Intro to Political Theory Recitation Notes

02/13

02/06

  • Hobbes vs Locke

    • Differences

      • Importance of law in Hobbes explanation

    • What kind of governments would people agree with in each situation

      • Hobbes more likely to be an absolute monarchy because he doesn’t have faith in his fellow men

      • Locke would want a democracy because he doesn’t like the institution of one ruler over all without representation

    • What are the implications of describing a state of nature in a given way?

      • they are concerned with the area they live under; its the basis of their entire argument for what the government should be like and how society should function;

    • Why do Hobbes and Locke describe the state of nature as they do?

      • Hobbes: writing during English civil war;

      • Locke: England and Scotland had same king but different governments; James took the throne and tries to dissolve parliament; when push comes to shove parliament decides all

  • HW:

    • Types of Claims

      • empirical logical or normative

        • Empirical: True or Fasle

        • Logical: True or False

        • Normative:

    • ChatGPT explained HW and evaluate Chat’s description of the homework answers must be 150 words or less

01/23

  • What Is Political Theory

    • Theory is concerned about subjectivity and the actions people make

    • What are the steps we can take to get to an end goal

    • What should or should not be done

  • Political Theory is about action

    • the choices people make to further their goals

  • Political Theory is concerned with normative questions and with critique

    • Theory uses Normative questions due to the moral truths that some people believe; Moral truths do not have to be universal meaning that some people may feel that they are right while others may think they are wrong

  • Political Theory uses analytical and interpretive methods to study political phenomena

    • What is done doesn’t mean its whats ought to be done; Americans think their country is gaining or losing ground in science

  • Activity:

    • Do States Have a right to exist

01/16

Claims

  • Empirical

    • Objective

    • True or False

    • Verified through Observations and Falsifiability

  • Normative

    • Subjective

    • Right or Wrong

    • Verified through Persuasion

  • Logical

    • True or False

    • Verified through Analysis

  • Examples

    • Largest contributor to planetary heating

      • Empirical prove it right wrong through the use of data

    • Ukraine serves best interests of United States and its allies

      • Normative it is arguing a claim that it serves the best interest to do so

    • Drag shows negatively impact the development of children

      • Normative

    • Voter fraud is a serious problem that threatens American democracy

      • Empirical falsifiable

    • Tariffs are bad

      • Normative

    • Venezuela is not a democratic country, so Nicolas Maduro cannot claim to be its legitimate leader

      • Logical only democratic leaders can be legitimate country is not democratic so he can’t be legitamate leader