Social and Political Philosophy Readings From

An anthology of basic statements by the most influential social and political philosophers of Western civilization. Includes Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Mill, Marx and Engels, Hitler, Gandhi, and others.

John Somerville, who received his Ph. D. degree from Columbia University, is the author or co-author of over 10 books, including The Philosophy of Peace and Methodology in Social Science. He has been awarded fellowships and grants by Columbia, Stanford, and the Rockefeller Foundation for his research in philosophy both here and abroad. UNESCO published his contributions to three of its projects in the field of social philosophy, and he has presented papers before International Congresses of Philosophy at Copenhagen, Harvard, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Venice. Somerville who died in 1994, was also Professor Emeritus of the City University of New York.

Ronald E. Santoni is the Maria Theresa Barney Chair Emeritus of Philosophy at Denison University in Ohio and is a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. Santoni has published numerous articles, commentaries, and reviews on Jean-Paul Sartre. His work has appeared in journals throughout Europe and North America. He is the author of Sartre on Violence – Curiously Ambivalent and Bad Faith, Good Faith, and Authenticity in Sartre’s Early Philosophy, the editor of Religious Language and The Problem of Religious Knowledge, and contributing editor to eighteen books, including Current Issues in Philosophy.

Introduction

ix

PLATO

1

(58)

The Republic The problem of justice, Thrasymachus' definition and Socrates' refutation; Socrates' definition of justice; The selection of the ruling class in the perfect state; Forms of government, their effects on people, and how one form becomes changed into another.

1

(45)

The Crito (unabridged) Morality, state, and citizen.

46

(13)

ARISTOTLE

59

(42)

Politics Origin of the state, nature of man, institution of slavery; Concept of state and citizen; Forms of government; Revolutions; Criticism of Plato; Democracy and oligarchy; The ideal state; Education.

59

(42)

NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI

101

(38)

The Prince The way to govern cities; New dominions; The civic principality; How the strength of states should be measured; The things for which men are praised or blamed; Liberality and niggardliness; Whether it is better to be loved or feared; In what way princes must keep faith; That we must avoid being despised and hated.

101

(26)

1 In some instances original titles have been supplemented in the table of contents in order to indicate themes and issues dealt with. Wherever any supplementary headings are used in the text, appropriate identification is supplied. The Editors.

Discourses Introduction; The beginning of cities; The different kinds of republics; The events that caused the creation of tribunes.

127

(12)

THOMAS HOBBES

139

(30)

Leviathan Introduction; The natural condition of mankind; The first and second natural laws, and contracts; The causes, generations, and definition of a commonwealth; The rights of sovereigns; The liberty of subjects.

139

(30)

JOHN LOCKE

169

(36)

The Second Treatise on Civil Government The state of nature; Property; The beginning of political societies; The ends of political society and government; The forms of a commonwealth; The subordination of the powers of the commonwealth; The dissolution of government.

169

(36)

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

205

(34)

The Social Contract The first societies; Right of the strongest; Slavery; A first convention. The social compact. The sovereign. The civil state; Real property; Sovereignty inalienable; Sovereignty indivisible; Whether the general will can err; Limits of the sovereign power; Right of life and death; The law; The legislator; The people.

205

(34)

THOMAS JEFFERSON

239

(43)

The Declaration of Independence (unabridged) Jefferson's comments on the Declaration; Changes from Jefferson's original version.

239

(8)

Act for Establishing Religious Freedom (unabridged) Jefferson's comments on his bill.

247

(4)

Letters Concept of a republic; The principle of majority rule; On revolutions; The rights of each generation; Natural aristocracy; The basis of rules of morality; The place and value of social and political change; Is it ever right to disobey the law? On Aristotle's "Politics."

251

(31)

HENRY DAVID THOREAU On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (unabridged)

282

(20)

JOHN STUART MILL

302

(40)

On Liberty Introductory; Tyranny of the majority; Liberty and social utility; The liberty of thought and discussion; Limits to the authority of society over the individual.

302

(40)

KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS

342

(39)

Manifesto of the Communist Party (Marx and Engels) Engel's preface to the English edition of 1888; Bourgeois and proletarians.

342

(15)

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (Engels) The materialist conception of history.

357

(22)

Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Marx) The basic dynamic of history.

379

(2)

V. I. LENIN

381

(43)

State and Revolution Class society and the State; The State as the product of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms; As an instrument for the exploitation of the oppressed class; The "withering away" of the State and violent revolution; Experiences of 1848-1851; Economic basis of the withering away of the State; From capitalism to communism; Phases of communist society.

381

(43)

BENITO MUSSOLINI

424

(17)

The Doctrine of Fascism (unabridged) Fundamental ideas; Political and social doctrine; Supremacy of state over individual and nation; Superiority of war to peace; Rejection of democracy; Acceptance of imperialism.

424

(17)

ADOLF HITLER

441

(22)

Mein Kampf Race, nation, state; The Aryan as culture creator; Evaluation of the Jews; Inequality democracy, parliaments; Rejection of democracy and the majority principle; War superior to peace; Justification of imperialism; Education.

441

(22)

JOHN DEWEY

463

(37)

Reconstruction in Philosophy Reconstruction as affecting social philosophy; Defects of organic conception of society and the notion of fixed self or individual; Moral test of social institutions; Social pluralism; International humanism; Freedom and democracy.

463

(15)

Ethics (with James H. Tufts) Morals and social problems; Individual and social; Historic individualism; On the concept of democracy.

478

(22)

M. K. GANDHI

500

Non-violent Resistance Civil disobedience, passive resistance, non-co-operation; Satyagraha; Means and ends; Satyagraha or passive resistrance; Evidence before the Hunter Committee; The theory and practice of Satyagraha; Neither a saint nor a politician; The doctrine of the sword; Non-payment of fines; The right of civil disobedience; The Jews; On non-violence; What are basic assumptions; The Sermon on the Mount; Non-violent non-co-operation; My faith in non-violence; The future. (All essays save the second are unabridged.)

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Social and Political Philosophy Readings From Plato to Gandhi

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials