CLASSICAL POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY IN A TOOLBOX

On How to RuleMaking Order from Disorder

The Love of Wisdom

Copyright 2014 by Joseph R. Nasados

PURPOSE

• THE PURPOSE OF THIS PRESENTATION IS TO INTRODUCE YOU TO CLASSICAL POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. CLASSICAL POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY IS CONCERNED WITH ORDERING OURSELVES AND SOCIETY IN A WISE FASHION ACCORDING TO HISTORY, TRADITIONS, PROVIDENCE AND THE LIKE. FROM NOW ON WE MAY JUST REFER TO IT AS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY WAS DISCOVERED BY SOCRATES.• THE IDEA IS TO ACQUAINT YOU WITH THIS SO YOU MAY HAVE THESE

TOOLS TO WALK AROUND WITH.

INTRODUCTION• YOU WILL BE GIVEN A READING LIST AND IT IS MY HOPE THAT YOU

WILL KEEP IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES. I HAVE FOUND THAT SOME BOOKS ARE EASIER TO READ THAN OTHERS. "THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO" WAS VERY HARD FOR ME TO READ, BUT AFTER HAVING IT FOR TWENTY YEARS I FINALLY GOT THROUGH IT AND HAVE READ IT FIVE TIMES. SOME PEOPLE READ IT ONCE A YEAR. "THE BIBLE” IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF A HARD READ--MANY READ IT ONCE A YEAR. SOME OF YOU MAY FIND ARISTOTLE EASIER TO READ SINCE HIS METHOD IS DIFFERENT FROM HIS TEACHER, WHO WAS PLATO.

INTRODUCTION

• THE POINT IS THAT THESE BOOKS ARE TRIED AND TRUE. YOU MAY WISH TO START YOUR OWN LIBRARY TO PASS ON TO FUTURE GENERATIONS. YOU MAY ADD BOOKS TO THIS AS WELL.

• THIS IS ENTIRELY UP TO YOU

• THE OLD SAYING HOLDS TRUE--ANYONE WHO IS ANYONE KNOWS GREAT BOOKS

IN THE BEGINNING

JEWSTHE GOD OF ABRAHAM AND MOSESNATURAL LAW AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTSONE TRUE GODGOD THE FATHER

GENTILES/GREEKSSOCRATES, PLATO AND ARISTOTLENATURAL LAW AND REASON

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE GOD THE PRIME MOVERTHE FIRST CAUSE

moses

THE GOD OF ABRAHAM AND MOSES THE TEN COMANDMENTS

THE NATURAL LAWI AM THE LORD YOUR GODDO NOT WORSHIP IDOLSDO NOT TAKE THE LORD’S NAME IN VAINREMEMBER THE SABBATH AND KEEP IT HOLYHONOR YOUR MOTHER AND FATHER (AND DON'T PROVOKE YOUR SONS)DO NOT MURDERDO NOT COMMIT ADULTERYDO NOT STEALDO NOT TELL LIES ABOUT OTHER PEOPLEDO NOT COVET OR WANT WHAT IS NOT YOURS

SOCRATES, PLATO AND ARISTOTLE

SOCRATES, THE FATHER OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY• LIVE ACCORDING TO GOD, REASON AND THE NATURAL LAW; SOCRATES DID

NOT HAVE THE BENEFIT OF DIVINE REVELATION. • “I KNOW NOTHING, BUT THAT I KNOW NOTHING.”• SOCRATES ADVOCATED LIVING ACCORDING TO VIRTUE. VICE HE KNEW,

WAS OUR DOWNFALL AND THE CAUSE OF THE PROBLEMS OF THE CITY. • BECAUSE HE WAS TEACHING VIRTUE; TO THE YOUTH OF ATHENS, HE WAS

STEPPING ON THE TOES OF THE REGIME .• BECAUSE SOCRATES WAS AGAINST THE REGIME HE WAS PUT TO DEATH.• BE CAREFUL PEOPLE, THEY ALWAYS KILL THE PHILOSOPHER.• THE SOCRATIC METHOD.

SOCRATES’ MAIN THING--ORDERING THE SOUL• IF SOULS ARE NOT ORDERED, THE REGIME CANNOT BE ORDERED.

• WE HAVE TO GET OUR ACT TOGETHER IN ORDER FOR THINGS TO GO RIGHT.

• WE NEED ORDER IN OUR LIVES.

• WE KNOW OF SOCRATES THROUGH THE WRITINGS OF PLATO AND OTHER WRITERS OF THE TIME.

PLATO WAS THE STUDENT OF SOCRATES• FOR SAKE OF EASE, I WILL USE PLATO AND SOCRATES

INTERCHANGEABLY • IDEA OF VIRTUE• TEMPERANCE: SELF CONTROL--MASTER THYSELF--UNNECESSARY PLEASURES• COURAGE: IN THE MEAN(ARISTOTLE)• PRUDENCE: BE CAUTIOUS• JUSTICE: EVERYONE GETS HIS DUE--MINDING ONE’S OWN BUSINESS. WHAT

DO YOU THINK JUSTICE IS?• THE "IDEA”: LOVE THE WHOLE THING• I UNDERSTAND, BUT I CAN’T EXPLAIN• I KNOW WHAT IS RIGHT, YET I DO WRONG

FORMS OF GOVERNMENT--TYPES OF MEN• ARISTOCRACY—RULE BY THE ELITE• TIMOCRACY---RULE BY HONOR• OLIGARCHY—RULE BY THE RICH (PUTIN’S OLIGARCHS)• DEMOCRACY-RULE BY THE MANY (MOST FAIR, EGALITARIAN)• TYRANNY—RULE BY THE UNJUST (FOLLOWS DEMOCRACY—IF YOU

CAN’T HANDLE DEMOCRACY THEN YOU WILL GET A DICTATOR)• PHILOSOPHER KING, THE IDEA

ARISTOTLE WAS THE STUDENT OF PLATO• THE MEAN• BRAVERY IS THE MEAN—COWARDICE IS DEFECT—RASHNESS IS

EXCESS• CONFIDENCE IS THE MEAN-LACK OF CONFIDENCE IS DEFECT—OVER-

CONFIDENCE IS EXCESS• FORMS OF GOVERNMENT AND THERE PERVERTED FORMS• MONARCHY ----------------------------------------TYRANNY• ARISTOCRACY-------------------------------------- OLIGARCHY• REPUBLIC--------------------------------------------DEMOCRACY

ARISTOTLEPOLITY: A MIX OF OLIGARCHY AND DEMOCRACY—THE BEST FORM.For tyranny is a kind of monarchy which has in view the interest of the monarch only; oligarchy has in view the interest of the wealthy; democracy, of the needy: none of them the common good of all.

ARISTOTLE ON THE SOUL—DE ANIMA• THREE TYPES OF SOULS• VEGETATIVE SOUL LIKE PLANTS• APPETITIVE SOUL LIKE AMIMALS• SPIRITUAL SOUL LIKE WE HAVE—IT CANNOT BE DESTROYED• WE HAVE ALL THREE TYPES• THE SPIRITUAL SOUL I FIND MOST CONSOLING

HOW TO OBTAIN VIRTUE

• SOCRATES: IF YOU HANG AROUND VIRTUOUS PEOPLE YOU WILL ACT MORE VIRTUOUSLY.

• ARISTOTLE: PRACTICE VIRTUE

MY PHILOSOPHICAL LIFE

• OF SOCRATES, PLATO, ARISTOTLE, CICERO, AUGUSTINE, AQUINAS, DANTE, THOMAS MORE, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, EDMUND BURKE, BENJAMIN DISRAELI, THOMAS EDISON, JOSEF PIEPER, LEO STRAUSS, ETIENNE GILSON, RUSSELL KIRK, SOLZHENITSYN, JOSEPH RATZINGER, JOHN GUEGUEN• LEO STRAUSS-UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO “ONCE YOU ADOPT AN

IDEOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY BECOMES IMPOSSIBLE.”• JOHN GUEGUEN—ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY-STUDENT OF LEO STRAUSS

AND HE IS STILL MY TEACHER TO THIS DAY “JOE, TRY TO CONCENTRATE.”• JOE NASADOS-A POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY HOBBYIST

What a Political Philosopher Looks LikeJohn A. Gueguen

AUGUSTINE

• AUGUSTINE AND OTHERS: THREE BASE LUSTS OR DESIRES• LUST FOR MONEY• LUST FOR SEX• MOST OF ALL, THE DESIRE TO DOMINATE ANOTHER

THROUGH TIME THINGS CHANGED MODERNITY

• MODERNITY: THE PULL FROM THE SPIRITUAL TO THE MATERIAL• THE MOST NOTABLE EVENT IN OUR HISTORY IS THE FRENCH

REVOLUTION 1789-1799.• THEY TOOK PROVIDENCE AND TRADITION OUT OF THE PICTURE AND

TO TRIED TO DEVELOP THE PERFECT SOCIETY. TRAGEDY FOLLOWED.• GOD IS DEAD• UTOPIAN SOCIETY (NO PLACE)• THESE THINGS HAPPEN WHEN THE CONSERVATIVES FAIL TO ORDER

THEIR SOULS

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION“ZEUS RULES THE WORLD, AND WITH RESISTLESS SWAY. TAKES BACK TOMORROW WHAT HE GRANTS TODAY.” Hesiod

MODERN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHERS

• KARL MARX • JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU• FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE• THEY ALL WENT MAD IN THE END AND HAD TO BE CARED FOR BY

THEIR SISTERS.• READ IT AND SEE FOR YOURSELF.

UNITED NATIONS DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS--THERE IS NO REFERENCE TO GOD WHAT SO EVER.

THE AMERICAN 1960s

• CONSIDER ANOTHER MODERNITY EVENT

IF IT FEELS GOOD, DO IT

DO WHATEVER THE #$%* YOU WANT

WHERE ARE WE NOW AS A COUNTRY?WHERE ARE YOU NOW AS A PERSON?WHERE WILL YOU BE IN 10, 20 OR 30 YEARSIN TERMS OF YOUR POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY?THINK ABOUT IT

AMERICAN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHYCONSERVATIVE AND LIBERAL• TALKING POLITICS HAS ENDED A LOT OF RELATIONSHIPS FOR ME.• A FEW GOOD PEOPLE SAID: WE CAN STILL BE FRIENDS.• IF YOU WALK AROUND ON THE STREETS YOU WILL BE HARD PRESSED

TO FIND A LIBERAL.• I WAS THINKING ONE DAY THAT I SHOULD FIGURE OUT WHAT A

CONSERVATIVE IS. THAT WAY WHEN SOMEONE TELLS ME HE IS A CONSERVATIVE I CAN TELL IF HE REALLY IS.

“THE ROOTS OF AMERICAN ORDER” AND

“THE CONSERVATIVE MIND”BY RUSSELL KIRK

CRITIQUE OF CONSERVATISM

SIX CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES• PROVIDENCE AND NATURAL LAW• VARIETY OF HUMAN CONDITIONS IS GOOD• ORDER AND CLASSES. WE ARE EQUAL IN THAT WE WERE CREATED BY

GOD AND EQUAL UNDER THE LAW ONLY.• FREEDOM AND PRIVATE PROPERTY ARE LINKED. • BELIEF THAT CUSTOM, CONVENTION, AND OLD PRESCRIPTIONS

CHECK MAN’S ANARCHIC NATURE AND LUST FOR POWER. DISTRUST SOPHISTS, CALCULATORS AND ECONOMISTS. (LIES AND STATISTICS)• SLOW CHANGE, WITH PROVIDENCE AND PRUDENCE.

Edmund Burke—Father of Conservatism• We are in a partnership with the living, the dead and those who are

not yet born. (Aristotle)• Every Constitution of a State is a contract of the eternal society linking

the visible and the invisible worlds.• “Prejudice”—A steady course of wisdom and virtue that does not

leave a man hesitating in a moment of decision. Your virtue is your habit. Prejudice and prudence are marks of the statesman.• Happiness is to be found by practicing virtue in all conditions and not

in monstrous fictions—inspiring false ideas in men destined to travel in the obscure walk of a laborious life…

John Adams—Father of American Conservatism/Political PhilosophyAlexis De Tocqueville—A very important outsider who looked at America. “Democracy in America”

Benjamin Disraeli: held office from 1874-1821• Benjamin Disraeli (Tory/Conservative) • The object of Conservatism is preservation of the country,

maintenance of old institutions and elevation of the condition of the people.• During his early years too many people were living in squalid

conditions. Yet his country was the richest in the world.• What of this neglect is worth CONSERVING? The conservative asked.• Men cannot improve a society by setting fire to it; they must seek out

old virtues and bring them back into the light.

Sometimes conservatives are such because they are radical.

If you destroy a society you cannot begin again.We have been told that the working class cannot be conservatives because they have nothing to conserve—no land or capital, but they have liberty, justice, security of person…He did not wish to eliminate classes, but to include everyone in the one nationality. They are bound together in the nation’s welfare.Even today, the Conservative Party runs across the classes of England.

Conclusion

We have gone through concepts of classical political philosophy from Socrates to Disraeli. We mentioned modern political philosophy (modernity) and the Father of American political philosophy. There are others you may wish to read about who are mentioned in these books by Russell Kirk. Interestingly having politicians who were political philosophers ended in the early 1900’s. Now you will find them in universities only.My teacher always said, “Read the original work for yourself and see what you think”.

Greatest Books Western Civ.• First 10 classics of world civ:• The Holy Bible (1200 B.C. to 100 A.D.) -- the Word of God• The Epic of Gilgamesh (2800 B.C.) -- the oldest book (on the meaning of life)• The Code of Hammurabi (2100 B.C.) -- the oldest law code (the rules of life)• Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey (850 B.C.) -- foundational works in world civ• Hesiod: The Works and Days; The Theogony (750 B.C.) -- first organized thoughts• about man's place in God's world (answers to the questions of Gilgamesh)• Aeschylus and Sophocles: The Tragedies (480-420 B.C.) -- why life is imperfect• Plato: The Dialogues (380-350 B.C.) -- the root of the world's cultural education• Most notable: Apology, Crito, and Phaedo (the last days of Socrates); Republic,• Laws, and Timaeus (Plato's legacy)• Aristotle: The Treatises (340-325 B.C.) -- the root of the world's scientific culture• Most notable: Nicomachean Ethics and Politics (on the right way for human beings• to live); Physics and Metaphysics (on the fundamental shape of reality); Posterior• Analytics (the laws of right reasoning)• Virgil: The Aenead (25 B.C.) -- the connector of ancient Greek and Roman civ• Why are the human works listed in chronological order? Because they are part of a conversation, each building on and

presupposing what came before it.• At this point God became Man and initiated a new civilization and its great literature:

Greatest Books Past 500Years• I - 20 great books, past 500 years (secular) in chronological order:• Thoms More, Utopia (1516)• William Shakespeare, The Complete Plays (1590-1615); especially the tragedies• Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605)• Blaise Pascal, Pensees [The Thoughts] (1640-1660)• Publius (James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay), The Federalist (1787-1788)• Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835, 1840)• Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851)• John Henry Cardinal Newman, The Idea of a University (1852-1858)• Lewis Carroll [C.L. Dodgson], Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)• Fyodor Dostoevsky, Complete Writings (1845-1880); especially The Brothers• Karamazov (1880)• Lev Tolstoy, War and Peace (1869)• Mark Twain [Samuel L. Clemens], The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)• Thorstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)• Mikhail Sholokov, Quiet Flows the Don; The Don Flows Home to the Sea (1928, 1938)• B. Traven, Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1935)• Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book (1940)• Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince (1943)• Josef Pieper, Leisure, the Basis of Culture (1952)• Jose Maria Gironella, The Cypresses Believe in God (1953)• Flannery O'Connor, The Habit of Being (Letters, 1948-1964)• Great reference works:• Encyclopedia Brittanica (1764 - )• Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster (1828 - )• The National Geographic Atlas of the World (1924 - )•