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Conservatism
Get PDFConservatism has been described as an ahistorical ideology, a relational, common sense “faith,” and a historical and political tradition, among others. This chapter outlines three popular and persuasive approaches to defining what conservatism is and has been. It argues that the most convincing accounts look to conservatism as an evolving tradition, rather than a rigid ideology. In this way, the chapter breaks with more familiar accounts in the history of political thought and political theory and suggests that a more critical, historicist approach to canonical “founding fathers” and how they have been used over time can in fact tell us a great deal about what conservatism—as a body of thought and the inspiration for practical policies and actors—is, as well as what political thinkers and actors in the present might be trying to achieve when founding heroes and histories are invoked
Noble Lies: A Reexamination of Human Rights
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Plato���s Republic (c. 380 BC) is the most critical text under examination, offering the idea of the ���noble lie��� around which this project is built. Seminal political documents which proclaim some form of human rights, including The Declaration of Independence, the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen, and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights are referenced and explored. Samuel Moyn���s book The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (2012) and Cary J. Nederman���s essay on ���Rights��� from The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Philosophy (2012) provide important background to the notion of human rights and their history. Excerpts from Hannah Arendt���s books, Origins of Totalitarianism (1958) and Between Past and Future (1961), as well as Jenna Reinbold���s Seeing the Myth in Human Rights (2017) are the basis for the critical evaluation of human rights as a noble made in the final chapter. Finally, various historical sources are discussed throughout in order to explicate key concepts such as human rights and noble lies.
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Thesis Statement
Human rights are a Platonic noble lie, and their value and role in society must be reexamined.
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework of this essay is political theory and the methods used are those usually employed in the discipline. The purpose of the project is to investigate the possibility that human rights do not exist in the way that they are currently conceived; in other words, that they are a noble lie (as defined by Plato in his Republic).
Project Description
Modern civil society is ordered around the, often unconscious, assumption that human rights exist. That is to say, there are certain rights to which all people are entitled simply by virtue of their membership in the human species. In 1789, for instance, the French National Assembly in The Declaration of the Rights of Man proclaimed that it had ���determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man.��� Other renowned political charters, including the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, similarly state that there are rights natural and undeniable to all people. Since the revolutions of the Enlightenment era, human rights have been codified in more and more foundational political documents. The bloody history of the last century, however, has been a constant foil to the idea that human beings have any inviolable dignity or rights that can be guaranteed on a global scale.
The apparent tension between human rights in theory and in practice prompts the question: do human rights, in fact exist in any tangible way? Philosopher Hannah Arendt argued that there are no human rights. Describing the plight of minorities in 20th Century Europe, she writes that ���The Rights of Man, supposedly inalienable, proved to be unenforceable���even in countries whose constitutions were based upon them��� (Origins of Totalitarianism 293). Arendt goes on to argue that rights are not impossible, but that they can be guaranteed only in a political community, not by any universal doctrine. If Arendt���s judgment is correct, and humans are entitled to no certain protections by nature, then it is incumbent upon scholars to reexamine how human rights are understood. All the same, such an investigation will not necessarily lead to the same conclusions as Arendt draws.
If human rights cannot be protected internationally, are they perhaps a noble lie? The concept of a noble lie originates in Plato���s Republic. In it the philosopher proposes a complex civil hierarchy based on the fiction that the best citizens, guardians, are fashioned by the gods out of gold, warriors or auxiliaries of silver, and farmers and craftsmen from bronze. It is a myth, but one that, if believed, ���would help to make [people] care more for the city and each other��� (Plato Republic 415d-e). A noble lie, then, is simply a falsehood meant to be accepted for the sake of a stable, harmonious society. Similarly, if human rights do not exist inherently, perhaps it is still better for people to believe and act as if they do. It is possible that the current understanding of human rights must be reconsidered, if it is truly a noble lie.
Human rights, and even noble lies, are widely known and much debated topics. Nevertheless, in weaving together the disparate threads already discussed, an original project emerges: On the assumption that Arendt and thinkers like her are correct, and human rights are not truly enforceable, then the idea of human rights is some kind of falsehood. That being the case, is the concept of human rights a noble lie���something that it is better for society to believe in regardless of its truth���or is it a false idea that is detrimental to society? The answer to this question will be sought through a survey of the philosophy and history surrounding both noble lies and human rights. Such a project could reveal that current thought on human rights needs adjustment and might suggest what those adjustments should be
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Becoming comfortable on unsteady ground: Knowledge, perspective, and the science of politics
No full textThis dissertation critically appraises the scientific identity of the discipline of political science. In it, I argue that in spite of the proclamations indicating the death of positivism, the spirit of positivism still reigns in the discipline's construction of science. The positivist state of the discipline carries with it, among other things, a belief in a world "out there" to be studied, understood and known completely. This entails faith that fact and value, subject and object, knower and known can all be reliably separated and that neutral and objective knowledge can build on itself in a progression toward the truth of political affairs. Mainstream political scientists, the bulk of the discipline's members, I contend, still embrace this positivist view of the world, a view that includes ontological and epistemological presuppositions that I find to be untenable. In support of my conviction I appeal to the hermeneutic perspective that Heidegger and Gadamer encourage and connect it to the critical theory approach of Habermas and Fay, to the postmodern approach of Derrida and Foucault and to various feminist perspectives. My goal is to (re)construct the scientific identity of the discipline in ways that are epistemologically and ontologically more tenable for what I take to be a complicated social and political world. Ultimately, I settle on Donna Haraway's notion of "situated knowledges" as the most useful alternative (re)construction of science for the discipline of political science. Situated knowledges grasp and embrace the complex nature of the world. They deny the existence of any of the dichotomies that positivism holds dear, they insist on the interpretive and contextual nature of knowledge, and they demand that we understand knowledge to be partial, perspectival and contestable. In these ways, situated knowledges compel us to take responsibility for our knowledge claims and to become accountable for how those claims are used. These are vital issues for a discipline such as political science, a discipline that professes, in these "postbehavioral" days, to be relevant for contemporary political practices
Civilizations' Origin: A Thought Connection Between Thomas Paine and Jane Addams
Get PDFAs a result of ideological opposition or the reduction of his writing to mere propaganda, the legacy of Thomas Paine within mainstream political theory has remained largely unexplored. Never a friend to the elite or powerful, Paine���s torch was carried by the common men, trade unionists and socialists, who found in him a kindred spirit. While his reputation and character have been restored in recent decades, scholars still do not assign his legacy enough value. One avenue of investigation that is not present in the literature is a connection to sociologist Jane Addams, who served as an honorary vice president for the Thomas Paine Monument Association. In particular, Addams��� political anthropology bears a number of distinct similarities to that of Thomas Paine, and she applied many of these views through her work at Hull House. Beyond the purely historical connections, these similarities in their respective political anthropologies can also be revealed through thorough examination of both thinkers��� accounts of pre-civilization (or the state of nature), the rise of civilization, and how civilization ought to be treated normatively. In this thesis, based on the above revelations, I find that Thomas Paine was a discernible influence upon the political anthropology of Jane Addams
Christophe Grellard, Jean de Salisbury et la renaissance médiévale du scepticisme
Get PDFDepuis environ une génération, la réflexion sur la pensée et la carrière de l’éminent homme d’église et auteur anglais Jean de Salisbury avance à grands pas. The World of John of Salisbury, une compilation d’essais issus de la conférence de 1980 commémorant les 800 ans de la mort de Jean contient essentiellement des recherches alors bien datées, pour ne pas dire dépassées (en effet, plusieurs des chapitres de ce livre étaient soit des rééditions, soit des résumés de travaux qui avaient été pu..
A statistical treatment of sin and holiness in sermons from the early Middle Ages (500-1100)
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