Introduction
Politics plays a major role in our lives. This importance manifests itself through the Government of the day in each country. Politics in part has also been shaped by philosophy and great thinkers such as Aristotle, Aquinas, Galileo, Machiavelli and a host of other great thinkers. They have shaped politics to what it is today and this continues to be seen today. Aquinas greatly influenced medieval politics of Europe. At the time, politics in Europe was greatly influenced by the Christian faith (Machiavelli 108).At the time, Theologians were responsible with the political system. Aquinas, who is credited as being the greatest theologian in the Catholic Faith, wrote many works that touched on political philosophy (Aquinas 235).
How Governments are run, up to how the citizenry make up has been shaped by these great thinkers. Contemporary philosophers who played a big part after the Second World War worked to distinguish between communism and capitalism. Politics was greatly divided along these two lines. Contemporary philosophers include Dr. Martin Luther King, Karl Marx, and Max Horkeheimer among others; have in their own way modernized the pattern of thinking from the subsequent schools of philosophy (Hampton 55).
History of Political Thinking
Political systems have been around and historians have attributed the rise of politics to the early days of the Greek society. At the time people living in Greece, were divided into three groups, the Pedinoi, whose source of living was shaped by land ownership, it was this group that later formed the Monarch system that was experienced in parts of the World. The second group was the Paralioi, whose source of lively hood was through trade of goods and service and through shipping. It was this group that first engaged in early Commerce. Among the Paralioi, there were people who belonged to another class, living on the basis of wealth. They were able to live in comfort as opposed to the third and last group. The last group was the Diakrioi were peasants and freeman. They were people who had long suffered forms of oppression of the time. These groups were created by a man known as Solon, who was later overthrown by Peisistratos. He knew how to move the masses. He ensured that the citizens at the time were always flattered by his promises of good living and comfort but in reality he was feeding his thirst for power by using the weakness of the citizens at the time (Burnet 29).
Anthropologists have shown that he diverted the attention of the people by building Temples and other religious monuments to keep them busy. This led to the rise of the all powerful monarchy. It was after the end of dictatorship in 511, that two new groups emerged. They comprised of the Oligarchoi who were the owners of the land at the time and are attributed to the system of Oligarchy. The second group was the merchants of Greece who introduced the system of Democracy. The two groups were always in contention for power and were both ruled by old families that resided in Athens. This led Aristocracies as few elite families could rule the country of Greece (Burnett 103).
Early Political Concepts
Great thinkers and philosophers alike, were responsible in coming up with theories and concepts that were later adopted by kings and other rulers, to be imposed on the citizens of a country. Both Al Ghazali and Descartes thought of skepticism but each of them encountered or approached this subject in a similar way despite basing their judgment on different religion. Skepticism in philosophical thinking is brought about by restraint of information. Al Ghazali recognized skepticism under Islamic philosophy and his teachings were in great contrast to philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato. In one of his teachings he emphasizes the role of God in our everyday life. He uses cotton and fire as an example whereby he says that when cotton and fire are brought together, the resultant consequence will be due to God’s will i.e. the cotton will burn due to God’s decision or rationale will (Cornell 89). Where Aristotle and Plato tried to pin events to physical causes, Al Ghazali pointed events to Divine intervention and not through other means. He further goes on to state that it is perceptions that is driving the beliefs of the other philosophers. This form skepticism is later credited in the coming up of Rene Descartes’ global approaching skepticism, using an experiment of thought. Descartes discussed in his book, how to deal with skepticism using a four step methodology. First step is to dismiss everything as plain false so as to shun any form of prejudice that may arise during the thought process. The next step is followed by a division of each difficulty into as many parts as possible so as to enable ease in thinking and to come up with the most adequate of solutions possible to the problem. The third step is to tackle the problem from the easiest possible to the hardest, following a step by step plan. The last step is to choose an answer to the problem from the set of solutions that you had previously identified. This ensures that the appropriate solution is chosen. It is this methodological way of thinking that has brought about discoveries in the fields of science and technology and other fields. (Cornell 210)
Rise of the State
Another early piece of literature that sets out foundations for modern day political and social framework, is the Leviathan written by Thomas Hobbes. In this book, he identifies that disunity can only be averted by the presence of a strong Government. In the book, Hobbes links the institution of state and religion in the creation of a sovereign nation or state. He further states that by nature people establish states as a way of defending themselves from any state of war that may arise. In the book he comes up with a notion of social contract. In this notion he tries to justify the need of a sovereign nation as created by rulers even though some of their actions might not please every citizen (Hobbes 56). States are formed when individuals accept to sacrifice some of their rights in order for the state to prosper (Chesterton 125). A good example of this would be when someone decides to act according to the law despite his own feelings and judgment. This notion led to creation of states. Even though the deeds of any one are governed by their own power, all people subscribe to the rule of law of the land. Where law is absent then the personal conscience of the individual takes effect. The notion of social contract has been evaluated by other philosophers such as John Locke among others. In the end after the creation of states, the states tended to act in their own self interest leading to each state competing with each other. It is this reason that led to conflict among the states, as no state believed that it was lesser than the other (Locke 203). This notion was later evaluated by Locke in the Second Treatise of Government, Locke brings out another concept of state of nature, whereby he says the nature is governed by reason and that reason teaches everyone what is good and what is right. For example animals don’t have any laws that bind them but it can be seen practically, the youngest members of any animal family always respect the older members of the family. This is in part contributed by reasoning and conditioning of the family. Any one who goes beyond the point of reasoning is always liable to be punished. Locke’s thought s go against Hobbes who drew out his reasoning from theology whereby no person will act in contravention of the laws, for example by harming another because as he or she is owned by God (Locke 89).
Conclusion
In all the reading we have seen that the human framework has been forged ahead by the thoughts of philosophers whose teachings have led to the rise of societies and how they are governed. This literarily figures have gone ahead to lay procedures as to how the citizens are to behave and how rulers are to govern. For example in his discourses, Machiavelli came up with the Prince, which highlights the way a prince or any ruler is to behave so as to protect both his reputation and that of his people. In the book he mentions of the way the prince is to carry himself so as to ensure that respect is always maintained (Machiavelli 89). This political treatise is meant to guide any would-be prince as to how to become one or any prince as to how to maintain his time in power (Machiavelli 27).
All these philosophers came up with ways in which we see the current forms of Governments all around the world.
Works Cited
Aquinas, Thomas et al. An Aquinas Reader: Selections from the Writings of Thomas Aquinas, Oxford: Fordham University Press, 2000.
Burnet, John. Early Greek Philosophy, Oxford: Kessinger Publishing, 2003.
Chesterton, Gilbert. St. Thomas Aquinas, Volume 36 of Image Book. Oxford: Image Books, 1956.
Cornell, Vincent. Voices of Islam: Voices of change / Omid Safi, 5th Vol. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007.
Hampton, Jean. Political philosophy: Dimensions of philosophy series, New York: Westview Press, 1997.
Hobbes, Thomas. et al. Leviathan. 1651, Oxford: Hackett Publishing. 1994.
Locke, John, et al. Second treatise of government: HPC Classics Series, New York: Hackett Publishing, 1980.
Machiavelli, Niccollo. Prince, Germany: Bavarian State Library, 1652.