The Political Philosophy of Eight Major – Political – Thinkers. Aristotle, Locke, Publius, Kant, Strauss, MacIntyre, Oakeshott, and Arendt

Reuchamps, Min [UCL]

This essay engages two questions: the meta question and the political question. The meta question investigates the notion of political philosophy and subsequently its function. The definition of political philosophy constitutes the starting point of the discussion. The inquiry of political philosophy entails the reflection on human nature, which is necessary since men are no angels. In this debate, the idea of natural right transcends the meta question. Whereas some philosophers believe that there is such a natural right, others refute this claim. The following point concerns the relationship between theory and practice. Should political philosophy be confined to the room of theory or enter the political arena? If so, how do philosophers influence political practice? The conclusion of the meta question considers the potential end of philosophy. The political question studies the origins of government, the reasons for which men agree to unite into political organizations. The responses to the meta question laid the foundations for the explanations of such notions as social contract, civil state or constitution, and commonwealth. On the basis of these explorations, the question of the best regime can be answered. Eventually, the continuum between preservation (of the government) and revolution is given attention. This theme raises the question of what happens once a government has been established. Political philosophers have reflected on the manner how to preserve a political regime (especially by looking at the relationship between the ruled and the rulers) as well as, for some of them, on the age-old question is there a right to overthrow a government. I shall attempt to answer these two fundamental questions by providing a forum of dialogue between eight major political philosophers: four Ancients – Aristotle, John Locke, Publius (Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay), and Immanuel Kant – and four Moderns – Leo Strauss, Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Oakeshott, and Hannah Arendt. The paper starts with the conversation between the eight thinkers on the meta question. And, on the basis of the answers to the meta question, the dialogue continues over the political question in the second part of the essay.