This paper will focus on the roles played by different philosophers from different backgrounds. This will be achieved through critical analysis of philosophical works and philosophers.
Antigone
Antigone, is a play written by Sophocles and with themes of violations of rights and freedoms. A perfect illustration is seen when Antigone passionately denies Creon the command what she should do with the family members.
In fact, Sophocles challenges the reader by asking between gods’ and man’s which is superior law of which he is asserts categorically that, gods’ law is indeed superior. Fundamentally, Sophocles in this play depicts that state laws can be disobeyed if they are oppressive to the people.
Plato’s Republic
The Republic is one of Plato’s works which has enormous influence in historic and intellectual studies particularly in the area of philosophy and political theory. In fact, after reading the book, many readers have felt that the actual title of the book should have been ‘On justice’. The introduction an conclusions of the book nave been used to make the body and the opening question is perfectly balanced in the conclusion which provides the answer.
Al Ghazali
Al-Ghazali is a renowned Muslim writer and an historian. He is considered as the renewer of spiritual believes in the society and second in influence after Mohamed, the prophet. He is regarded as one the greatest scholars because of his book The Incoherence of the Philosophers that formed the key to the Muslim epistemology.
The book provides major pillars in Islamic philosophy due to it astounding objection to Aristotle and Plato theories. He strongly accused them pagans and went ahead and tagged their believers as defilers of Islam religion.
Confucius
Confucius was a great philosopher from China. He was also a famous politician, teacher and an editor. He is the one who crafted the famous Chinese classic texts including the five worldly known classics. His philosophies are mainly about individual and state morality, the expected norms of a society and the aspects of being sincere and just.
His philosophies were mainly about the common Chinese traditions and beliefs. In his works he advocated for strong family unity and respect for the dead in families. He viewed the family as the source of goodness and perfect state. He further developed the well known concept we should treat others exactly the way we want to be treated.
Machiavelli the Prince
This is a novel written by Niccolo Machiavelli based on an analysis on how princes need to acquire and maintain political power. The novel discusses how princes and rulers conduct themselves in the government. The novel discusses different types of states and armies are governed as well as the conduct of the prince as a military leader, his character and behavior.
In the novel Machiavelli presents the political situation of Italy as desperate and one that should be freed from foreign due to ignorance of military and political principles. He criticizes the moralistic view of authority and presents qualities of a prince as those that should not be questioned by the goodness of their character but by defending the good will of their people and enhances their reputation.
Kaulitya
He was famous for grafting state politics consisting of principles of politics and how states work. Kaulitya believed in the ruthless of able leaders so as to ensure smooth and efficient running of the state. He believed in the development of spy system in all levels of society in a bid to encourage political assassination and believed in total authoritarianism of rulers. In his works Kaulitya outlines duties of kings and rulers stating that they should administer all legal frameworks to the kingdoms. He believes in total authoritarianism.
Thomas Hobbes
He was an English philosopher who concerned himself in social and political order. Hobbes believed that human beings are capable of living together in peace as a community avoiding conflicts among themselves. He believed that human beings need to be obedient and accountable to a particular sovereign power who decides all social and political issues.
He believed in complete materialism and does not believe in freedom as the free will of people to do what they desire but rather believes in absolute monarchy characterized by unrestricted political power. He believed in a government that ensured collective authority and the justification of political authority being vested in its responsibility and ability to provide safety and well being for all people.
John Locke
He was concerned in social and political order and believed that the law of nature binds individuals morally not to harm each other. He believed that in a bid to protect their lives, property and liberty, individuals agree to form a government to act as an unbiased judge.
He did not support authoritarian governance but rather argues that the government acts as an agent of self defense and derives its’ powers from the people it governs. Locke was liberal and advocated for religious tolerance, anti-authoritarian states and recognized the importance of individuals having their own personal identities and private property.
Ibn Khaldun
He believed in the role and nature of the state as that of the well-being of all individuals in the society. He held believes that the human society is an important component as an individual cannot acquire basic necessities. It is a component that obeys its inner laws discovered by application of human reasoning either from data collected from direct observation or historical records.
He identified that division of labor makes it possible for individuals to survive in the society and believes that a state cannot exist without a society and a society cannot survive without a state hence the two need each other to co-exist and function.
Karl Marx
He was a renowned revolutionary communist in the 20th century who argued that individuals were social beings who needed to assert their communal sense into the community that they lived in. He recognized the communal existence of human beings as what made human life possible.
He believed that when societies fall and rise, they hinder the progress of the productive power of human beings. He believes that capitalism aims at distracting the production power of human beings through exploitative methods and he referred to it as a ‘seed of destruction.’
Mary Wollstonecraft
She fought for social equality and argued that monarchical systems in the society should be eliminated including in religious settings and in states. She believed that the society had rules that oppressed women and argued that the rights of all human beings were the same hence the rights of a man were similar to that of a woman. She was against male domination that dominated women and believed that women had been conditioned to become slaves.
Martin Luther King
He is believed to have the non violent philosophy and instead used civil rights movement to instill morals in the society. He insisted in God’s law and love to conquer all evils in the society. Martin, developed dimensions of philosophy: the beloved community, non violent social change and triple evils in his strategies.
He identified evils in the society, employed non violent methods of tackling the issues in order to create a beloved community where all were socially equal and a government that recognized the rights of all human beings. He is widely known for bringing America close to the end of social and political racism.
Malcom X
Malcom X is well known Afri-American and a Muslim activist. His main philosophy was to encourage the black people to become financially independent just like the white people. He also fought to unite the white and the black people.
He was also one of the strongest proponents of Pan-Africanism which basically campaigned for togetherness and unity of the black people living in America and those in the Africa continent. Later after going to Mecca he noted that Islam was more than what the Islam preached. He started his own mosque and embarked on teaching the society but without racial discrimination.
Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Mohamed Iqbal is one of the world renowned poets in Pakistan, India and Iran. His famous Persian and Urdu poetry works are considered to bear very strong impact not only in political, religion but also in cultural disputes and for many decades. He pushed for a Muslim State to be created in Northwest India in one of his famous presidential speeches
Sheikh Zayed
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahya, is chiefly regarded as the driving force to the formation of the United Arab Emirates. He earned a lot of respected due to his religious understanding and tolerance for Christians and Muslims and more so the freedom that he gave to the European people who were working in UAE. For this reason, UAE was seen as different from the other countries around it.
He also ensured that there was cooperation within his people and this even extended to Iran. At no one time did Zayed fail to express his opinion regarding any issue. As a matter of fact, he was among the first people to voice their rejection and uplifting of the financial barriers on Iraq that had been imposed by the United Nations.
Frantz fanon
Frantz Fanon is regarded mainly as one of the few critical thinkers who managed to come up with solutions to resolve the problems that emerged after the Second World War. He is highly regarded because of his overwhelming dedication when the people of Algerian were under struggle with France.
His written work is seen as a reflection of Africa because it mainly focuses on both realizations and heredity and their roles in forming a human being. In essence, he was seen as a political fighter across cultures. He is still regarded as an inspiration by the people fights for social injustice and oppression.
Conclusion
In a nut shell we have looked at different philosophical works and philosophers from different backgrounds and their main contribution in different fields.