After the development of individuation during the period of the Renaissance, the majority of political thinkers developed their theories based on the individual’s relationship with economic factors. Among the most prominent of those thinkers were Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, Mill, and Kant. In the following paper, the way these outstanding political philosophers addressed economical factors in their theories will be discussed.
The development of the concept of individuation became an important point in the evolution of political thought after the Renaissance. Individuation is a complex notion that has its implementation in a variety of sciences including political science, biology, medicine, psychology, and many more. In politics, individuation is characterized by having a row of important elements including:
- continual development of a studied unit,
- gradual transformation development of a studied unit,
- prematurely interrupted the development of a studied unit,
- forward-looking development of a studied unit,
- scholasticism.
Among them, the most important elements are gradual transformation and the continual process of development as they consider different phenomena subjected to individuation from the most varied angles.
After the development of the concept of individuation in politics, numerous specialists incorporated different factors, shedding light on the progress of social and political relations. Below, the way incorporating economic factors contributed to the advancement of political theories will be discussed on the examples of such great thinkers as Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, Mill, and Kant. Rousseau used economic factors in his social contract theory to explain how the mechanism of political authority was exercised by the state over an individual. In his theory, Rousseau identified that economic factors become the key factors that cause the emersion of the dependence between the state and its citizens (Ebenstein and Ebenstein 220).
Hegel utilized economic factors in his theory of historicism when he explained the nature of the phenomenon of social contrast. He explained that social contrast occurs when as a result of the development of society, individuals accumulate enough capital to acquire more weight among their fellow compatriots. Besides, in Elements of the Philosophy of Right, Hegel spoke about his ideas on the distribution of proper balance between political and social institutions by means of regulatory economic factors and expressed his position regarding the matter by stating that economic factors were the most important for organizing people into social groups.
Marx was among the political thinkers, who addressed the impact of economic factors in his theories more actively than the other philosophers. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx explored the problem of primitive accumulation as the main concern regarding the origin of capital. According to him, primitive accumulation of economic riches affected the differences between wealthy ones and non-possessors and resulted in the organization of classes (Ebenstein and Ebenstein 294; 296). Marx made these conclusions examining such significant events from the history of humanity as the discovery of gold and silver in America, the conquest and plunder in India, and the conversion of the population of Africa into potential slaves for a western capitalistic society. He explained these events as primary moments of primitive accumulation (Ebenstein and Ebenstein 302).
In his Utilitarianism, Mill addressed economic factors to explain the origin of capital, social relations among people, and the distribution of authority in states (Ebenstein and Ebenstein 283). Speaking about the economic effectiveness of different social formations such as socialism, capitalism, and communism, Mill defined wealth as all the useful and worthy things, which implicate exchangeable value, and affect the status of an individual in society, proved that equal distribution of wealth would destroy the progress-motivating force of competition, and explained that this economic factor was the crucial element of socialist and communist society that would bring them to a disaster.
Kant applied economic factors to his theory of the development of economic classes. He explained that economical classes develop as a result of accumulating material possessions that are controlled and distributed by guardians, who emerge from the most active leaders in the process of material wealth collecting. This implied that a guardian had to allow the masses to think and act in such a way that would permit gathering the most significant amount of material possessions. According to Kant, throughout history, there have been guardians who have contributed to the enlightenment of the masses, through nurture, motivation, and teaching of new ways of collecting material wealth. Among such outstanding guardians, leading the masses to economical enlightenment were Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar.
In conclusion, it should be stated that after the development of individuation, many political thinkers incorporated its ideas into their theories. Among them were Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, Mill, and Kant, who explained different aspects of the progress of human society from the angle of economic factors. Although all of those thinkers had rather diverse thoughts concerning the effect of economic factors on human society, all of them agree that these factors have been crucial for the transformation of unorganized human communities into unified formations such as cities, states, and coalitions of states.
References
Ebenstein, William, and Alan Ebenstein. Introduction to Political Thinkers, Second Edition, The United States: Wadsworth Publishing, 2001. Print.