WPT Eduseeker Notes

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EduSeeker
INDEX
CONFUCIUS……………………………………………………………. 2
PLATO…………………………………………………………………... 2
ARISTOTLE……………………………………………………………. 4
HOBBES………………………………………………………………… 6
LOCKE………………………………………………………………….. 7
ROUSSEAU……………………………………………………………... 8
MACHIAVELLI……………………………………………………….. 12
WOLLSTONECRAFT………………………………………………… 13
J.S. MILL……………………………………………………………….. 14
HEGEL………………………………………………………………….. 16
KARL MARX…………………………………………………………... 19
GRAMSCI………………………………………………………………. 23
HANNAH ARENDT……………………………………………………. 27
MAO ZEDONG…………………………………………………………. 29
FRANTZ FANON………………………………………………………. 32
JOHN RAWLS………………………………………………………….. 34
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Confucius
• Real name ‘Kong Fuzi’ meaning ‘Master Kong’

• He was born on 551 BC in China
• He was a thinker, political figure, China’s first teacher, and founder of
the Ru School of Chinese thought
• His teachings, preserved in the Lunyu or Analects
• Five Constant Virtues-

1. Benevolence (‘ren’)
2. Propriety (‘li’)
3. Justice or righteousness (‘yi’)
4. Knowledge (‘zhi’)
5. Integrity (‘Xin’)
• Three ways to wisdom: by three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by

reflection, which is the noblest; second, by imitation, which is the easiest;
and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.”
1. Reflection
2. Imitation
3. Experience
Plato
• Plato was born in 428 BC in Athens. He is known as father of Idealism.
• His main Books- Republic, the Statesman, the Laws.
Other works- Apology, Crito, Enthypro, Laches, Lysis, Charmides, Protagoras,
known as Socratic dialouges.
Also he wrote Meno, Gorgias, Enthydemus, Cratylus, Lesser Hippias, Greater
Hippias, Ion and Menexenus, Phaedo, Symposium, Phaedrus.
• He is against democracy, as it promotes factionalism and democracy was the
reason for Socrates’s death.
• He favours Monarchy. He gave the idea of Philosopher King i.e. Only
philosopher should be a king and he must have absolute power. Because
only philosopher know the idea of good and thus he can create a good
society.
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• Theory of three:
Metal Virtue Class Soul Idea
Gold Wisdom Rulers Rational Good
Silver Courage Soldiers Spirited Honour
Copper Temperance Artisans Appetitive Money
• Justice (Republic) is the fourth virtue of Ideal State. Justice means doing
one’s job without interfering with other people
• His idea of ‘community of wives and property’ aims to abolished private

family and property for the soldier class because it encourages nepotism,
favoritism and factionalism.
• Comments on Plato:
-Positive:-
F.M. Voltaire and F.W. Nietzsche: Platonism as the intellectual side
of Christianity
R.W. Emerson: Plato is philosophy and philosophy is Plato
Whitehead: entire European philosophical tradition is nothing but a
set of footnotes to Plato
Rousseau: Republic as the finest treatise on education to be ever
written
-Negative:-
Crossman: Plato was wrong for his time and ours
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Toynbee: Plato was cynical, reactionary, inhumane and highly

imaginative
Karl Popper: in his book The open Society and its Enemies (1945)
described Plato as enemy of open society. He also characterized Plato as anti-
individualist, anti-humanist, and anti-democratic, having the aim of ‘arresting all
social change’.
Aristotle
• He was born in 384 BC. He was a disciple of Plato. He is known as father of
Political science.
• He is also known as father of comparative politics because he compared 158
constitution his time.
• His main works include: Politics, the Nicomachean Ethics, the Eudemian
Ethics and The Constitution of Athens.
• He criticized Plato for his ideas and said ‘Plato was a friend but truth was a
greater friend’
• His ideas on state:
- state is the highest form of political association
- state is necessary for fulfilling all needs of humans and ‘one who does not
feel its need is either an angel or a beast’
- state evolved naturally; order of formation of state- Family-villages-state
• His ideas on government:
- He advocated mixed form of government in which all citizens would rule
and were ruled by rotation ensuring that none had a monopoly over political
power
- Best form of government is constitutional government or polity which will
be ruled by middle- class.
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Classification of constitution/government
Number of Ruler Ideal (public interest) Perverted (selfish

interest)
One Monarchy Tyranny
Few Aristocracy Oligarchy
Many Polity Democracy
• His ideas on slavery:

- He defended slavery system
-There are two kind of slaves: Conventional (Prisoner of war) and Natural
(lacked reason)
- Master needs free time for intellectual and moral pursuits which slave can
give
- Slave can’t gain wisdom alone; working for master can increase his
intellect
• For him women was inferior to men and her rightful place was her house. He
described ‘women as an infertile male’.
• He did not want to give citizenship to : slaves, old, young, women and
working class members
• He defended the idea of private property. He was convinced that a well-
regulated institution of property would be socially beneficial.
• Comments on Aristotle:
- Edel : Arsitotle’s Politics has served as a foundation work for the whole
western tradition
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- Curtis: He ‘bequeathed a great legacy to political thought but not to any

one school’
Thomas Hobbes
• Hobbes was born on 1588 in England.
• He witnessed the period of Civil war in 1641 and the Thirty- Year War
(1618-1648)
• His famous work:
- De Cive (1642)
- Leviathan (1651)
- De Corpore (1655)
- Behemoth (1670)
• When civil war was happened, he was the first to flee the England. Fear
became the basis of his philosophy so much so that he said ‘Fear and I was
born twins’. That is why he regarded self-preservation as a supreme right.
• Human Nature:
- He viewed humans as isolated, egoistic, self-interested, and seeking society
as a means to their ends
- Individuals are creature of desire, seeking pleasure, and avoiding pain
- Such individuals have ‘desire for power after power that ceaseth only in
Death’
- Due to this greed for power there is a ‘war of everyone against the others’
• State of Nature:
- It is a precondition before the creation of state or a condition when political
authority fails
- In such condition there is no law, no justice, no notion of right and wrong.
Because ‘justice and injustice relate to man in society, not in solitude’
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- There is a fear and danger of violent death. The life of man becomes
‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’
• Natural law: of the 19, there were three important natural laws:-
1. Seek peace and follow it
2. Abandon the natural right to all things
3. The individual must honour their contracts
• Social Contract:
- Since the first law tells individual to seek peace, the only way to attain it by
creation of state
- All individual surrendered their all power through a contract to third party,
who was not party to the contract
- Each Individual gave up his right of governing himself, on the condition
that others did likewise.
- The thirds party i.e. State will have undivided, unlimited, inalienable and
permanent power
- Sovereign will equality in matters of justice and levying tax.
- The contract was perpetual and irrevocable
• Comments on Hobbes:
- Oakeshott: The Leviathan is the greatest perhaps the sole masterpiece of
political philosophy written in the English Language
- Macpherson: Hobbes was the first to lay down the science of power
politics
- Bramhall: Hobessian conception of human nature was a libel on
individuals, for he characterized them worse than bears and wolves
John Locke
• Locke was born on 1632 in England. He is known as father of liberalism.
• His main works:
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- Two tracts on Government (1660-1662)

- An essay concerning Toleration (1667)
- Second treatise (1681-82)
- Essay concerning Human understanding (1689)
• He wrote mainly during the times of Glorious Revolution of 1688 in
England. The revolution marked the beginnings of limited constitutional
monarchy and parliamentary supremacy
• Therefore Locke’s all concepts like constitutionalism, toleration, natural
rights, limited government and law based authority had been inspired from
this revolution in someway.
• Natural Rights: In state of Nature Individuals possessed three rights i.e.
right to life, liberty and property.
-Locke stated that the life in the state of nature was not as miserable and
brutish as depicted by Hobbes, instead it was reasonably good and enjoyable.
- In a natural state all people were equal and independent, and everyone had
a natural right to defend his “Life, Liberty, or Possessions".
- the state of nature was a golden age except that the natural rights were
insecure.
• Problem with state of Nature: Three problems-
(i) there was no established law
(ii) an impartial judge, and (iii) problem of implementation of law
Jean Jacques Rosseau
• He was born on 1712 in the city of Geneva. He was seen as spiritual father
of French Revolution of 1789.
• Rosseau was product of Enlightenment but he was against it. He was against
intelligence, science and reason. He called ‘a thinking man is depraved
animal’. He gave a call for discarding ‘all those scientific books’.
• His main works:
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-Discourses on the origin of inequality (1755)

-Discourses on the science & Arts (1750)
-The Social Contract (1762)
-In state of nature, the individual was guided by instinct and not by reason.
-In this period, human beings were noble savage. They had ‘free, healthy,
honest and happy lives’
- Humans were living a life a ‘idyllic blissfulness and primitive simplicity’
• Social Contract:
-When the scarcity situation arises, civil society must be formed to provide
security of property earned by people’s own labour
- ‘The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself
of saying this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real
founder of the civil society’
-All individuals surrendered their natural liberty to the power of community
that provides them civil liberty
• General Will:
Actual Will General Will
Motivated by self-interest By collective interest
Lower-self Reflected higher-self
Gratification of desires Acts of reason
Unstable stable
• All laws which are formed on the basis of general will, are just or goods.
General will is a parameter to judge any law or government.
• Famous quotes of Rosseau:
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- Man is born free and everywhere is in chains

- It was iron and corn which first civilized men and ruined humanity
- Man can be forced to be free
• Comments on Rosseau:
-Cobban, Talmon, Taylor: viewed him as a ‘a precursor of modern
totalitarianism’
-Karl Popper: described him as ‘Romantic collectivist’
-Edmund Burke: ‘Insane Socrates of the national assembly’
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COMPARATIVE STUDY
The issue Hobbes Locke Rosseau
Human Selfish and cruel Rational being Simple and innocent

Nature (‘Noble Savage’)
State of War of all against State of peace, good will, State of ‘idyllic
Nature all mutual assistance and blissfulness’
preservation
Natural Natural powers to Right to life, liberty and Natural liberty to fulfill
Rights oppress others+ property all needs from the
natural urge for self natural world as long as
preservation there is natural
abundance
Purpose of Creation of all To form govt to protect all To evade scarcity

social powerful sovereign natural rights situation and to protect
contract who can control other’s property
and protect
everyone
Terms of Every man will They surrender to the All individuals

social surrender his sovereign, not all his surrendered their natural
contract natural rights to rights, but only the liberty to the power of
sovereign right/power to preserve community that provides
order and enforce the law them civil liberty
of nature
Nature of Absolute Limited sovereignty Popular sovereignty

Sovereignty sovereignty
Right to No Yes Not required

revolt
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Niccolò Machiavelli
• He was born on 1469 in Florence, Italy. Known as ‘first modern political
theorist and scientist’ (Olschki)
• His main works:
- Art of War (1521)
- History of Florence (1525)
- The Discourses (1531)
- The Prince (1532)
• In his time, most of the Italian states were ruled by an oligarchy or an
individual tyrant. Italian unification became the chief objective for
Machiavelli. In order to achieve this any means is justified.
• Human Nature:
➢ Individual is wicked, selfish and egoistic. Avoid danger and seeks
gain. Lack honesty and justice.
➢ Only if there is personal gain individual is ready to do good
➢ ‘Individual would readily forgive the murder of his father, but never
the seizure of property’
➢ Human mind tended to glorify the past, decry the present and hope for
better future.
• Attitude to Religion:
➢ Machiavelli was anti-Church and anti-clergy, but not anti-religion
➢ Religion is a good political tool for rulers to control the lives of
people
➢ Religion induces good behavior and conduct in man through reward
and punishment
➢ He advised to Prince to do anything to cultivate people’s belief in
religion, even if the ruler himself is irreligious
• Double Standard of Morality:
➢ To him end was important, which could be attained by any means
➢ He separated the private from the public sphere of morality
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➢ In private sphere, individual or ruler should have virtues like truthful,

simplicity, purity, loyalty and trust.
➢ In public sphere, ruler need not to follow any moral values to conduct
state affairs.
➢ In politics, fair was foul and foul was fair, depending on the
circumstances and situation
➢ So Prince had to be compassionate, humane, loyal and honest while
simultaneously willing to use force, fraud, deception and any harmful
means.
• Advice to the Prince:
➢ Prince should have both virtues of Lion (Courageous) and Fox (cunning)
➢ Prince should avoid excessive generosity and strictness. He should have
moderate behavior.
➢ Prince should abstain from the property and women of his peoples
➢ He should expand his territory constantly
➢ He should kill all family after winning his opponents, as member of
family can later take revenge
• Comments on Machiavelli:
- Negative:
➢ W. Shakespeare: A murderous Machiavelli, A damned Machiavelli,
holds the candle to devil himself
➢ Strauss: Teacher of evil
➢ Sabine: saw him as being amoral
-Positive:
➢ Montesquieu: a lover of liberty because of his discourse book
➢ Rosseau: A Republican, satirist of a tyranny, a good citizen
➢ Giovanni: A champion of Democracy
➢ Viroli: Defender of Republican values
Mary Wollstonecraft
• She was born on 1759 in London.
• Her main works:
- A vindication of the rights of men (1790)
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- A vindication of the rights of women (1792)- ‘The first classic work

in feminist thought’
- A historical and moral view of the origin & progress of the French
Revolution (1794)
- The wrongs of the women (1798)
• Views on Women:
➢ She believed that fulfilment, maturity and eventual emancipation
would come only if women were treated as persons and not merely
sexual beings
➢ Women like men are endowed with reason enabling them to make
rational choices and were entitled to natural rights
➢ She accepts that over many generation women’s abilities and skills
have been stunted which could be remedied with sufficient
opportunities, freedom and education
➢ ‘All the causes of female weakness as well as depravity because of
one grand cause- want of chastity in men’
• Role of Education:
➢ She believed that right education world lead to creativity, critical
thinking, individual excellence and proper understanding
➢ She demanded educational reforms i.e. education for both boys and
girls, skill based education
• Equality:
➢ Equality meant absence of dependence of one person over another
➢ insisted on equitable distribution of property among all children in a
family would ensure justice and happiness
J.S. Mill
• He was born on 1806 in London.
• His main works:
- Principles of Political Economy (1848)
- On Liberty (1859)
- The Consideration on Representative Government (1861)
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- Utilitarianism (1863)
- The Subjection of Women (1869)
• His ideas work as a bridge between laissez faire state and welfare state,
negative liberty and positive liberty
• Critique of Utilitarianism:
➢ He replaced the quantitative approach of Bentham by a qualitative one
➢ He distinguished between lower and higher pleasure. Only quantity of
pleasure does not matter quality also matter.
➢ He insisted human beings were capable of intellectual and moral
pleasures, which were superior to the physical ones.
➢ ‘It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied, it is
better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied’
• Freedom:
➢ There are two kinds of freedom: self-regarding and other-regarding
➢ Self-regarding freedom connotes negatives liberty which means
individual can do anything which remains limited himself. State or
people should not interfere in this kind of liberty.
➢ Other-regarding liberty means when individual harms other or their
liberty. State or people can interfere in individual liberty in this case
• “If all mankind minus were of one opinion, mankind would be no more
justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be
justified in silencing mankind”
• Views on Women:
- In subjection of women he made a strong claim for equal status in three
key areas:-
1. Women’s right to vote
2. Right to equal opportunities in education
3. Right to equal opportunities in employment
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• Representative Government:
➢ Representative government is necessary for progress, as it promoted

virtue, intelligence and excellence.
- Three conditions of this govt:
1. active, self-help character of citizens
2. backward civilizations, where citizens are passive. Here this
govt will not work
3. citizen must have willingness to preserve institutions of
representative government
➢ Inspired from Tocqueville’s idea of ‘tyranny of majority’, he
recommended limited power of elected majority
➢ He prescribed for ‘plural votes’ to educated and single vote to
uneducated for balancing
➢ He also recommended open ballot system against secret. Voting was a
public trust which ‘should be performed under the eye and criticism of
the public’
• Comments on him:
➢ C.L. Wayper: A Reluctant Democrate
➢ Gray: If anyone is liberal it is surely J.S. Mill
G.W.F Hegel
• He was born on 1770 in Germany. He was the founder of modern idealism.
• His main works:
- The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807)
- The Science of Logic (1812)
- Encyclopedia of philosophical sciences (1817)
- Philosophy of Right (1821)
- Philosophy of History (1831)
• Dialectical idealism:
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- Idea is a basic substance of universe and it is driving force behind all

historical development
- Idea is endowed with capacity of development
- Idea always moves in a dialectical path
Thesis Anti-Thesis
Synthesis
New Thesis Anti-Thesis
Synthesis
… So on till the
absolute truth
discover
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For Example:
Family Civil Society

(Thesis) (Anti-Thesis)
State
Synthesis
• Idea reflects in Institution. But with changing idea institution will not
replace; they will exist simultaneously with order of superiority.
• For example:
- Individual (Particular egoism)
- Family (Particular altruism)
- Civil Society (Universal egoism)
- State (Universal altruism)
• In family all needs are not met and thus civil society come into existence but
civil society is confine to economic activity where everyone fulfill their
selfish needs. So it is only state which serves all and all will contribute.
• State:
- State as an end in itself
- State as an organism having, “ the highest right over the individual, whose
highest duty in is to be a member of the state”
- State represented universal altruism i.e. it represents all and remains
neutral, thus giving rise to the notion of citizenship. State is governed by universal
class of bureaucracy- the civil services
Quotes on State:
- State as the actuality of the ethical idea
- State as march of God on earth
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- State as divine idea as it exists on earth

• Civil Society:
- Hegel was the first to differentiate between State and Civil Society
- Civil society reflected a “a system of needs where the individual pursued
his own interests according to his abilities”
- Civil society is a professional associations and voluntary organisations.
- State is very large and impersonal, individual’s public spirit and feeling
for the community had to grow within the ambit of civil society
• Comments on Hegel:
- Popper: ‘The principle aim of Hegel was to fight against the open
society and to serves his employer’
The irrational forms of ‘state worship’ led to the ‘renaissance of
tribalism’ and thus his state is totalitarian.
- Sabine: ‘Hegel failed to make a clear belief that modern state does
not protect the right of choice’. Because Heglian state did not permit
individual judgement or choice.
- Marx: Hegel is standing on his head. I have to make him stand on
his feet.
Karl Marx
• He was born on 1818 in Germany.
• His main works:
- Marx’s Economic and Philosophic manuscript of 1844 known as Young
Marx writings.
- Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (1843)
- Theses on Feuerbach (1845)
- The Poverty of Philosophy (1847)
- The Class Struggle in France (1850)
- The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852)
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- A Contribution to the critique of Political Economy (1859)

- The Civil War in France (1871)
- Capital (Das Capital) vol 1 (1879)
• Joint work of Marx and Engels:
- The Holy Family (1845)
- The German Ideology (1845-46)
- Communist Manifesto (1848)
• Works of Engels:
- On Authority (1873)
- Anti- Duhring (1877-78)
- Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880)
- The Origin of Family, Private Property and the State (1884)
• Dialectical Materialism:
- adopted from Hegel’s basis of idea
- material instead of idea responsible for any kind of social change
- Any change in history happens because of change in matter
- For example: In case of Indian History, Buddhism and Jainism rise
because of the invention of iron tool. How?
Because iron tool made agriculture easy and brought massive wealth
for traders class (Vaishya). Despite being rich and wealthy this caste came at no.3
under caste system and due to which this caste faced discrimination from brahmin
class. The most of the followers of Buddhism and Jainism were from this caste.
Because Buddhism and Jainism stood against Brahminism and its discriminatory
practices.
- Three law of Dialectics:
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1) Quantity changes into quality. Ex: water into ice

2) Unity of Opposition. Ex: Despite class contradiction two
classes exists simultaneously
3) Negation of negation. Ex: Seed converted into plant
• Theory of History:
- To understand present Marx said it is very important to understand
history first
- In order to give law of history, Marx begins by finding out the first
historical act of man.
- According to him production rather than contemplation was the first
act of man.
- He says that ‘in order to live one has to eat first, in order to eat one
has to produce.’
- It is for the purpose of production to satisfy the appetite man has
formed society
- Society is nothing but division of labour
- Thus the foundation of society is in the act of production
- Structure of production is the basic structure of society other
structures are superstructure
• Base-Superstructure model:
Religion Media
Super-structure
Edu Inst State
Base
(All Economic Activities)
- Superstructure is never independent of state
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- The class which controls the basic structure controls the superstructure
• Components of Economic Structure:
- Mode of Production: Feudalism, capitalism, socialism etc
- Means of Production: Land, Labour, Capital
- Forces of Production: manpower, horsepower
and machine power
- Relations of Production: Only two type of relation of production
1. Owners those who have (have’s) (dominant class)
2. Non owners those who does not have means of
production (have’s not) (dominated class)
• Theory of class and class struggle: History of all hitherto existing societies
has been a history of class struggle
Primitive Communis
communism m
(No class, No pvt (Classless,
prop) Slave Stateless)
Society
(Slave) (Master) Socialism
Feudalism
(Capitalist) (Worker)
(Serf) (Lord)
Capitalism
(Worker) (Capitalist)
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• Marx analysis of capitalism:

- Capitalists dig their own graves
- Capitalism is a system of full contradictions and thus it is bound to destroy
due to these contradiction
- Capitalism is a system which runs on profit
- to retain their profits capitalists lower down the cost of production i.e. by cut
down the wages of works
- capitalism pays worker only that much amount which is sufficient for him to
live and come back to work
- capitalist do not share their profits or surplus with workers
- thus markets is full of products but people do not have purchasing power
- it resulted into economic depression i.e. more people losing jobs and joining
the rank of proletariat
- There will be social imbalance i.e. one side there will be extreme poverty
and other side extreme wealth
- two classes will be left: a small section of rich and a huge number of poor.
Middle class disappear
- - the moment worker will realize that they are being exploited i.e. when they
develop class consciousness they will start revolution
• Concept of Alienation:
- Alienation means separation
- three level of alienation:
1. Alienation from the process of production. ‘worker is just a
cog in the wheel’
2. Alienation from the product of his labour
3. Alienation from society
Antonio Gramsci
• He was born on 1891 in Italy. He is known as ‘father of Neo-Marxism’.
• He was an Italian Communist. He was contemporary of Mussolini.
Mussolini had put him behind the bars for his revolutionary activities and he
remained in prison throughout his life.
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• His main works:

- Prison notebooks (1929-1935)
- Modern Prince (1949)
• Sources of influence on Gramsci
- Karl Marx
- Lenin
- Benedetto Croce
- Machiavelli
• Purpose of Gramsci writings: Gramsci wanted to understand why Karl
Marx is unable to explain the fact that socialist revolution did not take place
in countries where capitalism was fully developed e.g. Britain and why
socialist revolution took place in Russia which was primarily feudal and
where capitalism was just emerging.
• Base-Superstructure Model:
- He modified Marx’s this model
- He categorized superstructure into 2 parts: 1. Structure civil society
and 2. Structure of State
- Civil society is nearer to base and act as a opaque structure that does
not show the true reality of state
- Gramsci under the influence of Croce has realized the significance of
cultural and ideological factors (civil society)
- - Capitalism is continuing not simply because capitalist have
economic power but because capitalists also have ideological power
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25
• What is hegemony?
- Hegemony is an ideological domination.
- It is controlling mind and thinking. We are unable to look at the world
with naked eyes (Objectively). We look at the world with glasses.
Hegemony is the glass which conditions the way we look at reality.
- It is difficult to come out of hegemony for working class.
• What working class should do?

- Until and unless working class do not establish ‘counter-hegemony’, there
are little chances of success.
• How to establish counter-hegemony?
Gramsci suggested a two level strategy:
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1. War of Position
2. War of Manoeuvre/ movement
• War of Position:
- It is more important and it takes longer time.
- It is an attempt to control civil society.
- here workers require the help of intellectual class.
- For workers Gramsci talks about the need of having ‘organic
intellectuals’
- organic intellectuals means intellectual belonging to subaltern section
- Although Marx was critical of intellectuals, he criticized Plato and
Aristotle for establishing superiority of intellectual labour over
manual labour. So intellectual class will never support those who does
manual labour
• War of Monoeuvre/ movement:
- Once war of position is won
- revolutionary classes can go for direct action to capture the state
- hegemony is not to be taken for granted
- one has to continuously involve in manufacturing consent
Hannah Arendt
• She was born on 1906 in Germany. She was a German Jew, who suffered at
hands of Hitler, She took asylum in USA
• Her main works:
- The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
- The Human Condition (1958)
- On Revolution (1963)
- Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the Banality of Evil (1963)
- On Violence (1970)
• Her philosophy of Action:
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- There are two kinds of human actions: 1. Vita Activa (Action) and
Vita Contemplativa (Contemplation/ thinking)
- Out of these, action is more important than contemplation
- She is critical of Plato who suggested that contemplation is superior
than action
- She appreciates Marx for establishing primacy of action over thinking
• Hierarchy of Actions:
- Labour
- Work
- Action
• Her views on Totalitarianism:
- Totalitarian state means a state which is extremely exploitative and
does not give freedom to its people
- Such state is maintained by the use of violence and ideology
- Modernity and capitalism give rise to totalitarianism
- search of markets resulted into imperialism as well as rise of racialism
- This resulted into emergence of ideologies like racial superiorty etc.
- Expansionist nature of capitalism is also responsible for wars among
nations
- She also holds economic crisis and destruction of stable context of
social lives during inter-war period as creating conditions giving rise
to totalitarianism
- In such situation, order and security become prime concern. People
look for strong leader, who can assure them in such situation. These
situations are manipulated by such leaders.
• Concept of Power:
- She has compared the concept of power with other related concepts
like force, strength and violence
- force: belongs to nature. But power belongs to the world of human
beings
- strength: is a characteristic of an individual. A person may be strong
or weak, but it is not power
- Violence: is represented by state whereas power by civil society
28
- power is neither a force, nor strength, or violence.

- power belongs to people acting in concert
- when people come together they experience power. Power belongs to
public sphere
- when they go back to their personal sphere they lose power. So power
has no source.
• On Revolution:
- She is critical of French revolution and appreciates American
revolution
- because French revolution established dictorial regimes and American
revolution gave primacy to political freedom and democracy
- she calls American revolution as clean revolution and French
revolution as tail of necessity
• Concept of Banality of Evil
- This concept emerged in her work ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’
- Eichmann was officer in Hitler’s army. He executed jews on Hitler’s
order.
- She wanted to explore the reason because of which persons commit
such inhuman and evil acts
- In most case banality is the major cause. Banality means blind
obedience.
- Such action took place because Eichmann did not apply reason, failed
to use critical reasoning and moral judgement
Mao Zedong
• He was born on 1893 in China.
• His main works:
- On Contradiction (1937)
- On Guerilla Warfare (1937)
- On Practice and Contradiction (1937)
- On Protracted War (1938)
- On Coalition Government (1945)
29
- On People’s Democratic rule (1949)

• Revolution:
- The chief contribution of Mao in the field of political thought is his
idea about revolution
- In On Contradiction he observes that a revolution is generally caused
by the internal contradictions that exist in a society.
- There are condradictions between bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
Which can be removed by only revolution
- Mao has also emphasized the importance of party in a revolution. The
success of revolution primarily depends upon a well-organized party
structure.
- According to Mao the peasants, the lumpen proletariat and industrial
workers must combinedly launch a revolution against the bourgeoisie
and all the reactionary forces.
• Long March:
- Communist Party of China was founded in 1921 and Mao was also a
founding member of it
- After the communist breach with the KMT (Kuomintang of China ),
Mao was responsible for changing the Party’s strategy
- In October 1934, to survive extermination campaign of KMT, the
breakthrough was achieved and almost 100 000 communists (Red
Army) set out on the remarkable Long March, which was to become
part of Chinese legend. They covered about 6000 miles in 368 days
• The Hundered Flowers Campaign (1957):
- After Industrialisation, a new class of technician and engineers
emerged in china
- The party carders believed that this new class of experts would
threaten their authority
- Mao decided that open discussion of the problems might improve
relations between cadres and experts or intellectuals.
- 'Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought
contend', said Mao calling for constructive criticism
- After reciveing strong criticism to party and its program
30
- Mao hurriedly called off the campaign and clamped down on his critics,
insisting that his policies were right.
• The Great Leap Forward (1958):
- - The Great Leap Forward involved further important developments in both
industry and agriculture, in order to increase output
- In case of Agriculture collective farming was introduced where 75000
people were divdied into brigades
- - They ran their own collective farms and factories, carried out most of the
functions of local government within the commune and undertook special
local projects.
- - In case of industry, instead of heavy industry on lines of USSR and West,
Mao introduced small factories to provide machinery to agriculture
- - statistics which emerged later suggested that some 20 million people may
have died prematurely as a result of hardships, especially the disastrous
famine of 1959-60, caused by the Great Leap.
- Even Mao’s prestige suffered and he was forced to resign as Chairman of
the People's Congress
• Cultural Revolution (1966-69):
- Critics of Mao believed that privatization and industrialization on lines of
Russia could help China to grow
- But to the Maoists, these ideas were totally unacceptable
- to stop such criticism and to save revolution, Mao launched ‘Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution’
- His supporters, the Red Guards (mostly students), toured the country arguing
Mao's case, and carrying their Little Red Books containing the thoughts of
Chairman Mao.
- In some areas schools, and later factories, were closed down, as young
people were urged to move into the countryside and work on farms
- By 1967, the extremists among the Red Guards were almost out of control.
Not only critics but they attacked everyone i.e. teachers, professionals, local
party officials etc.
- Mao, privately admitted this mistake and in 1969 Cultural Revaluation was
formally ended.
31
Frantz Fanon
• He was born on 1925 on the island Martinique under French colonial rule.
• He served in French Army during second World War. After war he stayed in
France to study psychiatry. Later he became psychiatric in Algerian
Hospital.
• In 1954, Algerian war of Independence against France erupted due to
uprising by the National Liberation Front (FLN).
• Working in a hospital Fanon treated French soldiers who carried out torture
to suppress anti-colonial resistance.
• Later on he decided to stop working for French government and he
supported FLN and anti-colonial movement
• His main works:
- Black Skin, White Masks (1952)
- A Dying Colonialism (1959)
- The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
- Towards the African Revolution ( 1964)
• Problem of Blackness:
- The idea of blackness was analyzed by him in his first book ‘Black
Skin, White Masks’
- In this book he described the experience of Black men and women in
white-controlled societies
- He explores how these people are encouraged by a racist society to
want to become white, but then experience serious psychological
problems because they are not able to do so
- How they tried to become white: By speaking the language of white
people, by imitating their culture or by adopting their values
• Why they want to become white:
32
- Because whites make them realize that they are inferior and whites are
superior
- Fanon says when Black people internalize this racism or oppression as
a personal failure, this is when an inferiority complex arises
- It is also constantly reinforced in everyday life in racist societies,
because Black people are constantly reminded they are Black first and
people second.
- That’s why they always try to become white
• Colonialism:
- He analyses colonialism in his famous work ‘The Wretched of the
Earth’
- Fanon introduces the colonial world as one that is divided into the
colonist and the colonized
- These identities are created by the colonist in order to assert his own
superiority.
- The colonist maintains this hierarchy through violence by police and
soldiers
- because the colonial world is a violent world, people living in it may
have post-traumatic disorders
- Not only colonized are effected from violence but colonists also
developed mental disorders after using violence
- In one case, a 37-year-old witnessed a massacre of his village and, as
a reaction, developed homicidal impulses of his own.
- In other case, a European police officer develops uncontrolled violent
urges, even torturing his wife and children.
• Decolonization:
- Because colonoialism is established and maintained by violence, Fanon
says that it is only through violence colonialism can be ended
- Decolonization is a violent process not only of overthrowing a colonial
government, but of freeing the colonized from the mindset imposed upon
them.
- During this stage of decolonization, as Fanon discusses in Chapter 2, the
colonized may form a number of political organizations.
• Double Consciousness:
33
- It was coined by W. E. B. Du Bois in his work The Souls of Black

Folk.
- The term originally referred to the psychological challenge of "always
looking at one's self through the eyes" of a racist white society
- Fanon says Black people tends to follow white culture in hope of gaining
superiority but they ended up at being neither white nor black
- He then proceeds to talk about why the African American adopts cultures
that are so strange to him.
- He talks about how when an African American leaves for Europe, they
come back speaking a language different from their own.
- He also talks about how African, mostly the wealthiest, tend to have
insecurities of not being European enough because they are African. This
manifests in buying European furniture and buying European clothes.
John Rawls
• John Rawls was born in 1921 in US
• His main works:
- A Theory of Justice (1971)
- Justice as fairness (1985)
- Political Liberalism (1993)
- The laws of people (1993)
- Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (2001)
• Theory of Justice:
- He has pointed out that a good society is characterized by a number of
virtues.
- Justice is the first virtue of a good society.
- In other words, justice is a necessary but not a sufficient condition of a
good society
- Those who argue that justice should not be allowed to come in the
way of social advancement and progress, run the risk of causing the
moral degradation of society.
• Problem of Distribution:
34
- According to Rawls, the problem of justice consists in ensuring a just

distribution of 'primary goods’
- Primary goods include rights and liberties, powers and opportunities,
income and wealth, means of self-respect and so on.
• Procedural Justice:
- Rawls has described his theory as the theory of pure procedural
justice.
- It means that once certain principles of justice are unanimously
accepted, the distribution resulting from their application will be
necessarily just.
• Original Position:
- Rawls has evolved a unique methodology for arriving at a unanimous
procedure of justice.
- Following the tradition of the 'social contract' Rawls has envisaged an
'original position' by abstracting the individuals from their particular
social and economic circumstances.
- According to Rawls, in such a state of uncertainty the rational
negotiators will choose the least dangerous path.
- Hence, everyone who would in original position will demand greatest
benefit for the least advantaged
35
Veil of
Ignorance
• Knowledge of
economics
• Sex • Human psychology
• Race • Sense of justice
• Physical capability • Each wants to
• Social class maximise his
• Family background interest
• Other factors that
determine a person’s
position in the society
Original
Position
36
- Principles of Distribution
- As a result of the hypothetical negotiation under such conditions, three
principles of justice will be accepted by all
1. Principle of equal liberty (i.e. equal right to most extensive liberty
compatible with similar liberty of others) which postulates that nobody's liberty
will be sacrificed for the sake of any other benefit
2. Principle affair equality of opportunity, particularly for acquiring offices
and positions
3. Difference principle which implies that any departure from equal
distribution of the primary goods can be justified only when it could be proved
to bring greatest benefit to the least advantaged
37

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• Real name ‘Kong Fuzi’ meaning ‘Master Kong’

• Five Constant Virtues-

• Three ways to wisdom: by three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by

Metal Virtue Class Soul Idea

Gold Wisdom Rulers Rational Good

Silver Courage Soldiers Spirited Honour

Copper Temperance Artisans Appetitive Money

• His idea of ‘community of wives and property’ aims to abolished private

Toynbee: Plato was cynical, reactionary, inhumane and highly

Number of Ruler Ideal (public interest) Perverted (selfish

One Monarchy Tyranny

Few Aristocracy Oligarchy

Many Polity Democracy

• His ideas on slavery:

- Curtis: He ‘bequeathed a great legacy to political thought but not to any

- Two tracts on Government (1660-1662)

-Discourses on the origin of inequality (1755)

Actual Will General Will

Motivated by self-interest By collective interest

Lower-self Reflected higher-self

Gratification of desires Acts of reason

- Man is born free and everywhere is in chains

The issue Hobbes Locke Rosseau

Human Selfish and cruel Rational being Simple and innocent

Purpose of Creation of all To form govt to protect all To evade scarcity

Terms of Every man will They surrender to the All individuals

Nature of Absolute Limited sovereignty Popular sovereignty

Right to No Yes Not required

➢ In private sphere, individual or ruler should have virtues like truthful,

- A vindication of the rights of women (1792)- ‘The first classic work

➢ Representative government is necessary for progress, as it promoted

- Idea is a basic substance of universe and it is driving force behind all

Family Civil Society

- State as divine idea as it exists on earth

- A Contribution to the critique of Political Economy (1859)

1) Quantity changes into quality. Ex: water into ice

(Slave) (Master) Socialism

• Marx analysis of capitalism:

• His main works:

• What working class should do?

- power is neither a force, nor strength, or violence.

- On People’s Democratic rule (1949)

• Why they want to become white:

- It was coined by W. E. B. Du Bois in his work The Souls of Black

- According to Rawls, the problem of justice consists in ensuring a just

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