
(David Abbott, 2001)
1. Marx and Engels
The
Communist Manifesto (p. 158)
Social reality is
determined by economic factors
The history of mankind
is a history of class struggles
The class system
develops over time, each new phase growing out of and replacing an old
one
The bourgeoise class,
the class of capitalists which owns the means of production and
exploits the working
class (proletariat), grew from the feudal system. It has taken control
of all
aspects of society
and converted them into servants to its own ends, leaving no relationship
except
as defined by economic
self-interest. Property is centralized more and more into the hands of
the few.
The bourgeois had
developed forces of production and exchange which outgrew the system of
capitalist private
property; the old must be replaced by a new system adapted to the new realities
created by capitalism;
the bourgeois has planted the seeds of its own destruction.
Laborers are to
the bourgeois just another commodity; the value of a commodity is determined
by the
cost of production,
which in the case of a worker is equal to subsistence level; this is the
basis of
wages.
The proletarians
must unite first into unions, then into a political party. They must unite
to take over
the means of production
from the control of the bourgeois. The revolution will take place first
in
individual nations
and then spread to the rest of the world.
"Proletarians have
nothing to lose but their chains; they have a world to win. Workingmen
of all countries,
unite!"
The Dialectic Method (p. 172)
Marx's method different
from Hegel's
Hegel: ideas create
reality (similar to Plato)
Marx: reality creates
ideas (dialectic materialism)
method of interpreting
history (and predicting future); each epoch reaches crisis stage at which
changing of guard
takes place; the status quo (thesis) conflict with the revolutionary movement
(antithesis) and
produces the new status quo (synthesis); cycle is repeated.
The Materialist Conception of History (p.
173)
premise: economic
factors of production and exchange are the basis for all social structures
change must take
place when the existing social order, "adapted to earlier economic conditions",
does not fit the new economic reality
economic factors
are the most important (ultimately determining) elements of history, but
not the only elements (Engels)
The Inevitable Doom of Capitalism (p.
177)
"The monopoly of
capital becomes a fetter upon the mode of production which has sprung up
and
flourished along
with and under it. Centralization of the means of production and socialization
of labor at last reach a point where they become incompatible with their
capitalist integument."
The Withering Away of the State (p.
178)
The state is an instrument
of the bourgeoise to protect the capitalist system; it is an instrument
of
oppression; it maintains
the status quo
It will expand its
powers until it is too large, caving in of its own weight
State owenrship
of the means of production is not itself the solution
The solution consists
in the " practical recognition of the social nature of the modern forces
of
production, and
therefore in the harmonizing of the modes of production, appropriation,
and exchange
with the socialized
character of the means of production. And this can come about only by society
openly and directly
taking possession of the productive forces which have outgrown all control
except that of society
as a whole."
Proletariat makes
the means of production the property of the state, which represents the
people;
thus, theoretically,
the means of production are owned by the people in common. At this point,
the
state "renders itself
unnecessary", becoming superfluous,and is not abolished but simply dies
out. It
has outlived its
usefulness, sort of worked itself out of a job.
At a certain point
in economic development of society, the state and state power, as well
as the class
structure, became
necessary; but the society will eventually evolve economically to the place
where
classes and states
are not only unnecessary but a hindrance to production, to further growth
and
development. When
there are no more classes, when all are truly equal,there will be no more
conflict,
and the dialectic
cycle will end. This will be the Communist society, the "worker's
paradise"...the
end of history, in a sense.
Top of Page
Lenin
Todd Adams, Fall 2008
What Is to Be Done? (1902)
• Lenin called for the formation
of a professional revolutionary party of intellectuals that would direct
the efforts of the proletariat
• Lenin believed that the proletariat, left
to their own devices, would be satisfied with trade union consciousness
which would only lead to further exploitation by the bourgeoisie
• Only a centralized, militant organization
that consistently carries out a Social-Democratic policy that satisfies
all revolutionary instincts and strivings can safeguard the movement against
making thoughtless attacks and prepare it for attacks that hold out the
promise of success
• Only serious organizational principle that
active workers of the movement may accept-
1. strict secrecy
2. strict selection of members
3. training of professional revolutionists
The State and Revolution (1917)
• The state is the product and the
manifestation of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms
• The state is an instrument of bourgeoisie
oppression and domination over
the proletariat
• The liberation of the proletariat is impossible
without a violent revolution and the destruction of the apparatus of state
power created by the ruling class
• A dictatorship of the proletariat must
be established to suppress the bourgeoisie until a classless society comes
into being with the transition from capitalism to Communism
• Only Communism renders the state absolutely
unnecessary since there is no class to oppress
• The state will wither away completely when
society has realized the rule: “From each according to his ability; to
each according to his needs”
Top of Page
Lenin
Sierra R Turner, 2004
The theory of Socialism grew out of the philosophic,
historical, and economic theories that were elaborated by the educated
representatives of the propertied classes, the intellectuals.
In Russia, the theoretical doctrine of Social-Democracy
arose quite independently of the spontaneous growth of the labour movement;
it rose as a natural and inevitable outcome of the development of ideas
among the revolutionary Socialist intelligentsia….
The Social-Democrat’s ideal should not be
a trade-union secretary, but a tribune of the people, able to react to
every manifestation of tyranny and oppression, no matter where it takes
place, no matter what stratum or class of the people it affects….
The worker’s organizations must:
1) be trade organizations,
2) be as wide as possible, and
3) be a public as conditions will allow.
On the other hand, they must be comprised
first and foremost of people whose profession is that of revolutionists.
According to Lenin:
1) No movement can be durable without
a stable organization of leaders to continuity,
2) The more widely the masses are drawn into
the struggle and form the basis of the movement, the more necessary it
is to have such an organization and the more stable it must be….
3) Organization must consist chiefly of persons
engaged in revolution as a profession,
4) In a country with a despotic government,
the more we restrict the membership of this organization to persons who
are engaged in revolution…the more difficult it will be to catch the organization,
and
5) The wider will be the circle of men and
women of the working class or of other classes of society bale to join
the movement and perform active work in it
Top of Page
Lenin
(David Abbott, 2001)
What is to be Done? 1902 (p. 362)
Spontaneous and Revolutionary
Activity: the proletariat on its own can only form trade unions which
in fact work to
serve the bourgeoise.
The Need for a Revolutionary
Party: need professional revolutionaries; a small, secret organization
made up of experienced
and dedicated select membership, can accomplish all the goals of a trade
union and do so
more efficiently.
The State and Revolution-1917 (p. 366)
The Need for Revolution:
The state is an instrument of bourgeoise oppression and domination over
the proletariat.
It will not wither away on its own but can only be overthrown by violent
revolution;
only the proletariat
state will wither away naturally, and with it the need for any state at
all.
The Dictatorship
of the Proletariat: The dictatorship of the proletariat must be established
to
supress the bourgeoise
until a classless society comes into being. A true Marxist must accept
not
only the class struggle
but also the need for this rule by the working class. It must be maintained
not
by a bureacracy
but by an armed mass of workers. True democracy is established, one which
represents the people
and not just the rich, during the transition period from capitalism to
Communism. Only
when Communist society has come into being will the state wither away,
when
there is no longer
any class of people (perhaps some individuals) who must be supressed.This
will
take place after
people have become accustomed to observing the "elementary rules of social
life" for
their own sake,
without the need for further incentive. without the need for compulsion
or
subordination; then
the state will be unnecessary.
Communist Society:
Communism cannot immediately do away with all injustices, only those which
arise from individual
control of the means of production. Real equality, and thus justice, will
only be
realized when all
voluntarily accept and live by the phrase : "From each according to his
ability; to each
according to his need." Then there will be no more need for
redistribution;
all will give freely as they can and all will take freely as they need.
Top of Page
Trotsky
By Jonathan Lyons, Fall 2006
The Soviet Bureaucracy
-The rule by the bureaucracy was made
possible by the harsh poverty and backwardness of Russia. The bureaucracy
controlled the state and therefore the means of production, and as productivity
grew, so did inequality.
-“Soviet Thermidor”-triumph of bureaucracy
over the masses
-The “privileged minority” reaped the
rewards of high productivity, and the bureaucracy no longer functions for
the good of the state. Products become low quality because freedom
of initiative and criticism is no longer possible. The state of production
does not guarantee all necessities to everyone, but gives significant privileges
to the minority.
-Soviet society is not harmonious, In
order for the socialist culture to thrive, it will only succeed in proportion
to the dying away of the state. Socialism will only exist if workers
overthrow the bureaucracy, and if this occurs genius will flourish and
as creativity is no longer limited by the state
-Bonapartism-the worship of the state
leader who personifies bureaucracy, who is kept in place by force. Stalin’s
regime is kept in place by armed police against the unarmed masses.
A successful proletariat revolution would crush Bonapartism but the workers
have been slow to respond.
Top of Page
Trotsky
Sierra R. Turner, 2004
The strength of the compulsion exercised by the
masses in a workers’ State is directly proportional to the strength of
the exploitative tendencies….
The bureaucracy represents a special kind
of compulsion which the masses cannot or do not wish to exercise.
The present Soviet society cannot prosper
without a State or bureaucracy.
The bureaucracy enjoys it privileges under
the form of an abuse of power. It conceals its income; it pretends that
as a special group it does not even exist.
The Soviet Union is a contradictory
society half-way between capitalism and socialism, in which:
1) the property lacks a socialist character,
2) primitive accumulation of wants comes
through the holes of the planned economy,
3) distribution is at the basis of a new
differentiation of society,
4) economic growth, while slow, provides
a formation of privileged strata,
5) has evolved into a an uncontrolled caste
alien to socialism,
6) existence of the social revolution,
7) further development of the accumulating
contradictions can lead to socialism or back to capitalism,
8) capitalism= break the resistance of the
workers, and
9) socialism= workers would have to overthrow
the bureaucracy.
Caesarism arose upon the basis of a
slave society shaken by inward strife while Bonapartism is one of
the political weapons of the capitalist regime in its critical periods.
Stalininsm
is a variety of the same system, but upon the basis of a workers’ State
torn by the antagonism between an organized and armed Soviet aristocracy
and unarmed toiling masses.
Top of Page
Trotsky
(Amy Garrett, ca.2001)
*Soviet Thermidor - a triumph of the bureaucracy
over the masses
*Soviet society still needs a bureaucracy
because of the lies caused from Social contradictions
*Bureaucratic rule results in each against
all
*the Soviet bureaucracy causes inequality,
privilege, and advantage to rise
*The state of production does not guarantee
all necessities to everybody, but give significant privileges to a minority
*the bureaucracy is a new class that goes
above that of the upper class
*they enjoy their privileges by abusing their
power
*the soviet union is halfway between socialism
and capitalism (reasons listed on page 376)
*Soviet society is not harmonious
*bureaucracy causes products to lose their
quality
*the socialist culture will flourish only
in proportion to the dying away of the state
*Stalin is the personification of the bureaucracy
*Stalin is producing a new type of Bonapartism
referred to by Trotsky as Stalinism
*Stalinism is based on an antagonism between
an organized aristocracy and uneducated masses
*Stalinism and fascism are parallel; both
were caused by a reaction to the revolution of the
world
Top of Page
Trotsky
(David Abbott, ca. 2000)
The Revolution Betrayed (p. 373)
Soviet Bureaucracy:
The revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat has been swallowed up by
bureaucracy. The
rule by bureaucracy was made possible by the extreme poverty and backwardness
of Russia. The bureaucracy
controlled the state, which controlled the means of production; as
produtivity grew,
so did inequality; a privileged minority "took the cream" from the top.
Their actions
seem inconsistent
if the goal is to establish socialism; but they are very consisitent if
the goal is to
maintain or expand
the privilege and power of the bureaucracy. A necessary organ has outgrown
its
function, becoming
an independent factor which threatens the whole organism. Products are
of
inferior quality
because, in an atmosphere of fear, lies, and flattery, freedom of criticism
and initiative
is not possible.
Revolutionary dictatorship requires strict limitations on freedom, but
this inhibits
creativity; genius
will flourish with the demise of the state, of the dictatorship. But the
bureaucracy is
not working in the
interests of society; it is operating out of its own interest, ruthlessly
its own power
and income.
Bonapartism:
the worship of the state leader, whether it be the Pope, Ceaser, Napolean,
or Stalin, who
personifies the
bureaucracy; it is kept in place by force (Plebiscite). Stalin's regime
is supported by
armed police against
unarmed masses. It is similar to fascism. A true and succesful proeltariat
revolution would
wipe away both Bonapartism and fascism; but it is because the workers of
the world
have been slow to
respond, slow to act, because the continued world revolution did not take
place, that this
has happened to them.
Top of Page
Socialism and Pierre Joseph
Proudhon (1809-1865)
Charles Walters 2005
-The vast industrial and social changes of the
nineteenth century produced more numerous and complex problems than in
any previous period. This brought unemployment, bitterness in industrial
relationships, growth in towns and prosperity increase. Protest took place
in these forms
- Destructive- Luddites
- Philanthropic and humanitarian-
Shaftesbury and Charles Kingsley
- Aesthetic- John Ruskin
- Revolutionary
- Socialism was coined in the 1830’s separately
in both England and France- writers were called “Utopian Socialists” by
Marx and others they did not agree on a common platform or group together.
But they all criticized the established order and industrial system, where
hostile to capitalism (competition and private property), and believed
that these conditions could be improved.
Important thinkers-
Robert Owen- England
Fourier, Cabet, Proudhon, Saint-Simon- France
The themes in their writings included the
importance of the environment and of the economic system in conditioning
character and behavior, labor theory of value, nature of surplus value
and exploitation, class struggle, nature of economic crises, need for communal
ownership, role for the proletariat, and role of credit in the financial
system- They were called the “Utopians” and the Marxists owed more than
they pretended to their arguments.
Proudhon:
self- educated editor, man of the
people, was a spokesman for the individualism of the small farmer rather
than the proletariat, argued for an end to privilege, abolition of slavery,
equality of rights, and the reign of law. Social change should be peaceful
with the help of the bourgeoisie, without destroying family or tradition.
He attacked finance capitalism, argued for the institution of credit unions,
popular banks and cooperatives, but opposed to the claim of trade unions
to collect bargaining and the right to strike, and to plan any uniform
society. Marx was the tapeworm of socialism.
He was essentially a libertarian searching for
a free society and for those associations where a “social republic” might
be reached. Attacked centralization of government and industry believed
in federalism, decentralization, regionalism, and mutuality, power should
come from natural groups and working units than from above.
Proudhon’s
What is Property?
-just as slavery is murder, property is
robbery
-traditionally the right to property is a
civil right sanctioned by law or it is a natural right which being a natural
right it is derived from labor, but Proudhon says that labor, law, or occupation
cannot create property
-did not ask to build a system only for an
end to privilege, abolition of slavery, equality of rights, and reign of
law—justice is the KEY of his argument
Social Liquidation and Mutualism
-Fall of monarchy and proclamation
of the Republic signaled a social revolution
-The Revolution consisted of substituting
in the place of the old feudal and military government system for approval
of a economic/industrial system where there would be a base of economic
forces for the basis of the organization (not a government)—it must result
from the nature of things and there should be nothing arbitrary about it
-The principle of association which is invoked
by most schools, because it is neither a natural or economic law it would
be barred because the Revolution bars the words government & obedience.
-The “Sphere” is the family; it cannot be
legitimately extended to the city or nation
-In the place of association there was a
tendency to substitute reciprocity, where there is both an economic force
and law
-A “contract” is the only moral bond which
fee and equal beings can accept
-Essential Factors of the Revolution:
Cause- Economic chaos from the 1789
Revolution
Occasion: progressive, systematic poverty
where government finds itself the promoter and supporter
Organic Principle: reciprocity which is in
law terms- contract
Aim: guaranty of work and wages, creating
wealth and liberty
Parties- Socialist schools (principle of
association) and the democratic factions which are still devoted to the
principles of centralization and of the state
THE NEW ORDER
-A New Order is being constructed “underground”
by society. This “Order” gives the expression of vitality, autonomy and
the denial of religion and politics.
-Principles:
-indefinite perfectibility
of the individual and of the race
-honorableness of work
-equality of fortunes
-identity of interests
-end of antagonisms
-universality of comfort
-sovereignty of reason
-absolute liberty of the man and of the citizen
-Principle forms of Activity
-Division of labor (replaces caste)
-Collective Power (replaces armies)
-Commerce (takes place of law)
-Competition
-Credit (heavy upon interests as government
hierarchy turns on “Obedience”)
-Equilibrium of values and properties
-The old government system was based upon
“Divine Right” and even though sovereignty of the people has been introduced
it has been but a skirmishing line for Liberty
-It is a mistake to make a distinction between
an absolute monarchy and constitutional monarchy and even a democratic
republic; because the distinctions do not touch underlying principles
-There can be no fusion between the political
and the economic systems, between the systems of laws and system of contract
-It is an industrial system to be put in
place instead of government is what Proudhon wishes to do
-No more laws just contracts- political force
replaced by economic force- instead of castes there will be departments
of industry- a collective force will replace public force- industrial associations
will replace armies- police will no longer be in existence but a identity
of interests- economic centralization will replace political centralization
-Unity and centralization is perpetual chaos—a
basis for endless for tyranny
-“Let us try then by clear criticism to make
the test of government so conclusive, that the absurdity of the institution
will strike all minds, and Anarchy, dreaded as a scourge, will be accepted
as a benefit.”
Curtis, Vol. II. Pierre Joseph Proudhon
(1809-1865)
Woojung Lee
§
A libertarian: searching for a free society and for those
associations through which the social republic
might be reached and
workers take over their natural inheritance
§
Constantly attacked centralization of government and industry
§
Believe in federalism, decentralization, regionalism and mutuality
§
His idea affected not only the French working class movement, but also
the ideas of the Russian anarchists.
What is Property? (1840)
§
As slavery is murder, property is robbery.
§
Neither labor, nor occupation, nor law, can create property.
§
Demands an end to privilege, the abolition of slavery, equality of rights
and the reign of law.
The General Idea of the Revolution in the
Nineteenth Century (1851)
1. Social Liquidation
and Mutualism
1. (French)
Revolution became settled and defined.
2. Revolution
consists in substituting the economic or industrial system for the governmental
system.
3. By an industrial
system, a constitution of society having for its basis the organization
of economic force which must result from the nature of things, nothing
arbitrary
4. Political
principle revived recently under the name of direct government is but a
false application of the principle of authority.
5. We have
established A new idea, idea of association and contract
2. The New
Order
1. The society
is constructing a new order, the expression of its vitality and autonomy,
and the denial of the old politics and religion
2. Principles
and forms of activity (p. 137)
3. There is
no fusion between the political (system of law) and economic (system of
contract).
4. Instead
of government, laws, political powers, public force, and police, we will
put industrial organization, contract, economic forces, collective forces,
and identity of interests.
Adam Smith,
The
Wealth of Nations
Geoff Warren, 2002
The Division of Labour
*It is human nature to barter and
exchange for goods (trade).
*Man is the only animal that doesn’t live
independently, he expects
cooperation and assistance from the multitudes(
through trading).
*People trade for their own self interest,
not to help others out, in
effect, give me what I want and you shall
have what you want.
*so....It is through this natural human trade
that we have division of labor.
*a man becomes accustomed to providing a
service to his neighbors for
which they pay him in goods and services.
He finds that it is in his
self-interest to provide these services so
he becomes a butcher, a baker, or a candlemaker.
*difference between a philosopher and a common
street porter.... habit,
custom, and education.
Private Interest and Public Benefit
*a great Nation can seldom be affected
by the misconduct or imprudence
of some, because it will always be overcome
by the frugality and good conduct of others.
* it is natural for man t always strive to
better their condition in life.
*an augmentation of fortune is the means
by which the greater part of
men propose to better their condition.
*although the principle of expense(spending
money on useless things)
prevails in almost all men at some time it
is always counteracted by frugality.
*Great Nations are never impoverished by
private misconduct but instead public misconduct.
*examples are countries that maintain huge
governments and armies
during times of piece with nothing to compensate
for them or in times
of war do nothing to compensate for maintaining
them.
*such people, as they produce nothing, are
dependant on others labor
*the effort of every man to better his condition
is usually powerful
enough to maintain the progress of improvement
in spite of errors of administration.
*general industry of society can never exceed
what the capital of
society can employ (economy can not constantly
pay out more than it makes)
*capital employed in the home trade necessarily
puts into motion a
greater quantity of domestic industry and
puts into motion a greater
quantity of domestic industry.
*by pursuing his own interest he frequently
promotes that of the
society more effectively than when he really
intends to promote it. (Man)
Top of Page
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
By Jarret Layson, 2001
1. The division of Labor
· "give me that which I want and you
shall have this which you want"
· we do not expect goods from the
kindness of the manufacturer but from their regard for their own interest
· from the beginnings man has applied
himself to an occupation for the certainty of being able to exchange the
surplus from his labor for another man's surplus
· difference of talents between man
is useful to society
· summary: " the most dissimilar geniuses
are of use to one another"
2. Private Interests and Public Benefit
· The advantages and disadvantages
of different employments must be equal or continually tending to equality
· every prodigal appears to be a public
enemy, and every frugal man a public benefactor
· it seldom occurs that a nation can
be much affected by either the prodigality or misconduct of individuals,
because it's always compensated by the frugality and good conduct of others
· principle which prompts man to save
is that to better one's condition
· bankruptcy is the most "humiliating
calamity" and every man attempts to avoid it
· Great nations are never impoverished
by private, but sometimes by public prodigality and misconduct
· The general industry of the society
never can exceed what the capital of the society can employ
· Man's quest to find his most advantageous
employment naturally leads him to prefer that employment which is most
advantageous to the society
· Man generally neither intends to
promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it
· Those who pursue their own good,
frequently promote the good of the society more
· The security that man shall enjoy
the fruits of his own labor is alone sufficient to make any country flourish
· Summary: without law private interests
of men naturally lead them to divide and distribute the stock, which is
most agreeable to the interest of the whole.
Top of Page
The Utilitarians: Bentham, James Mill
and J.S. Mill
Jeremy Bentham
Charles Walters, Fall 2005
- There are two masters from nature that governs
mankind Pleasure and Pain
- Right and wrong, causes and effects are
tied to its throne thus, they alone should determine what we do.
- People may deny their obedience to pleasure
and pain with their mouths but they are obedient all the while.
- The fabric of happiness and contentedness
should be reared by reason and law
- The principle of utility is the principle
that approves and disapproves of actions which will either create or destroy
in some form the interests of a certain party’s happiness.
- Utility will promote happiness,
benefit, advantage and pleasure and act to prevent pain and evil to a party,
whether a community or individual
- The interests of the community are the
interests of all the individual members who compose it.
- We must first understand the interest of
the individual before we can that of the community.
- Any action by government then can be considered
conformable to the principle of utility if the tendency to promote the
happiness is greater than that to diminish the happiness of the community.
- Thus, it may be convenient to put such
an action into a law or dictate
- If an action is right to be done, or at
least is not wrong to be done then it should be done.
- A legislature ought to have in his views
for a sole standard to judge his convictions by, the happiness for the
individual
- Therefore it helps the legislature to understand
the value and the force of pleasures and pains
- The value of pain or pleasure should be
considered by these seven circumstances:
o intensity
o duration
o certainty or uncertainty
o remoteness
o the chances of being followed by more reactions
of either pain or happiness once instated as a law
o its purity or chances of not being followed
by more reactions
o and to its “extent” or the number of persons
affected by it
Top of Page
James Mill
Charles Walters, Fall 2005
- Human pains and pleasures are produced by
either fellow men or causes independent of other men
- The concern of government should be to
increase the pleasures and diminish to the utmost the pains derived from
each other.
- Labor is our biggest question because from
labor we derive our means of subsistence and our pleasures- thus creating
the primary cause of government.
- If nature had created all every man needed
and enough for his desires then there would be no need for any man having
authority over another.
- But because nature did not do so, man fights
for acquiring authority thus creating government.
- A man with less than another has a desire
to take from the man with the more, thus creating a need for men to unite
together for protection. Where the greatest attainment of this goal is
when these men delegate small number of power necessary for protecting
them which is government.
- This government’s power becomes boundless
in the number of persons to whom it can be extended to and boundless in
its degree of power over each.
- Rulers of community then desire conformity
between their will and the members of the community.
- There are two classes in which conformity
between the will of one man and the acts of other can be accomplished and
that is through pain or pleasure.
- When a man possesses many objects which
are desired then that man can give these objects to other men to insure
conformity between his will and their actions.
- It is unconceivable that a king or an aristocracy
be content with many objects of desire and return the objects back to the
community.
- A person who desires obedience must be
able to inflict pain because pleasure is not enough of an incentive for
obedience. It is easier to turn away from pleasure than it is pain.
- Terror is the instrument which must be
used to keep conformity of will.
- Mill says then if a government is entrusted
to one man or a few men an aristocracy will form and the results are fatal.
- In order to find a good government we need
checks to keep individuals from making bad use of power, representation
seems to be a solution where the community itself uses checks to keep individuals
in line.
- The checking body must have a degree of
power sufficient to do the task.
- It must have an identity of interest with
the community so as not to make mischievous use of power.
- The ability for a representative to do
himself good by doing the community bad should be eliminated or if not,
then there should be a term limit on his involvement with government.
Top of Page
John Stuart Mill
Charles Walters, Fall 2005
- some pleasures are more desirable and more
valuable than others therefore there is a system of quality in pleasure
- A person of higher faculty is more capable
to acute sufferings than someone of a lower faculty. Although this person
may be liable to suffer more, they still do not wish to sink to a lower
level of existence or so they may think. It may be because of: pride, love
of liberty, personal independence, love of power, the love of excitement,
but most of all to a sense of dignity that all humans possess in one form
or another
- dignity is proportional to lower and higher
faculties
- If a person of higher faculty does not
feel happiness, he does find a way to bear its imperfections because; Mills
says it is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.
- Is there a particular pleasure worth purchasing
at the cost of a particular pain?
- The Utilitarian standard is having the
greatest amount of happiness altogether—so it can only be attained if a
general cultivation of nobleness of character being that nobleness is what
makes a person happy
- some objectors say happiness can not be
a rational purpose of human life because they say for one it is unattainable
and of course continuous happiness is impossible because a state of pleasure
is not steady and permanent
- A life with few and transitory pains with
many and various pleasures, with a decided predominance of the active over
the passive and not expecting more from life than can be given- is considered
a life of happiness.
- Mill says the only thing from people experiencing
this life is the education and social arrangements of his time
- Mill also says that when people are tolerably
fortunate and still do not find enjoyment, selfishness is usually why.
Other than selfishness, the reason for being unhappy is the lack of mental
cultivation.
- A cultivated mind can find interest in
all that surrounds it such as: art, poetry, nature, history, mankind, and
the future. Though it is possible for someone to become indifferent to
surroundings when it is only treated as curiosity.
- Mill acknowledges that in order to serve
best the happiness of others, one has to sacrifice his own happiness which
would make a very imperfect state of the world. But, the readiness to do
such is the highest virtue able to be found in man.
- The conscious ability to do without happiness
is the best way to realize that such happiness is attainable.
- utilitarian morality recognizes that one’s
own greater good should be sacrificed for the greater good of others. But
if it does not increase the greater good it will be wasted.
- Utilitarianism only applauds self-renunciation
if it is devoted to happiness.
- The complete spirit of the ethics of utility
is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Thus, placing the
interests of every individual closest to harmony with the interests of
the whole as possible and that education and opinion reflect this idea.
Top of Page
John Stuart Mill
By: Krista Leachman Fall 2003
-leading figure of Utilitarianism
-attempted to combine rationalism and
romanticism, intellectual culture with other kinds of cultivation through
the former always dominated work.
-argued that life had more important ends
than simply the pursuit of pleasure
-the cultivation of feelings and the development
of character were equally important
-Mill is more significant for his discussion
of and contribution to liberalism than for his utilitarianism.
-became aware of insufficiency of classical
liberalism
-His advocacy of state action, compulsory
state education and increased social control made him, at the end, call
himself a socialist.
-Negative Liberty
-The sole end for which mankind are warranted,
individual or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of
any of their number, is self-protection.
-Liberty of Thought
-In all mankind minus one were one opinion,
and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would he no more
justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would
be justified in silencing mankind.
-In politics, it is almost a commonplace,
that a party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform,
is both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.
-Liberty of Action
-No one pretends that actions should be as
free as opinions.
-The greatest difficulty to be encountered
does not lie in the appreciation of means towards an acknowledged end,
but the indifference of persons in general to the end itself.
-The Despotism of Custom
-The despotism of custom is everywhere the
standing hindrance to human advancement, being in unceasing antagonism
to that disposition to aim at something better than customary, which is
called, according to circumstances, the spirit of liberty, or that of progress
or improvement.
-Limits to Authority
-To individuality should belong the part
of life in which it is chiefly the individual that is interested; to society,
the part which chiefly interests society.
-If society lets any number of its members
grow up mere children, incapable of being acted on by rational consideration
of distant motives, society has itself to blame for the consequences.
-The strongest of all the arguments against
the interference of the public with purely personal conduct is that, when
it does interfere, the odds are that interferes wrongly, and in the wrong
place.
John Stuart
Mill, on Liberty
Lindsey Langston,
2001
Principles of Liberty
* Liberty of Thought
and Feeling
- absolute freedom of opinion and sentiment on all subjects, practical
or speculative, scientific, moral, or theological
*Liberty of Tastes and
Pursuits
- framing the plans of our lives
- doing as we like
*Liberty of combination
among individuals
- freedom to unite for any purpose, without involving harm to others
"No society in which
these liberties are not, on the whole, respected, is free!"
Mankind has complete
independence and liberty over himself, his own body and mind, but his actions
are limited when concerning the well-being of others.
Once mankind became
capable of being guided to their own improvement, compulsion was no longer
admissable as a means to their own good.
- Compulsion is only justifiable for the security of others.
- Individual spontaneity is subject to external control.
In conclusion.........
Mill warns that the disposition of mankind, whether as rulers or fellow-citizens,
is to impose their own opinions and inclinations as conduct on others.
This is hardly ever kept under restraint by anything but want of power.
And since this power is growing it will continue to grow and pose a threat
to our principles of liberty, unless a barrier of moral conviction can
be raised to stop it.
Top of Page
Herbert Spencer
by Brandy Smith, 2003
Herbert Spencer was a chief representative of
Social
Darwinism. He was a individualist believing that the functions
of the state were limited to protection, that no restrictions
should be placed on commerce and no provision made for social welfare or
education.
Spencer believed that the evolutionary
process, in the absence of interference, led inevitably to social improvement.
He stated that the whole effort of nature was to get rid of the inefficient
and to make room for the better. By helping the “unfit” and through public
charity weaknesses were passed on.
The Study of Sociology
Mutual dependence of parts is that which initiates and guides organization
of every kind. So long as, in a mass of living matter, all parts are alike,
and all parts similarly live and grow without aid from one another, there
is no organization.
Each part can abandon that original state in which it fulfilled for itself
all vital needs, and can assume a state in which it fulfills in excess
some single vital need, only if its other vital needs are fulfilled for
it by other parts that have meanwhile undertaken other special activities.
There must be an exchange of services.
Spencer stresses the fact that when a Legislature takes from the worthy
and gives to the unworthy-when cause and consequence, joined in the order
of Nature, are thus divorced by law-makers; then may properly come the
suggestion-“Cease your interference.”
Social Darwinism
The quality of a society is physically lowered by the artificial preservation
of its feeblest members. The society is lowered both morally and intellectually.
If the unworthy are helped to increase, then you will reproduce generation
after generation of greater unworthiness.
Herbert Spencer
By: Krista Leachman, Fall 2003
-Herbert Spencer, product of a nonconformist
background, was always an individualist, believing that the functions
of the state were limited to protection that no restrictions should be
placed on commerce and no provision made for social welfare or education.
-used the analogy the social and individual
organism, but at the same time warned that it was only a metaphor
-mutual dependence of parts is that which
initiates and guides organization of every kind
-It may be rightly contended that if those
who are but little fitted to the social state are rigorously subjected
to these conditions, evil will result: intolerable restraint, if it does
not deform or destroy life, will be followed by violent reaction.
-Social Darwinism
-Other evils are entailed by legislative
actions and by actions of individuals, single and combined, which overlook
or disregard a kindred biological truth.
-Fostering the good for nothing at the expense
of the good, is an extremely cruelty. It is a deliberate storing-up of
miseries for future generations.
-The development of the higher creation is
a progress toward a form of being capable of a happiness undiminished by
these drawbacks. It is in the human race that the consummation is to be
accomplished.
-There are many very amiable people- people
over whom in so far as their feelings are concerned we may fitly rejoice-
who have not the nerve to look this matter fairly in the face.
Top of Page
Herbert Spencer
Melissa Braun,
2001
Spencer
* Herbert Spencer lived from 1820-1903.
* He was an individualist.
* Spencer believed that the functions of the state were limited to protection,
that no restrictions should be placed on commerce
and no provision made
for social welfare or education.
* He believed that civilization was a process in which man adjusted to
an increasingly complex environment.
* In his beliefs, he concluded that the whole effort of nature was to get
rid of the inefficient and to make room for better. If they were
not sufficiently complete to live, they died, and it was best that they
should die.
The Study of Sociology
* Mutual dependence of different parts within and organism is what leads
to organization.
* If parts were completely independent and did not depend on the others
for survival there would not be any organization.
* As organization progresses, the different functions and structures of
the will be viewed as more definite and numerous.
* Therefore, structural traits view show distinguish lower and higher types
of societies.
* Primitive tribes show no contrasts of parts. The men and women had similarly
the same functions throughout the tribe.
* Only in times of war did these primitive tribes show temporary subordination
to those who showed themselves the best leaders.
* In speaking of social organization, it shows that there must be an exchange
of services.
* As in individual, living organisms, the structural organization develops
a series of "channels" that help distribute the necessities and luxuries
that have been produced by others in exchange for the necessities other
individuals have made.
* In order for an organization to run as nature so intended, each individual
in the organization should be ables to live as neither a burden to others
nor to injure them.
* Spencer concludes with, " When a Legislature takes from the worthy the
things they have laboured for, that it may give to the unworthy the things
they have not earned- when cause and consequence, joined in the order of
Nature, are thus divorced by
law-makers; then may properly come the demand ' Cease your interference'".
* He also says that if those not contributing to the good of society but
in some way try to reap the benefits there of is cause for government intervention.
Social Darwinism
* The quality of society is lowered by the preservation of its weakest
members.
* Its weakest members are those that are unable to contribute to society
with some form of skill.
* Spencer believed that the protection of the weak or unworthy only leads
to future generations of weakness.
* Protection of the weak only tires the strong and results in the weakening
of the organization as a whole.
* Protection of the weak is in essence storing up misery for future generations.
* Social sciences should recognize some of the inevitable truths of Biology.
* In the natural order of things, society is constantly excreting its unhealthy,
imbecile, slow members.
* The death of the weak in a society is a purification process to the organization.
Top of Page
Curtis Volume II:
Herbert Spencer
(Chad Hobbs)
-
Historical Context
-
Born 1820. Died 1893
-
British sociologist
-
Principles of individualism, libertarianism
-
Two major works: Social Statistics (1850)
and The Study of Sociology (1873)
-
Social Statistics (1850)
-
Develops idea of Social Darwinism
-
Applies notion of "survival of the fittest" to
human society
-
Sees poor and underclasses as "unfit" and "unworthy"
-
Elimination of the unfit makes possible fuller
and better lives for the best of society.
-
Benevolent darwinism: Elimination of the "unworthy"
is part of the divine plan.
-
The Study of Sociology (1873)
-
New justification for social darwinism
-
Analogy of organism
-
Not individuals, but all interacting components
of the whole
-
Justifies the removal of those parts of society
not conducive to the flourishing of the rest of the "organism"
-
Interdependence between groups
-
Like different organs in the body: they may perform
different tasks, but all need the others
-
Example: If a member of a primitive society gives
up his hunting time to make bows and arrows, he needs the hunters to provide
him with food to eat. Also, the hunter needs the bows and arrows in order
to kill the prey. Interdependent relationship is formed.
-
Principle of adaption
-
Copies biological principle to society
Believes that governments should rigorously
enforce conditions that will promote the advancement of the higher classes.
Top of Page
|
|
Friedrich Nietzsche
Todd Adams, Fall 2008
Friedrich Nietzsche was a German
philosopher of the late 19th century who challenged the foundations of
Christianity and traditional morality. He believed in life, creativity,
health, and the realities of the world we live in, rather than those situated
in a world beyond. Central to his philosophy is the idea of “life-affirmation,”
which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life's
energies, however socially prevalent those views might be. Often referred
to as one of the first existentialist philosophers, Nietzsche's
revitalizing philosophy has inspired leading figures in all walks of cultural
life.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-5)
• One of Nietzsche's most famous
works, and Nietzsche regarded it as among his most significant.
• 150,000 copies were printed by the German
government and issued as inspirational reading, along with the Bible, to
the young soldiers during WWI.
• The Overman (Übermensch) is
a self-mastered individual who has achieved his full power. Man as a race
is merely a bridge between animals and the overman.
• The Eternal Recurrence is the idea
that all events that have happened will happen again, infinitely many times.
• The Will To Power is the fundamental
component of human nature. Everything we do is an expression of the will
to power. The will to power is a psychological analysis of all human action,
accentuated by self-overcoming and self-enhancement. Contrasted with living
for procreation, pleasure, or happiness, the will to power is the summary
of all man's struggle against his surrounding environment as well as his
reason for living in it.
• Numerous criticisms of Christianity, in
particular Christian values of good and evil and its purported lie of an
afterlife. Nietzsche sees the complacency of Christian values as shackles
to the achievement of overman as well as on the human spirit.
Beyond Good and Evil (1886)
• Expands on the ideas of Thus Spoke
Zarathustra, but approached from a more critical, polemic direction.
• Nietzsche attacks past philosophers for
their alleged lack of critical sense and their blind acceptance of Christian
premises in their consideration of morality.
• The work moves into the realm "beyond good
and evil" in the sense of leaving behind the traditional morality which
Nietzsche subjects to a destructive critique in favor of what he regards
as an affirmative approach that fearlessly confronts the perspective nature
of knowledge and the perilous condition of the modern individual.
• Nietzsche identified imagination, self-assertion,
danger, originality and the “creation of values” as qualities of genuine
philosophers.
• Nietzsche took aim at some of the world's
great philosophers, who grounded their outlooks upon concepts such as “self-consciousness,”
“free will,” and “either/or” bipolar thinking.
• Nietzsche philosophizes from the perspective
of life located beyond good and evil, and challenges the entrenched moral
idea that exploitation, domination, injury to the weak, destruction and
appropriation are universally objectionable behaviors.
• Above all, he believes that living things
aim to discharge their strength and express their “will to power” — a pouring-out
of expansive energy that naturally can entail danger, pain, lies, deception,
and masks.
• Nietzsche views things from the perspective
of life; he further denies that there is a universal morality applicable
indiscriminately to all human beings.
• He designates a series of moralities in
an order of rank that ascends from the plebeian to the noble: some moralities
are more suitable for subordinate roles; some are more appropriate for
dominating and leading social roles.
Top of Page
Hitler- Mein Kampf
Liz Arnett 2005
-“All the human culture, all the results of art,
science, and technology that we see before us
today, are almost exclusively the creative
product of the Aryan.”
-“He is the Prometheus of mankind from
whose bright forehead the divine spark of genius has
spring at all times, forever kindling
anew that fire of knowledge which illuminate the night of
silent mysteries and thus caused man
to climb the path to mastery over the other being of this
earth.”
-Hitler believes that Aryans are the
founders of culture and that they have plans for all human
progress.
-He claims that when fate leads the
Aryans toward special conditions, their latent abilities begin
to develop in a more rapid sequence
and to mold themselves into tangible forms.
-Hitler says that it is necessary for
the Aryans to have “lower” human beings to work for them
because otherwise they would have never
been able to create the future culture: just like if the
Aryans couldn’t reach this without
the help of various suitable beasts which he knew how to
tame, he would have never arrived at
a technology which is now gradually permitting him to do
without these beasts.
-Therefore the formation of higher cultures
needs the existence of lower human types because it
was an essential precondition since
they alone were able to compensate for the lack of
technical aides, and without that higher
development is not conceivable.
-Hitler says that it is no accident
that the first cultures arose in places where Aryans lived
because with this encounter the Aryan
was able to subjugate them and bend them to his will.
-Hitler felt that even though Aryan’s
might have been hard on these lower human’s, he was
actually giving them a fate that was
better than their previous so-called “freedom”.
-When Aryans began to mix there blood
once these lower humans learned his language and
raise themselves up, the Aryan lost
his culture capacity until he not only mentally but also
physically began to resemble the subjected
aborigines more than his own ancestors.
-To Hitler, this is when civilizations
fell apart because they had no supreme race, and that
empire that have fallen is not because
of war but because of the loss of that force of resistance
which is contained only in the pure
blood.
-Very opposite of the Marxist doctrine
because this folkish philosophy finds the importance of
mankind in its basic racial elements.
Thus there is no equality among the races, but instead by
recognizing their higher or lesser
value, they feel obligated to promote the victory of the better
and stronger and demand the subordination
of the inferior and weaker in accordance with the
eternal will that dominates this universe.
-“States that don’t serve this purpose
are misbegotten monstrosities in fact. The fact of their
existence changes this no more than
the success of a gang of bandits can justify robbery.”
-Therefore Aryans see the state as something
that not only assures the preservation of this
nationality, but by the development
of its spiritual and ideal abilities leades it to the highest
freedom.
Top of Page
Elitists
by Brandy Smith, 2003
Three writers, Vilfredo Pareto, Gaetano Mosca,
and Roberto Michels studied the manner in which
power was obtained and maintained, the interaction
between the ruling group and the masses and
the use made of force, myth and symbols.
Mosca argued in The Ruling Class the existence
in all societies of a minority wielding power. His
theory did not imply autocracy, but advocated
juridical defense, a separation of church and
state, and of economic and political power.
Pareto wrote of an elitist
ruling class in The Mind and Society. This was based on a
psychological analysis of human behavior.
The distinctions that Pareto made between actions
based on reason and actions based on emotion,
and between logical and non-logical conduct are
often imprecise and unenlightening.
Michels came up with an
iron
law of oligarchy in Political Parties. He also believed that
power was held in the hands of a minority.
He stated that disputes took place between the
groups dominated by the minorities.
All three writers were
interested in the way control was maintained. Michels explained
that
the elite was concerned only with power while
the mass was interested only in better material
conditions. Pareto held that the elite convinced
the mass that it was worthy of ruling and made
them nationalists. Mosca thought that if
men were not convinced that things would be better, it
would be difficult to get them to the barricades.
Pareto, The Mind and Society
Pareto gives every
individual an index for every branch of human activity. This index is a
sign of his or her capacity with 10 being
the highest. He states that if you make a class of
the people who have the highest indices in
their branch of activity, you have a class of elite.
This can further be broken down into governing
elite and non-governing elite. Sometimes the
majority of individuals belonging to the
higher class actually posses the qualities requisite
for staying there and then there are cases
in which they don’t.
Mosca, The Ruling Class
Mosca states that there
are two classes, a class that rules and a class that is ruled. This
applies all societies. Each political organism
has one head or in some cases two or three
people who have supreme control. The masses
exert a certain amount of influence on the ruling
no matter what type of political organization.
The man who is head is unable to govern without
the support of the class to respect him.
Michels, Political Parties
The bureaucrat identifies
himself completely with the organization. If the party is
criticized, the leader takes it as a personal
affront. This presents him as harmless in an
unwarranted attack to unite the party. The
leader makes it appear as if the party itself is
attacked rather than the leader. Michels
also states that society cannot exist without a
“dominant” or “political” class.
Top of Page
Pareto, “The Mind and Society”
By R. Walker Garrett, 2003
Those who elite are given in society a
theoretical number value from 0 to 10 with ten being elite and zero being
a waste of space. Whether your profession be that of a thief, lawyer, theologian,
or chess player, how successful you are in your craft determines your level
of influence.
Within the elite, some are part of a subclass
of those who govern and those who do not govern.
Within a population there are three different
sections: the non-elite (no political influence), the governing elite,
and non-governing elite.
The governing elite includes those
who would assume political power such as senators, ministers, deputies,
chief justices, generals, colonels, etc. The circulation of the elites
is determined by the current conditions. During a time of war it is necessary
to have more military governing officials than that of a time of piece.
At times when industry is failing, more professional, nonpolitical, non-governing
elites are required.
In society there is a ruling upper
stratum and the ruled lower stratum. The upper stratum usually called the
aristocracy, does not last. They die out as can be seen with the bloodlines
of the Normans, Romans, and Franks. The reasoning for this is that as the
numbers decay, so does the quality of those within the aristocratic bloodline
as their vibrancy fades.
The governing elite though slowing
changing in and of itself, is many times changed by revolutions and other
disturbances that occur from within the lower strata of society. Members
of the ruled class begin to develop qualities to enable them to rise up,
usually led by a member of the higher strata which will handle the tactical
aspect of their revolution.
Sometimes force may be considered to
control insurgents within a government, yet the partisan detests the use
of force. Punishment for crimes is producing less of an impact as criminals
either receive no conviction or are given pardons. In summarization of
the trend, a government cannot use force effectively against it enemies
because it will be condemned for produced any deaths or even placing any
offenders in prison. The contradiction is that a group of citizens may
coerce the government through means of force to bend to their will, but
the government cannot do return that force. The government generally attempts
means of diplomacy or attempts to buy safety.
Governments tend to make economic wars
against the weak rather than attempting to stand up to a threat of equal
or greater magnitude.
The lower strata regimes which may
be set up by revolution also tend to fall as they lack strong leadership
and are unorganized. In some cases, the upper strata will rise to the call
of war and prepare a defense combining their leadership and new energy
to defend their position. Even when over thrown, it is only a matter of
time before a new upper strata emerges in any society.
Top of Page
Elitists
By Gabriel Thorn, 2001
The Elitists were a group three writers
who came together near the turn
of the twentieth century with a common dissatisfaction
for the current
ways of political thinking and an assertion
that politics must be
understood in a more realistic fashion.
Gaetano Mosca, Roberto Michels,
and Vilfredo Pareto all maintained that power
is always held by a
minority, or an elitist group, who controlled
the masses and made the
decisions.
The three writers did not agree
on everything. Mosca denounced both
sovereign tyranny as well as tyranny of the
people. Michels was
influenced by both socialism and syndicalism.
Pareto was a conservative
who was avidly against pacifism and international
brotherhood.
Despite the differences in some
areas, the three agreed that in some
form or another the elite exerted a sort
of reverence from the masses
whom they governed. Mosca believed
that they relied on illusions and
myths, while Michels held that the masses
had a superstitious reverence
for the elite. Pareto thought that
the elite used a myth as a means of
making their subjects accept their worthiness
to rule.
Mosca
• Mosca says that all societies have essentially
two classes: the ruling and the ruled.
• Each political organization has one person
at the head of it in charge.
• The masses always have an effect on the
ruling class’s policy, no matter what type of government.
• Classifications of governments are mainly
superficial in that they go
from technicalities instead of the actual
function.
• Minorities organize more easily, and so
they can hold power over the unorganized majority.
• Ruling authorities usually have some trait,
real or apparent, that
makes them more esteemed than the others
around them.
• Rulers try to justify their authority through
a logical reasoning as to why they should rule.
• Representatives “have themselves elected
by the voters”, meaning that
the voters have few choices in their representation.
• Referendums keep representative assemblies
from becoming tyrannical
Top of Page
Mosca "the elitists" The Ruling Class
by Jarret Layson, 2002
--in all societies two classes of people appear...
a class that rules
and a class that
is ruled
--the rulers perform all political functions,
monopolizes power and enjoys the advantages that
power brings
--the ruled are directed and controlled by
the rulers, in a manner that is now more or less legal,
now more or less arbitrary and violent, and
of subsistence and with the instrumentalities that are
essential to the vitality of the political
organism
--the management of public affairs is in
the hands of a minority of influential persons, to which
management, willingly or unwillingy, the
majority defer
--two political facts
in every political
organism there is one individual who is cheif among the leaders of the
ruling class as
a whole and stands at the helm of the state
whatever the type
of political organization, pressures arising from the discontent of the
masses who are governed,
from the passions by which they are swayed, exert a certain
amount of influence
on the policies of the ruling, the political, class
--from the point of view of scientific research
the real superiority of the concept of the ruling
class lies in the fact that the varying structure
of ruling classes has a preponderant importance in
determining the political type, and also
the level of civilization, of the different peoples
--if it is easy to understand that a single
individual cannot command a group without finding
within the group a minority to support him,
it is rather difficult to grant that minorities rule
majorities, rather than majorities minorities
--in reality the dominion of an organized
minority over the unorganized majority is obeying a
single impulse, over the unorganized majority
is inevitable
--mimbers of a ruling minority regularly
have some attribute which is highly esteemed and very
influential in the society in which they
live
--in fairly populous societies that have
attained a certain level of civilization, ruling classes do not
justify their power exclusively by de facto
possession of it, but try to find a moral and legal
basis for it
--the legal and moral basis on which the
power of the political class rests, is the "political
formula" which can't be the same in two or
more different societies
--"political formulas" answer a real need
in man's social nature of governing and knowing that
one is governed on the basis of a moral principle
--it is commonly believed that the only free,
equitable and legitimate government is a
government that is based upon the will of
the majority
--in a representative government the representative
has himself elected by the voters or has his
freinds have him elected
--if each voter gave his vote to the candidate
of his heart, we may be sure that in almost all
cases the only result would be a wide scattering
of votes
--the great majority of voters are passive,
in the sense that they have not so much freedom to
choose their representatives as a limited
right to exercise an option among a number of
candidates
--the masses are not always any wiser in
discerning and protecting their interests than their
representatives are
--in a representative system if all the voters
that have some influence are members of one or
another of the organized minorities it is
impossible for the latter to exercise their right of option
and control in any real or effective manner
--the majorities do not feel the moral and
material influence of the "better elements," but when
the "better elements" do succeed in withdrawing
the majority from the influence of committees
and win its vote, their control over the
conduct of the organized minorities becomes effective
--the real juridical safeguad in representative
governments lies in the public discussion that takes
place within representative assemblies
--governments that are based very largely
on the repreesentative principle the referendum is in
some respects a fairly effective instrument
Continued by Kristin Goodrich, 2001
Pareto: Mind and Society
1. social equilibrium:
dividing humans into classes; giving rank of each position and dividing
further the elite class, which consist of
the higher ranking positions, into a governing elite
includingindividuals the directly or indirectly
play a role in government and the non governing elite
A. two strata of populations
1. lower stratum, non elite
2. higher stratum, elite
a. governing elite
b. non governing elite
2. aristocracies do not
last
A. decay in numbers and quality, often due to mixing of classes and
the complication between
supply and demand
EXAMPLE: when the elite consist of numerous
generals during peacetime it conflicts with war which
requiers numerous generals, the problem arises
in qualifications of generals and whether to save
numerous reserves in peace time or less in
peacetime and develop lower stratum in elite
3. argument for or against
use of force
A. for: able to conform disadence
B. against: allowing uniformity to be disrupted
a. force in relation to enimies is acceptable in vagueness; without numerous
deaths
b. a contridiction occurs in distinction of private and political crimes
c. to prevent or resist violence government uses diplomacy
4. revolution transfer
power to a new governing class reinforcement in instincts of group
persistence, gives way to faith
5. most effective energy
for unity in a country arises in the masses influincing the higher classes
by combining leadership and faith
Michels:Political Parties
1. bureaucrat identifies
himself with organization, formulating his own intrest with the organizations
intrest
2. if a leader is attacked
personally he must claim it is an attack on the party, the initiative is
to
gain respect for party and have power in
numbers
3. the bureacracy which
is most faithful is the one that is more dictorial
4. Iron Law of Oligarchy
A. society can not exist without " dominant" or " political " class
B. aim of minority is to impose " legal order"
Top of Page
|