8 Aristotle Aquinas Rousseau

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMwZsFKIXa8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMwZsFKIXa8

Review: What is the Political Community? Is it the same as the Polis? Who’s in and Who’s out? Who

thinks the following? • “The Polis come into being by consent to leave the state

of nature” • “Polis exists in the state of nature • “The Community needs to be governed by a state.” • A community is created and maintained by a powerful

prince.” • Do you have to give up freedom to be a member of the

Polis or political community?” Who says? • Who’s in and who’s out? Does it include the econ.

Community? Who says? Does size matter?

Review: Political Economy in the political community

• Who thinks that the polis should repress human nature and who thinks it should flow from human nature?

• what How does “who gets what” get decided in the state of nature? According to whom?

• How do they differ in their understanding of that principle?

• What other principles might a state use to decide who gets what?

Aristotle: Polis and economic community

• Is the polis essentially identical to the (enlarged) economic community? – No: the end of the polis is different from the end

of the economic community. The difference is qualitative.

– Morally, material wealth is not interesting in the Polis…Real value is in the good life and not in the economy

– Ends are good; means (even to good ends) are not so lofty. (Contrast with Machiavelli)

Slavery: Human beings as tools

• What is the difference between the “wage-slave” and the actual slave?

• For Aristotle, there is very little difference: in both cases a person is made into or (makes himself into) the tool of another (and to that extent he or she is unfree)

Wealth and trade: other implications of Aristotle’s argument

vs.

Sum: Aristotle and Economic Justice: Paving the way for Aquinas

• Economics is a lower form of activity than politics – Economics is a means to an end; politics is an end in itself – those who contribute to the economy do not have

citizenship! – The Polis is must not tainted with economic activity – The privilege of political leadership must

not be based on wealth---it must be based on merit and honor

• The good life has nothing to do with wealth and wealth has nothing to do with value

• Making money from money is evil!

Fast Forward History…. Fast Forward History….

BEFORE

AFTER

GREECE

ROMAN EMPIRE

Constantine

DARK AGES

ROME FALLS Antisemitism

The Economy corrupted the soul

Homo mercator vix aut numquam Deo placere potest

Just Price

• What is a “just price?” • Just Price represented norms holding the community

together • Why are market prices (supply and demand) wrong?

Two reasons – Undermined community because it led to search for

individual profits (temptation to buy cheap and sell dear) – Market Prices undermine inherent value “can’t buy me

love!” • Church set the price so that souls would not be

corrupted (through greed, averice, deceit, lies)

Thomas Aquinas modifies “Just Price” as the market takes over social life

• Justice: equivalence in exchange

• Natural law is Will of God and natural order

• But…..transaction costs! • Moral worth of trade depends

on motives of the trader to help the community

• The state should enforce laws that protect community and still allow the market to operate

• Just price is market price without fraud or coercion! “Sorrow can be alleviated by

good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.” Thomas Aquinas

"Good" is finite; there is a limited amout of material good, love, friendship

"good" is infinate; there are infinate amounts of both material and non-material goods

community is a closed system ruled by personal relationships and ascriptive heirarchies

community is an open system guided by impersonal laws and freedom.

if my situation is improved, yours is worsened and vice-versa: therefore, don't try to improve your position or you will be punished and others won't like you

If my situation improves, it doesn't hurt you, if fact, it may help you and vice-versa; we can both be rewarded by improvement

Value cannot be created by man; it is given by God. Therefore luck is rewarded, but hard work is not rewarded; no relationship between hard work and the acquisition of wealth

Value can be created through work; hard work should be rewarded

Wealth is inherent in nature; there are limitations on land and technology; additional hard work will not improve anything

Wealth comes from work; work and thrift create wealth

progress is impossible; it will only come at the expense of others

progress is both possible and necessary

Individual achievement is punished; contentment with what you have is valued

individual achievement is valued; contentment with what you have is punished.

ancient Greek and medieval “COMMUNITY”values Modern values based on “FREEDOM”

Carrying out the General Will

Rousseau and the purpose of the state

How did Rousseau think like Plato and Aristotle?

• "Do I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? it is not to save time, but to squander it." Rousseau

• "It is too difficult to think nobly when one

thinks only of earning a living." -Rousseau

Rousseau’s “Social Contract”

• We suffer in the state of nature under conditions of scarcity:

• We want to live sustainably, to avoid the conflict in our souls

• But we develop technology that allows us to have more than we really need

• And we begin to fight over the surplus • In order to avoid those fights, we enter into the

social contract —we consent to give up our natural freedom for civil liberty which is……

Positive Freedom and Human Nature under the Social Contract

• Negative vs. positive freedom • Positive freedom is living according to the laws of

rationality. • “The mere impulse of appetite is slavery, while

obedience to a law we prescribe to ourselves is liberty” (Social Contract, bk. IV, ch. 8, p. 196).

• Dissenters to the general will must be forced to be free. • How can that be? • Human nature changes! Or….we become truly human

only in community

Rousseau’s Noble Lie!

• The “legislator” can’t use force and not everyone---even using the power of reason—will agree. – People’s station in life gets in the way of reason

• So he must have recourse to “divine intervention—crediting the gods for our own wisdom so that people will submit to laws and

• “might obey freely, and bear with docility the yoke of the public happiness.”

• It’s noble because it’s wise……. and politics needs religion! (at least in the very beginning—countries need founding myths)

The General Will

• Human nature can change: collective rationality replaces individual rationality*

• “Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.”

• Like sticks in a bundle: Stronger together!

How does the General Will work? • When you give yourself to

the community, you give your all…..

• Which means….. You are not under the power of particular persons, but under the right of the law.

• The “will” comes from the whole to the individual, not from individual to the whole

• It is indivisible!

The General will is infallible

Rousseau’s Political Economy

In the state of Nature In the community of the General Will • Individual possession becomes

the property of all. • All possessions in the hands of

the sovereign! • The sovereign has the right of

eminent domain. *

• Justice is the “Buffett Rule”

VS. ….

In Sum

• Rousseau does not believe in liberal individualism! • He doesn’t believe in private property if it’s useful to

the community—ok if the community doesn’t need it. • He is a civic republican---probably a social conservative • The General Will strengthens us • The General will is Machiavellian • The Sovereign is like the Philosopher-Kings • Justice is equality • Justice is when the individual submits to the conditions

he imposes on others.

solitary individuals Community by consent

hierarchies in power relations, masters and slaves, Kings and subjects, etc.

equality of all citizens; equal rights for all citizens hierarchies should be functional—reason and rationality lead to this

Natural Liberty as license; liberty as the independence of individuals; " an unlimited right to all that tempts us;" "a mode of living unsettled and insecure."

civil liberty created by agreement; moral Liberty created by social limitations

creates a secure mode of living.

Impulse governs conduct. justice and law govern conduct Rights defined by power Rights defined by general will

it is slavery to be under the impulse of mere appetite

it is freedom to obey a law which we prescribe for ourselves

Because there is no sovereign, rights are not protected

authority, liberty, and the protection of rights are mutually reinforcing; a strong state protects rights constructed by the social contract

STATE OF NATURE SOCIAL CONTRACT

Two Threads: Reason and Freedom