Following are the thinkers taken into account in this post.
3) Nicclo Machiavelli
5) Jean Jacque Rousseau
6) Ram Mohan Roy
Ø Was disciple of Socrates(although not confirmed,but they must have met as they were in the same city)
Ø Influenced by Socrates Idea –
Ø In dialogue form the thought of Socrates emerges as we don’t have any written text by Socrates.
Ø Blended Ethics, Political Philosophy, moral psychology, Epistemology and Metaphysics.
Ø Academy in Athens
Ø Philosophical System-“Platonism”-quality of goodness is universal.
Ø Central work “Republic”
v Deals with Idea of Justice- i.e. Justice is universal Value and the foundation of the best political order.
v Discussed happiness,virtue, Platonic love.
v Three Parts of Soul :
1. Reason –Desire truth and the good of Individual
2. Spirit- Preoccpied with honour and competitive behavior.
3. Appetite- Direct in satiating base tastes and desires.
v In favour of Philosopher King who would maintain justice and virtue.
v Felt democracy could lead to demagoguery and anarchy.
Ø Argued for body of knowledge-possible to heal political problems like factionalism, Corruption of Moral .
Ø Father of logic and reason.
Ø Disciple and Contemporary of Plato.
Ø Defined fundamental principal of rational view of existence of man ‘s consciousness.
Ø His school called Lyceum- his research student known as “Peripatetics”.
Ø Logic and reasoning –tools for conduct of Scientific Invention.
Ø His logic= verbal reasoning> lies Syllogism.
Ø Defined soul =perfect expression or realization of a natural body.
Ø Ethics is means to find chief end or highest good, in Greek “eudaimonia”(actually more than happiness).
Ø Happiness = activity of rational soul in accordance with Virtue.
Ø Virtue are subset of good qualities that people have –that is not innate and acquire by Practice and lost by disuse.
Ø Expressed the idea that political realism in essence gets boiled down to the political-ethical principle, that “might is right”.
Ø Presented the pragmatic point of view that moral imperatives have no place in political arena.
Ø Cynical about human nature - advocate rise of strong leader who must be cunning and ruthless enough to keep a resistive population in check and maintain political order but such strong leader must rule by establishing a republic in a vibrant and free political culture in which dissent is tolerated.
Ø Criticized moralistic view of political Power.
Ø Morality and Polity are two different facets.
Ø Legimate & illegitimate power can not be judged on the basis of morality.
Ø “Prince”i.e. ruler, must visualize political power as an end in them.
Ø Prime concern of ruler should be the acquisition and maintenance of power.
Ø Maintaining power and retaining order is more important than sticking to the philosophy morality and virtue.
Ø Advocate fear among people to make them adherent to the law, Instead of love.
Ø Advocacy for civil liberties including the freedom of religion and free trade.
Ø His conception –irreverent towards establishing tradition(that’s why his ideal state was England where he experience much liberty than his native France)
Ø Crusading against tyranny, bigotry and superstitions.
Ø Natural science defender
Ø Embraced Natural religion
Ø Aim of life is not to reach heaven through penitence, but to achieve happiness & fulfillment through progress in the fields of Science & Arts.
Ø He marked end of the age of reasons.
Ø Progression in Science and arts causes corruption of virtue and morality + also created jealousy,fear and suspicion.
Ø Material progress made govt more powerful which crushed individual liberty + make it difficult for individual to forge sincere friendship.
Ø Ridiculed Private Property
Ø Social Contract Theory -Legitimate govt. is the one which is the result of contract between men..... if any govt. does not have this contract then it has no right to rule.
Ø As musician philosopher, placed melody above the harmony.
Ø Point out that human beings in the state of nature, are amoral creature ,neither virtuous nor vicious ,and one society get formed vices began to develop
Ø Man is born free but everywhere he is in chain- favors liberty for human being.
Ø Liberty can be fostered only through a system of obedience to a self imposed law.
Ø Defined society as an artificial person united by a general will.
Ø His favorite maxim “true way of serving god was to do good to man.”
Ø To abridge the gap between percept (The British liberal ideology) and Practices followed in India, -Pro Active Response to change.
Ø Attempt to locate the right and socially useful source of knowledge
Ø Critique of Mughal Polity, and in favor of the providential nature of British Rule.
Ø Modernization of India not only by material development but also intellectual - tried to transform medieval literati to modern intelligentsia.
Ø For him reform is struggle between liberty and tyranny, justice and injustice and between right and wrong throughout the world.
Ø Made distinction between law and morality-strived for codification of law,(but also maintained that person having high social standard should be treated differently )
Ø Was a modern man- tradition to him not rigid but flexible enough to be reinterpreted and revalidated in the light of new experiences.
Periyar(Erode Venkatanaicker Ramasamy):
Ø Firebrand leader of anti-Brahminism movement in Madras Presidency.
Ø Mounted heavy attack on Brahminism.... not on Brahmin.
Ø Message of egalitarians and scientific temper.
Ø Humanism is Supreme , said “forget God, think man”.
Ø His movement ended Brahmin hegemony.
Ø 1924- Vaikkom Satyagrah inKerala.
Ø Founded his non politicaloffshoot DravidarKazhagam (Parent organization of:)
Ø Launched self respect movement to change what appears to be adverse to man feeling of respect -Chengalpattu in Feb 1929.
Ø Propagation of nationhood combined with civilization mission of self-redemption of the human.
Ø Relied on the faculty of reason possessed by everyone.
Ø His battle was to fought within the minds of the individuals and their collective consciousness, to let them free from their subjugative or second class mind.
Ø He wanted from people redemptive of their humanity.
Ø Rejected trio of God, religious scripture (as they sanction casteism),and God in totality.
Ø Man obstruction from enquiry & rationality lead to chaos & deterioration.
Ø Asked people not to accept anything with ratiocination.
Ø Forerunner in political arrival of dalit citizens.
Ø Cause bahujan-dalit identity formation- radical assertion of dalit
Ø Advocated free social order –recognizing individual as end in itself-by association between individual s in society founded on liberty equality and fraternity
Ø Most importantly focused on Political rights- that can lead to social and Economic rights.
Ø Equitable and just distribution of political power as means of social development- balanced through political reservation for different section of people
Ø For Indian democracy to flourish laid three condition
A. hold fast to constitutional method of achieving our social & economic objective.
B. nation is greater than hero,So Bhakti and hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and eventual dicatatrship,reject heroism
C. Make political democracy as road to social democracy
Ø Adopted the revivalist approach to traditional Hinduism.
Ø Propagated spiritual awakening-which restore self belief in man and made him aware of his potentiality, gave the call “back to Veda”,for the Hindus.
Ø For him spiritual awakening was never removed completely from the social
Ø The edification of the soul and self are two dimension but of the same human revolution.
Ø He interpreted tradition afresh with new new social and historical requirement.
Ø Attacked on the traditional Hinduism.
Ø Knowledge (both secular + spiritual) needed + the emphatic understanding of others,Which broadens the social base of nationalism.
Ø Want to strengthen the manhood of his countrymen, was strictly against the mendicancy of Congress + the general unpreparedness of his countrymen for an effective political revolution.
Ø Favor constructive borrowing from western ideals and bred it with our spiritual awakening.
Ø He has said to have given the individual identity to his fellow countrymen.
Ø Given new impulses to old message
Ø Given the concept of "Swaraj and Ramrajya (an ideal imagined village)”.
Ø In this village, mode of conduct point out men on the path of their duty, control of desires and the path of mastery over mind & Passion.
Ø Knowledge of self & living within bounds.
Ø Favors in village democracy in which power moves from base to the top, rather than from the top to bottom.
Ø His devised “Satyagraha which is different from the passive resistance.
Ø It means truth + insistence, postulate the conquest of adversary by self suffering.
Ø A satyagrahi pre supposed
Recognized social status of satyagrah
Should know the distinction between evil and evil doer Free from addiction