Political Theory Lecture: Machiavelli to Marx

Vocabulary-style flashcards defining the key theories and terminology of major political philosophers including Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Burke, Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Marx.

The Prince

A work by Machiavelli focused on maintaining the state or a principality to achieve glory and greatness by staying in power.

Necessitas non habet legem

A medieval maxim meaning 'necessity has no law' which guides the proactive and sometimes unconventional behavior of Machiavelli's prince.

Discourses on Livy

Machiavelli’s concern with maintaining a republic or a 'free state' to achieve glory through virtue and institutions.

Vivere libero

A republican maxim meaning 'to live freely,' which Machiavelli believes is only attainable under a republican form of government.

Rome

The historical model for Machiavelli of a properly constituted and acting republic before corruption sets in.

Leviathan

Hobbes's political theory centered on preventing a return to the state of nature, which he considers the worst condition possible.

Natural Right (Hobbes)

The unrestrained liberty to do whatever one wants for self-preservation, leading to a 'war of all against all' in the state of nature.

Social Contract (Hobbes)

The total alienation of natural right to the sovereign to produce an absolute, undivided, and perpetual sovereignty.

Second Treatise

Locke's argument that government exists as a remedy to the state of nature specifically to protect natural rights.

Natural Rights (Locke)

The fundamental rights of life, liberty, and property that governments are designed to protect and articulate through laws.

Right of Resistance

The logical premise in Locke's theory that subjects may resist a government that subverts their natural rights, placing itself in a state of war with the people.

Of the Social Contract

Rousseau's treatise attempting to base relations of dependence on 'right' rather than 'might,' famously stating 'man is born free, everywhere he is in chains.'

General Will

Rousseau's notion where individuals liberate themselves from hierarchies of dependence by enslaving themselves equally to each other.

Civil Religion (Rousseau)

A tool that helps citizens bear the 'chains' of civic life by fostering a civic-mindset required for a republic.

Reflections on the Revolution in France

Burke's assessment of the dangers of universalist abstract thinking, advocating for gradual, organic change.

Age of Chivalry

The social order of rigid hierarchies and honor codes that Burke valued as a means to put all men under the same laws of honor.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Wollstonecraft's project of social rejuvenation through the reformation of intersex relations and female education.

Spaniel-like mentality

A term used by Wollstonecraft to describe women who become coquettish and only concerned with pleasing men due to a lack of proper education.

Legal Prostitution

Wollstonecraft's description of marriage when women lack economic freedom and skills to secure their social existence otherwise.

On Liberty

Mill's work addressing when society, rather than just the government, becomes a tyrant through social conformity.

Harm Principle

Mill's rule that one should not be interfered with until their actions infringe upon the liberty of another.

Communist Manifesto

Marx's work advocating for the wholesale overturning of society to free workers from the 'chains' of the state.

Bourgeoisie

The class in industrial capitalist society that exploits workers while inadvertently contributing to their organization and education.

Dictatorship of the Proletariat

The onset of the revolution where the means of production are socialized and directed by a new workers' state.

Classless Society

The stateless condition where the socialisation of capital removes the need for an enforcer of property disparities.