Introductory Essays

1. Introductory Essays Issues of War & Peace

2. Overview • Fukuyama and the End of History • Meisheimer and Cold War Nostalgia • Huntington and the Clash of Civilizations

3. Fukuyama • Key Terms: • Hegelian Dialectic • Marxist Dialectic • Liberalism

4. Fukuyama • G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) • German philosopher • Developed theory of history based on the dialectic • History is driven by the clash of ideas

5. Dialectic Thesis

6. Dialectic Thesis Antithesis

7. Dialectic Thesis Antithesis built on the idea of internal relations: Interdependence of things; where the “thing”(whether physical object or idea) containseverything which allows it to exist. this means in part that everything contains within itselfits opposite (e.g., master/slave,husband/wife,landlord/tenant, etc.)

8. Dialectic Thesis Antithesis Synthesis

9. Dialectic Thesis Antithesis Synthesis Becomes the new thesis…

10. Dialectic Process repeats with new antithesis emerging to challenge the thesis, reaching a new synthesis, which becomes the next thesis… and so on How does this help us understand human social life?

11. Dialectical Materialism “The premises from which we begin are not arbitrary ones, not dogmas, but real premises from which abstraction can only be made in the imagination. They are the real individuals, their activity and the material conditions under which they live, both those which they find already existing and those produced by their activity…” -- The German Ideology

12. Dialectical Materialism • These “real premises” then include the way we make a living (that is, how we keep ourselves alive as biological beings). • These are the “means of production”

13. Dialectical Materialism • Marx & Engels claim that it is these material factors which shape the ideas we have: “Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life.” -- The German Ideology

14. Dialectical Materialism • Or, as they’ll claim in the Manifesto: “What else does the history of ideas prove, than that intellectual production changes its character in proportion as material production is changed? The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.”

15. Dialectical Materialism • We also need to examine how these means of production are mobilized and organized to actually produce the means of subsistence • This is the “forces of production”

16. Dialectical Materialism • Finally, we need to know how the various members of the society stand in relation to the means of production. • Class – defined as one’s position vis-à-vis the means of production • Broadly, you either own the means of production or you labor on the means of production

17. Dialectical Materialism “The first premise of all human history is, of course, the existence of living individuals.” -- The German Ideology

18. Dialectical Materialism “The various stages of development in the division of labor are just so many different forms of ownership, ie., the existing stage in the division of labor determines also the relations of individuals to one another with reference to the material instrument, and product of labor.” -- The German Ideology

19. Dialectical Materialism • When we look back at history we see certain patterns emerge. • Primitive Communism • Slave Labor • Feudalism • Capitalism

20. II. Liberalism • Historically, liberalism is built on 2 key ideas: • Limited Government • It was the political solution to the struggle for religious toleration • Attempt to keep politics out of religion. The state should not worry about the state of men’s souls • Give freedom of religion to the people • Why is this a good idea?

21. II. Liberalism • A key component of limited government is: • Rights • Theoretical underpinning to the notion of religious toleration is that individuals have rights against the state • We each have a right not to be interfered with by the government or by other people • These rights are natural – they accrue to us simply by the fact that we are human beings • Recall our earlier prisoner example…

22. Suppose you are a District Attorney in a community that is composed of easily recognizable majority/minority communities. A member of the majority community has been killed and witnesses have reliably identified a member of the minority community as the perpetrator, but the police have been unable to find the exact person The majority community is screaming for vengeance and on the verge of rioting. We know that in the course of the riot, at least 10 people from the minority population will be killed in mob violence. As the DA you suggest the following course of action to the mayor:

23. In order to avert the riot and save lives, you take a member of the minority community at random, accuse that person of the crime, and stage a very public arrest/execution • As the mayor, what do you do?

24. II. Liberalism • Rights mean that no matter how good the consequences of a particular action may be, these consequences cannot override individual rights • Why rights? • Each individual possesses dignity • Each of us is priceless • Roots are in the rise of Christianity • Secularized form – in lieu of soul premise – treat people as ends, not as means to an end • Every human being has infinite weight, so can’t use any calculation to justify hurting some for the greater good

25. II. Liberalism • Side bar: • Suppose superior beings from Planet Twylo descend to earth and tell us they have a food shortage • To alleviate this shortfall, they plan on harvesting human beings • Would we accept the same arguments from them that we offer to justify eating animals or otherwise using animals as means to an end?? • Just food for thought… we won’t pursue it now

26. II. Liberalism • So one component of liberalism is limited government • The second component is capitalism • By capitalism, we mean the idea that as long as a transaction has no negative diseconomies and is mutually advantageous, the transaction is permissible • A deal made between two consenting parties and no one is getting hurt, the state should not get involved in the transaction

27. II. Liberalism • The market is a private place where people voluntarily dispose of their own property • Locke will present two arguments – one secular, one religious – to show where this right comes from • The overall idea justifying these economic rights is roughly parallel to our political rights in that the state should not interfere with people doing what they want to do with their property

28. II. Liberalism • Note, the argument itself need not be limited exclusively to property and thus exclusively the purview of the (political) right wing • E.g., sexual freedom, drug freedom arguments could work equally well • Since the world is embracing variants of this view today, an examination of its historical evolution and philosophical premises is both warranted and educational

29. II. Liberalism • The key idea linking to the two strains is the primacy of the individual • That is, the individual is the basis of power – political, economic, social. • Political power does not come from divine right or the rule of the stronger, but the will of the people

30. II. Liberalism • 2 Implications • If individuals are basis, then we can’t treat others as means to an end… each is an end unto itself • We are all individuals with separate and equally valuable lives (valuable at least to us)

31. II. Liberalism • Good political society is one which could have emerged from unanimous agreement by these individuals • Hobbes and Locke are not trying to describe an actual historical situation; they are not doing anthropology • Nonetheless, the description of human nature in this prepolitical situation needs to be accurate otherwise we can reject the conclusions by rejecting the premises

32. II. Liberalism • Question we need to face at root of political philosophy concerns the necessity of the state • That is, if the state did not exist, would it be necessary to invent it? • In other words, is anarchy a viable option for organizing human society? • Note: lots of other animal species are social, but they’re all anarchic

33. II. Liberalism • This question carries with it important implications for understanding the society in which we live in that if political philosophy could not address and satisfactorily rebut anarchist arguments, the state loses much – or indeed all – of its intellectual support

34. Mersheimer • Key Terms • Uni-, Bi- and Multipolarity • Costs and Probability of War • Democratic Peace Theory

35. Mersheimer • Uni, Bi, and Multipolarity • The number of major powers in the world

36. Mersheimer costsofwar probability of war

37. Mersheimer • Democratic Peace Theory • Democracies do not wage war on each other