Glossary of Twenty Key Terms for a University Course in the History of Western Political Theory

     What follows is a set of twenty key terms in political theory, and their definitions. These definitions were written by the author of this blog, Joe Kopsick, but were based on the contents of a political theory course that was imparted to him at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in the spring of 2009.
     The course was taught by Jimmy Casas Klausen, who assigned students works written by Western political theorists throughout history until the present day. These works included Plato's Republic, Sir Thomas More's Utopia, Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince, Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition, and famous works by Aristotle, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Action

     Hannah Arendt says that action is an end in itself and it is the highest mode of activity and creation. She says that freedom comes through action, that the freedom of action cannot be eliminated, and that we define and create ourselves through action.


Alexander [the Great]

     Alexander was a Macedonian ruler and a student of Aristotle. Aristotle says that the Athenian polis was brought to an end through self-corruption, and its goal changed from common interest to profit. Aristotle believes that Alexander's goodness saved Greece.


Amour Proprie

     Rousseau says that amour proprie, vain self-love, is unnatural, and that vanity arises only in civil society. In vanity, we empty ourselves of meaning, as meaning and love can only be given to us by other people. He says that vanity is the cause of dependence, domination, and inequality, and that man is naturally independent and unselfish.


Chrematistics

     Aristotle believes that chrematistics, the art of acquisition, trade, and exchange, is an unnatural form of acquisition for the household. He argues that chrematistics makes gains on the exploitation of others. He says that living well is self-limitation and self-sufficiency without conspicuous consumption.

Collective Deliberation

     Aristotle believes that reason that is agreed on by everyone is more valuable than orthodoxy. He believes that a group of citizens gathering to combine their competencies and positive qualities will make policies better than any one person could. Hannah Arendt believes in active citizenship, civic republicanism, and the value of political association to develop the power of action, deliberation, and efficacy.

Corpus Mysticum

     The corpus mysticum describes the body politic of the church. The church is the corpus mysticum of Christ, and the people are part of the mystical body. The church's spiritual head is Christ represented, and its second spiritual head is the spiritually-ordained king. This puts the state in a lower position of authority than the church. Hobbes says that the corpus mysticum is an artificial body, and this is why we are able to take it apart and study it.

Cynics

     The Cynics was a school of philosophy that questioned and rejected every social convention and claim to authority. Cicero believes they questioned shamelessly and called Cynicism an "anti-tradition." Cicero believes that indecency and shame can be justified.


Despotism

     Rousseau says that despotism is the unjust rule of one man. He, Aristotle, and Plato agree that despotism is the worst type of governance. Rousseau says that the farther away we move from the state of nature and from despotism, the closer we get to perfectibility. He says that between the state of nature and despotism, there is happiness in "a middle position between... our primitive state and... egocentrism...”.

Fortuna

     Machiavelli says that fortuna (fate, fortune, luck, or favor), has direct bearing on a ruler's success or failure to maintain power. He believes that with virtú, one may triumph over fortuna.

Liberality

     Liberality is generosity. Machiavelli warns that excessive generosity may turn government into a slave. Machiavelli says that generosity should be practiced virtuously, and not known about. Cicero believes that generosity helps to build a network of friends, and that a man should measure his actions by honorableness rather than by his own advantages.


Maieutics

     Maieutics is the belief that the truth is latent in the human mind. Plato says that Socratic maieutics resembles obstetrics. Thus, Socrates is the "midwife of reason," and his dialectical method is the obstetrics that gives birth to logos.

Matter in Motion

     "Matter in Motion" is an individual driven by a passion. For Hobbes, the individual is the principal unit of analysis, and thus the matter of political science. He says that the decay of sense is an obscuring of motion made in sense.

Nonsenso, Raphael

     Raphael Nonsenso is a character in Thomas More's Utopia. He is a philosopher whom has seen the world as a sailor. He describes Utopia as the happiest society. He is a representation of Thomas More and his opinions.

Oikos

     The oikos is the private realm of the household, and the polis is the public realm of the political community. Aristotle believes that wealth and trade are associated with the household economy, and that it is wise to make a distinction between expertise in household management and expertise in business management. Hannah Arendt agrees that matters of labor and economy belong to the oikos. She believes that the rise of the social has destroyed the political by subordinating the public realm of human freedom to the concerns of mere animal necessity.
     [Note: oikos is the root of the word "economy".]

 

Perfectibility

     Rousseau says that perfectibility is the characteristic of man that desires self improvement. Perfectibility and reason allow men to evolve, and modern day culture was brought about by perfectibility. Men improve upon themselves by having a capacity for change which allows them to be molded to fit their environment. Perfectibility becomes possible when people move away from the state of nature and from despotism.


Plurality

     Plurality is a condition that preserves unity without being detrimental to either liberty or uniqueness, Hannah Arendt wants the polis to be an artifact of uniqueness, She says that the rise of the social is bad. Aristotle agrees, and also says that the household must be distinct from the whole of society.

Sovereignty

     Sovereignty is political authority within a territory. Hobbes believes that sovereignty is unconditional, absolute, and irrevocable. He believes that the sovereign must be separate from the people in order to prevent civil war. Rousseau believes that the sovereign and the people should be one and the same, in order for there to be common happiness.



State of Nature

     The state of nature is a state of anarchy that existed before the rule of law, and before the state had a monopoly on force. The natural condition of mankind, according to Hobbes, is a state of war in which life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" because individuals are in a "war of all against all". Rousseau believes that natural man is gentle, timid, piteous, non-confrontational, and amoral.

Telos

     Teleology is the study of ends. It is the belief that the essence of something is found in the thing into which it grows. The telos is the purpose, goal, or end. Aristotle said that the telos of man is to be happy and to live well and live justly. He also says that living happily requires living a life of virtue.
     [Note: To read "The Squirrel and the Acorn", a short essay that I wrote in May 2009 about teleology and political science, please visit the following link:
     http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-squirrel-and-acorn.html]

Three Causes of Quarrel

     According to Hobbes, the three causes of quarrel are competition, diffidence, and glory. Men quarrel for gain, safety, and reputation. He says that in anarchy, these three quarrels lead to a state of war. Rousseau says that competition does not occur in a state of plenty. Aristotle says that diffidence occurs when people act out of fear of aggression and seek retribution. Hobbes believes that glory is exclusive pride for oneself, one's family, or one's homeland.

Author's Note:

     To read another glossary - or "encyclopedia" - of political theory terms, which I devised by myself, please visit the following link, and read my August 2018 article titled "Encyclopedia of Economic Systems and Key Terms in Political Theory":

     http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2018/08/encyclopedia-of-economic-systems-and.html

Notes taken in May 2009

First published to this blog on August 3rd, 2021

Introduction and notes in brackets written on August 3rd, 2021

Land Ownership: Thomas More vs. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

     [Thomas] More's character Raphael Nonsenso says that nobles “have grown dissatisfied with the income that their predecessors got out of their estates. They're no longer content to lead lazy, comfortable lives, which do no good to society – they must actively do it harm, by enclosing all the land they can for pasture, and leaving none for cultivation.”

     [According to More, t]he sheep market is “almost entirely under control of a few rich men, who don't need to sell unless they feel like it, and never do feel like it until they get the price they want.” [He continues,] “These few greedy people have converted one of England's greatest natural advantages into a national disaster. For it's the high price of food that makes employers turn off so many of their servants – which inevitably means turning them into beggars or thieves.”

     [According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau,] “The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had someone pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: 'Do not listen to this impostor. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!”

     More and Rousseau agree that inequality arises when a person with a claim to land forbids other people from living on it or working the land for food. More says that for an employer to kick his servants off of his land causes them to become beggars and thieves. Rousseau believes that all people have the right to the fruits of the earth and that the land belongs to no one.

Written in April 2008 for a course on political theory,

Edited in July 2014

Aristotle and Rousseau on the Natural Political Association of Men

    

Aristotle (384-322 BC) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

While Rousseau and Aristotle both understand that labor creates a need for self-sufficiency, the two authors’ views on what is natural, what relationships are natural, how to view natural skills, and the division of labor differ greatly. Rousseau’s arguments are supported better than Aristotle’s.

Aristotle claims that “man is by nature a political animal” “in a higher degree than… other… animals,” and that the political association “completes and fulfills the nature of man… and he is himself ‘naturally a polis-animal.”

Aristotle sees language as a method of signifying perceptions of pleasure and pain, good and evil, and the just and the unjust to one another, and to declare what is advantageous. He believes that associations between people communicating what things they think are advantageous is what “makes a family and a city.” He says that a “final and perfect association, formed from a number of villages” “may be said to have reached the height of full self-sufficiency,” coming into existence for the sake of life and “for the sake of a good life.”

Aristotle’s asserts that “master and slave have accordingly a common interest,” which he supports by saying that an intelligent person whom can exercise forethought “is naturally a ruling and master element” while a person whom can use his bodily power to do physical work “is a ruled element.”

Aristotle agrees with Rousseau that the master / slave relationship is, or at least should be, one that exists for the mutual benefit of both, although Rousseau would not consider such a relationship “natural.” Rousseau believes that our reciprocal dependence on each other is what makes it necessary for each of us to do some work for the benefit of all of society, and that to enslave someone is to create in him dependence on others.

Rousseau thinks that political inequality is established or authorized by the consent of men, whom afford each other different privileges. He believes that slavery did not exist in the state of nature. He says, “since the bonds of servitude are formed only from the mutual dependence of men and the reciprocal needs that unite them, it is impossible to enslave a man without first putting him in the position of being unable to do without another; a situation which, as it did not exist in the state of nature, leaves each man there free of the yoke, and renders vain the law of the stronger.”

We must take into consideration the way our authors think of nature. Aristotle says, “Nature… makes nothing in vain,” and “Nature… makes each separate thing for a separate end; and she does so because the instrument is most perfectly made when it serves a single purpose and not a variety of purposes.” He believes that "every city exists by nature; the ‘nature’ of things consists in their end or consummation.”

Rousseau believes that in the state of nature, “all things move in… a uniform manner… the face of the earth is not subject to those brusque and continual changes caused by the passions and inconstancy of united peoples.” He considers the moment  at which  humans  left the state of nature “the moment when, right taking the place of violence, nature was subjected to law; to explain by what sequence of marvels the strong could resolve to serve the weak, and the people to buy imaginary repose at the price of real felicity.”

People attempt to get out of the state of nature by seeing nature and subjecting it to law, according to Rousseau. He claims that the “first source of inequality among men” is the perfection and deterioration of some individuals whom acquire diverse qualities “which were not inherent in their nature.”

When Aristotle writes that an intelligent master whom can exercise forethought in order to enslave a person suited to physical work, he calls the master a “naturally… ruling… element.” Aristotle thinks the master/slave relationship is a natural one, while Rousseau disagrees. Since, according to Rousseau, we leave nature by subjecting it to law, he would be likely to say that we could end what Aristotle considers “natural” slavery (although Rousseau himself would not share in that designation) by incorporating a system of justice, law, and equality into slavery, and ensuring that neither slave nor master takes advantage of the other without willingly giving something of himself.

If Aristotle thinks that “the ‘nature of things consists in their end or consummation”, then it would be reasonable to expect him to think that the nature of human political society is one that is complete; a polis which is all the villages of the world united. On the contrary, Aristotle thinks that some people are naturally suited to rule, and some are naturally suited to work and be subject to rule. His view that “Nature…  makes each separate thing for… a single purpose and not a variety of purposes” seems problematic because this is to suggest that a person who is born a slave shall never become free or even a master. Aristotle’s view that a master will always be a master and a slave will always be a slave will certainly not bring about a polis of all united villages because there will always be those who claim they have authority over other people, and the master / slave relationship will often be subject to abuses.

Rousseau’s view that men leave the state of nature by observing it and imposing upon it a system of law is better supported than Aristotle’s argument. Rousseau believes that reciprocal dependence makes work necessary, but he does not use this to justify the taking of slaves. He understands that mutual dependence causes people to work together, performing different tasks at different times, so that all tasks may be accomplished simultaneously and the benefits accorded equally to all members of society.

Aristotle’s view of nature suggests that he would not want people to have diverse job training, as “Nature… makes each separate thing for… a single purpose and not a variety of purposes.” Believing in such a statement would seem likely to contribute to disorder and undermine the cause of societal self-sufficiency, because it would make a farmer idle in the winter, as he would have no crops to tend to.

Written in April or May 2008

For more entries on theory of government, please visit:

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2010/10/thrasymachus-support-for-justice-being.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/01/what-is-social-libertarianism.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2010/12/on-konkin-schulman-bastiat-and-agorism.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/04/materialism-stirner-vs-marx.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/04/feudalism-and-class-war.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/08/population-economics.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2012/02/on-scott-walker-and-government-secrecy.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2012/03/defense-policy.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2012/03/political-compound.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2012/10/two-competing-class-theories.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2012/11/on-market-anarchism.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/02/agorism-and-mutualism-summaries-and.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/03/market-panarchy-without-adjectives.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/03/market-anarchism-economists-vs.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/08/anarchist-kindergarten-open-letter-to.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/10/map-of-contiguous-united-states-in.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/12/nonapartism-in-social-market-economy.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/twenty-five-reasons-why-political.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/monopoly-and-property-rights.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/statism-to-anarchy-staircase-model.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/02/political-theory-flow-chart.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/03/illustration-of-lange-model.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/03/how-partisans-in-us-federal-government.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-philosophy-of-taxation-and.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/conservatives-for-georgism-and-social.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/viewing-legislation-through-economic.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/why-i-am-not-liberal.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/military-industrial-socialism-and.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/general-philosophy-on-government-and.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/on-social-corporatism-and-tripartism.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/what-is-political-radicalism.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/questions-about-ayn-rand.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/using-profit-incentive-to-promote.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/thoughts-on-statism.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/alliance-against-tripartism.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/john-locke-roderick-long-and-voluntary.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/summary-of-my-political-views.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/economic-policy-for-2012-us-house.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/social-policies-for-2012-us-house.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/response-to-campaign-for-liberty.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/agorist-protection-agencies-and.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-proper-role-of-government.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-general-welfare-clause.html