Week 1: What Is Political Philosophy?

David Miller, Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, chapter 1.

Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good & Bad government expresses 3 ideas at the heart of politcal philosophy

1) Quality of government affects the lives of the governed: people who disagree with this will likely belong to centre left/centre right societies, not dictatorships where the quality of government evidently affected the lives of the governed.
2) Form government takes is not predetermined (social contract argument): the failings of hard determinism meant people had big choices to make in terms of what type of government they desired
3) We can distinguish between good and bad government therefore political knowledge exists: 21st C fatalism which led all societies were propelled by economic forces to govern themselves in a similar way made it difficult to distinguish between good and bad government



Political Philosophers

When political philosophers have directly intervened in political life, they have often failed: Hobbes' Leviathan argued for absolute government, but was rejected by both the Royalists and Parliamentarians. The reason behind their failure is supposedly their philosophical insight which challenges conventions and the reasoning behind them.

Societies require political philosophy to formulate responses to political challenges that cannot be dealt with using conventional wisdom.

Some believe their role is similar to the freed man in Plato's analogy of The Cave. David Miller thinks that political philosophers are more reasonable and critical thinkers, merely reflective than possessing esoteric knowledge.