POL1201 Study Guide 1

The Social Contract (person)

Rousseau

The Social Contract

Each person should give up their individual autonomy to the collective will, through this they are able to serve the common good, and form by the general will.

The General Will (person)

Rousseau

The General Will

General will is the concept that the collective good must go beyond individual interests. To gain general will there must be participation in society, rational deliberation, and laws the reflect the general will.

Two Humors (person)

Machiavelli

Two Humors

Concept of social conflict of (the few) and (the many) have inherently opposing desire. Two social groups: Nobles who dominate and the plebes who are dominated. Conflict is natural and productive, tumults result in necessary political innovation.

Reconciliation

How political power reflects the collective, and how individuals express themselves. Political expression emerges from shared experiences of individuals. This can be tied back to Rousseau and people must not think about themselves but the collective good.

Individuality (person)

Marx

Individuality

How capitalism and mass society distort or supress individual identity. In captialism, capital has individuality but not the people. Labor in a capitalist society leaves to lifeless, impersonal, and controlling the worker is stripped from its indiviuality.

Constituent Power (person)

Hardt and Negri

Constituent Power

The power of the people to create political structures as opposed to obeying them. Coordination without central command (top-down politics) This was inspired by Machivelli and Rousseau, real democracy comes from below through re-creation.

Species Being (person)

Marx

Species Being

Idea that what makes humans unique is our ability to work creatively and consicously. Labor and capitalism are dehumanzing, and we lose our human ensence because of this. True humanity is only restored when labor is meaningful and free.

Decolonization (person)

Fanon

Decolonization

Violent replacement of colonial power with a new politcal human order. By replacing spieces of men with other species. Violence is not glorified but necessary and tragic (cleasing force) Colonism is built on violence, the colonized and the conolizer live in different realities.

Violence as Praxis (person)

Fanon

Violence as Praxis

Not just liberation but acting to overthrow oppresion. Violence is a cleansing force, and praxis means engaging in the world to change it. Transforming people and breaking structures of domination. People need to act radically to achieve liberation.

A World Cut into Two

Idea of spacial and social segregaton under colonialism. Colonizer and colonialized live in seperate realities. Space is filled with barracks, police zones, which reflect dehumaniziation society has and how it is divided physically and psychhologically.

Alienation (person)

Marx

Alienation

Feeling disconnected from work, self, others and society which are a key affect of capitalism. Worker don’t own what they make so labor is a means of survivial not creative expression. There are four forms: Product, Process, Self, and Other people. This can only be overcome by revolution.