Political Essay
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MachiavelliHobbesApril27.pptxMachiavelli, contd.
Role of violence
Necessary, but regrettable
“Economy of violence” pp. 43, 42
Evil cannot be eliminated, only controlled
Why? Because of human nature
Politics is about statecraft, not soulcraft
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Appearance versus reality, better to seem good than to be good, p. 69
The fox and the lion, p. 68
The ends justify the means, p. 70
Limits of political knowledge
“Fortune is a woman…” ch. 25, p.94
Political knowledge is empirical: just the facts pp. 61-62
Better to be feared than loved, 66
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Hobbes: Background
Beginning of modernity: 1500s to 1700s
Reformation
Political upheaval in England
Scientific Revolution
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Scientific Revolution: shift in method about knowledge
New ways of looking at the world
Copernicus/Galileo: importance of astronomical discoveries. Why do these matter?
Church’s Ptolemaic cosmological view
New epistemology (ie. way of attaining knowledge)
“I know because I believe” vs. “I believe because I know"
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A new metaphysics: “metaphysical materialism”
(contra Plato and Aristotle)
What is the nature of reality?
2. What causes things to happen?
Plato/Aristotle’s answer:
Forms
Particular things striving to realize their telos
Metaphysical materialism:
brute materiality
2. Matter in motion (eg. atoms)
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