Medieval Political Thought
How did Augustine of Hippo's and Thomas Aquinas' views of the role of human free will in the process of salvation shape their different views of political theory?

For Augustine, there could be two cities -- the City of Man, which would essentially be a society without grace or goodness -- and the City of God, which would be a society that conformed to the will of God, participated with grace, and worked to perfect itself in accordance with the Commandments of God. One would be an imperfect society (the former) and the other would be a perfect society. Essentially, the City of Man is a system in which all endeavors are geared towards earthly happiness whereas in the City of God, endeavors are geared towards a spiritual happiness with God, enjoyed fully in the next life if one is good and dies in the state of grace with….

Bible Influence Political Thought and Action in Our Culture?
The Bible is a unique book that is different from others because it contains sacred text that has continued to influence societies from generation to generation. Generally, the impact of this sacred book is worldwide since it has affected every department of human activity. The influence of the Bible on society is derived from the fact that it contains various themes that are used to shape the moral progress of the world. In addition, the influence of this book is not restricted to Christians and Jews because it impacts more than 50% of the world population. One of the major ways that the Bible has influenced society is through its effects on politics, especially political thought and action. In most cases, the Bible is used as the basis for formation of laws and rules that govern society.

The Bible and Politics:

In today's….

Frederick Douglass to the Americans, entitled, "What to the Slaves is the Fourth of July?" commemorates the celebration of the Independence Day of the American Nation. However, Douglass, in his address, emphasizes that this special day was not to be celebrated by black American slaves like him ("[t]his Fourth of July is yours, not mine")- instead, the Fourth of July was a reminder of the injustices and inequality of the black American slaves with that of the white American nation. In his address, Douglass provides the audience a detailed explanation of his argument, that is, the reason why the day of Independence of the United States cannot be a celebration for the black Americans. Douglass also provided the audience the chief thesis of his address: that the Fourth of July is, for the black American slave, is not a day of Independence, because the Declaration of Independence itself and….

Politics
Modern Political Thought

The transition from a feudal serf economy to a capitalist market economy was one of the fundamental shifts which have produced modernity as we know it. This essay aims to understand how the authors of The Prince and Leviathan, Niccolo Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes would think about the transition and how these two great minds would relate to the issue of capitalism. Capitalism is a funny game that continually creates a series of boom and bust cycles throughout our modern history. Take the 1926 real estate craze that occurred in Florida. The United States economy was cooking along on all cylinders and good times were everywhere. No one was thinking about the Great Depression that would occur just a few years later. The rich and happy of 1926 figured that all was well as often is the case in Capitalism. Prosperity and growth were infinite -- nothing could….

S. Constitution as offering much protection but instead view it as being the responsibility of the states to provide protection for private property owners. In the event that the courts "...continue to abdicate their role as the protector of individuals rights, then big government and powerful corporations will continue to run roughshod over the property interest of small landowners." (Liles, 2006, p.372)
Liles holds that the legislature being allowed a leeway that is so constitutionally broad in defining the protections afforded to private property effectively "...defies the necessary checks and balances implicit in our system of government." (p.372) Part of the problem appears to be that the definition applied to 'public use' has become quite lenient over the years and while it in the beginning meant that "the public must own property" it now has been construed to mean that "private parties can own the land so long as the land….

Machiavelli, Luther, And Muntzer
Must a good politician be morally bad? In the context of the Reformation, this question revolves around how Christians would define what is "morally bad" had become suddenly and seriously complicated by competing definitions of what constitutes "morally good" behavior. The rhetoric very often yielded more heat than light: Luther's and Muntzer's apparently sincere eschatological belief that the Vatican was to be identified with the hore of Babylon in the Book of Revelations made the question of cooperation with wicked temporal powers more than a purely academic one. Yet it is arguably the religious situation of Roman Catholicism in the first place that leads to the ethical differences in the political philosophies of Machiavelli, Luther and Muntzer. Indeed, the religious distinction that Luther upheld against the Vatican -- insisting on salvation sola fide, by faith alone, rather than by deeds -- indicates that in response to Machiavelli's….

olitical Science
Annotated Bibliography

The urpose of a olitical Court

In the view of Henry J. Abraham (Abraham 1998, 55), "theoretically," just about any qualified law school graduate with ambitions for an important judicial appointment would appear to have a fair chance at being nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. That is providing, of course, the candidate is politically "available" and is, in Abraham's words, "acceptable to the executive, legislative, and private forces that, in the order enumerated, constitute the powers-that-be underlying the paths of selection, nomination, and appointment in the judicial process." key phrase in Abraham's criteria is "acceptable to the...legislative" body; as has been witnessed in the past few days and weeks, some of the conservative judicial nominees - not for the High Court but put forward by resident George W. Bush for federal appeals courts slots - have not been "acceptable" to a sufficient number of U.S. Senates to beat….

Political or Social Problem
Racism has been a major social problem in American history going back to the colonial period of the 17th and 18th Centuries, and by no means only in the former slave states of the South. In fact, the condition of blacks in the United States has always been a central social, political and economic problem that resulted in the nation's most destructive war in 1861-65 and in its most important civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. As the moral and spiritual leader of the latter, Martin Luther King's place in American history is well-known: this was the central preoccupation of his life from 1955-68, and he died as a martyr to this cause. Karl Marx was merely a foreign observer of the U.S. Civil ar, but he understood the issues of slavery and racism very well and was an enthusiastic abolitionist and supporter of….

Jean Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx are famous political philosophers, whose ideas in many ways had influenced the development of social formation in modern times, and what is most interesting is that ideas of both were realized in certain ways on practice. Jean Jacques Rousseau prophesied modern democratic institutions that laid into the fundamental of many modern nations; his ideas of "social contract" are the main principles of modern democracy, parliamentary political systems and relations between nation and state. On the other hand the ideas of Karl Marx, who explained an "unavoidable crash" of society with capitalist relations, into a new formation governed by the "dictatorship of proletariat" or a state with no private property, failed to be effective instrument of political and social regulation and did not meet the expectations, probably because the societies where those ideas were tested were not ready at all for radical changes. As both….

Plato
It is possible to read Plato's Apology as the best extant textual representation of the legacy of Athens in the fifth century CE in law and politics. The fact is that the Athenians, although they voted to put Socrates to death, might very well agree on principle with this evaluation. The Apology is, after all, a representation of the Athenian system of trial by jury, and it is worth recalling that this judicial system was considered to be a founding myth of Athens itself. Earlier in the century, roughly a decade before Socrates was born, the tragedian Aeschylus in the Oresteia would represent the mythological and divinely-sanctioned origins of the Athenian jury trial, as a replacement for the endlessly bloody cycle of the lex talionis, when the goddess Athena invites a group of Athenian citizens to sit in judgment on Orestes, who killed his mother in revenge for her murder….

Asian
Explain three quotes from ether Confucius, Mencius, or Xun-Zi

Mencius is in the privileged position of providing political advice to King Xuan of Qi. Mencius offers a clear political philosophy rooted in ethical principles. The core ethical principles are humanitarian in nature, based on Mencius's core belief in the essential goodness of human nature. Mencius's political philosophy is grounded in just and humane leadership. There are several core tenets of Mencius's political philosophy, and he advises the king accordingly. The first primary tenet is that leaders need to ensure equitable wealth distribution because poverty and injustice breed criminality and other social problems. The second tenet is that righteousness is important in its own right; that even though the leader ensures his own continued power and respect by being a good king, self-serving interests are insufficient to ensure one's efficacy as a ruler. It is more important to be genuinely good and….

right' in the light of Alexis De Tocqueville's book, Democracy in America. The paper further expands on the idea of right as presented by other thinkers including Hegel, Bancroft and most recently Hardt and Negri.
Every person is born with an inherent sense of right and born which may later be altered, shaped or influenced by the society and person's own experiences. Philosophers have always been concerned with what they term the 'idea of right' and have expounded theories on how it is acquired, why it is needed and what happened when it ceases to exist. Alexis De Tocqueville was one such thinker who in his Magnus opus, Democracy in America, instructed readers to acquire an idea of right for he argued that it was impossible to build a great nation without a sense of right and wrong. Here idea of right must not be confused with 'rights' of people….

Philosophical Arguments for the Existence of Moral Knowledge
This paper summarises the philosophical arguments for the existence of moral knowledge, supported by the evidence for the external world contained in the article "Proof of the Objectivity of Morals" by Renford ambrough. ibliography cites one reference.

The arguments for the existence of moral knowledge

The idea behind the article "A Proof of the Objectivity of Morals" by Renford ambrough has a thesis that we have moral knowledge. This is a controversial assertion, and is one that is not accepted by many philosophers.

The article start with consideration of two of Moores, arguments, that regarding the defence of common sense as well as the way in which the external world is proven. There is evidence to support the propositions made, as in any attempt to disprove knowledge that another believes they have, such as the belief an individual has two hands, then it is the contradiction….

This includes previously mentioned measures such as increased governmental spending, directing funds towards education and health sectors etc.
Referring to Liberalism, we should first of all point out that liberalism does not necessarily limit its perceptions only to economic equality, as is the case with Socialism, but it extends its beliefs to the sector of civil and individual equality. This means that liberalism has always found itself as a promoter of human rights, as a sustainer of political freedom and the right to self - determination.

Going forth from these social and political perceptions, the social equality that liberalism promotes naturally leads to a policy of tolerance at a societal level. Liberal governances are generally know to be tolerant in terms of rights for social or religious minorities.

On the other hand, in terms of economic policies, liberalism promotes equality rather through the laissez-faire philosophy, through the capacity of the individuals to….

Political ealignment
Curse

a) Are we in the midst of a political realignment in America?

Political realignment is an aspect, which is in evitable in America. It is evident that the political scenes in America today are changing from one state to the other. It is clear across the nation that realignment is not only bringing significant changes in the political scenes, but the changes are evident and are affecting the social and economic circles too. The big picture in political circles in America is that of minority parties rising up to become the most influential across the board. On the other hand, people in the majority parties have to stir up their confidence to catch up with the completion. In this context, political realignment is one of the major features in America (Winograd & Hais, 2009).

b) What role will social capital play in fostering / hindering the realignment?

The social capital in the….

1. The Role of Emotions in Political Decision Making: Exploring how emotions influence political beliefs and actions, and whether they should be considered in political theory.

2. The Impact of Technology on Political Communication: Analyzing how social media and other digital platforms have changed political discourse and debate in the modern age.

3. Intersectionality in Political Theory: Examining how issues of race, gender, and class intersect in political theory and shape debates on social justice and equality.

4. The Ethics of Political Violence: Discussing the moral implications of using violence as a political tool and when it may be justified.

5. Post-Colonial Perspectives in....

Plato's Theory of Forms

Plato's theory of forms is one of the most influential and widely-studied philosophical theories in Western history. It is a complex and multifaceted theory, but at its core, it is the idea that there is a realm of perfect, eternal, and unchanging Forms that exist independently of the physical world. These Forms are the true essence of things, and the physical world is merely a shadow or copy of the Forms.

Essay Topics:

Plato's theory of Forms: An overview and analysis.
The relationship between the Forms and the physical world.
The role of the Forms in Plato's epistemology....

Title: Contrasting the Philosophical Perspectives of Plato and Aristotle: A Comparative Analysis

Plato and Aristotle, two towering figures of ancient Greek philosophy, have left an indelible mark on Western thought and continue to shape intellectual discourse to this day. Their profound insights into the nature of reality, knowledge, ethics, and politics have influenced generations of scholars and continue to inspire contemporary philosophical inquiry. This essay delves into the philosophical perspectives of Plato and Aristotle, highlighting their similarities and differences in their approaches to understanding the world.

Similarities in Philosophical Outlook

Plato and Aristotle shared certain fundamental assumptions about the nature of reality. Both....

1. The Concept of Justice in Rawls and Nozick's Political Theory:
- Analyze and compare John Rawls' and Robert Nozick's theories of justice.
- Discuss the implications of their views on social and economic equality.
- Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their respective arguments.


2. Utilitarianism vs. Deontology: A Comparative Analysis:
- Compare and contrast the ethical theories of utilitarianism and deontology.
- Explore the strengths and weaknesses of each theory in terms of their application to political decision-making.
- Discuss the relevance of these theories in contemporary political debates.


3. The Legitimacy of Political Authority:
- Examine different theories of....