Passions' Republic The Christian Cure for What Ails Modern Politics - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Passions' Republic The Christian Cure for What Ails Modern Politics - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Passions' Republic The Christian Cure for What Ails Modern Politics by David Bradshaw See: http://touchstonemag.com PHI 335: The Individual & Society Plato, Republic Federalist Papers Tocqueville, Democracy in Aristotle, Politics America


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SLIDE 1

Passions' Republic

The Christian Cure for What Ails Modern Politics by David Bradshaw

See: http://touchstonemag.com

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SLIDE 2

PHI 335: The Individual & Society

Plato, Republic Aristotle, Politics Hobbes, Leviathan Locke, Second Treatise of Government Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality & Social Contract

Federalist Papers Tocqueville, Democracy in America Marx, Communist Manifesto Mill, On Liberty

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SLIDE 3

John Locke (1632-1704)

  • All are free & equal in the state of

nature

  • Natural law derives from God
  • Property: take only what you can use

& leave enough for others

  • Invention of money no limits to

wealth

  • Social contract formed to protect life,

liberty, & property

  • Slavery justified as punishment for

breaking natural law

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SLIDE 4

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

  • We are fundamentally good until corrupted by

society

  • No natural law except instinct (self-

preservation & avoidance of suffering)

  • Development of property led to our decline

from the state of nature

  • Government a conspiracy of the rich to
  • ppress the poor
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SLIDE 5

Competing Imaginative Visions

Rousseau

  • I am innately good
  • Any evil within me is society’s fault
  • The hardships I suffer are due to oppression
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SLIDE 6

Competing Imaginative Visions

Rousseau

  • I am innately good
  • Any evil within me is society’s fault
  • The hardships I suffer are due to oppression

Locke

  • I am free, independent, & equal to all others
  • I have no obligations except those that I freely choose
  • My acquisitive impulses are natural & good
  • Wealth brings no special moral obligations
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SLIDE 7

Rationalizing the Passions

Rousseau

  • Envy
  • Resentment
  • Pride: nothing wrong with my life is my own

fault Locke

  • Greed
  • Desire for domination
  • Pride: no one can tell me what to do
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SLIDE 8

Rationalizing the Passions

Rousseau

  • Envy
  • Resentment
  • Pride: nothing wrong with my life is my own fault

Locke

  • Greed
  • Desire for domination
  • Pride: no one can tell me what to do

Result: mutual suspicion & accusations of hypocrisy

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SLIDE 9

The Classical View of the Passions

  • Reason is not just the faculty of inference

(à la Mr. Spock)

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SLIDE 10

The Classical View of the Passions

  • Reason is not just the faculty of inference

(à la Mr. Spock)

  • Rather, it is the faculty of apprehending

truth, including moral truth

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SLIDE 11

The Classical View of the Passions

  • Reason is not just the faculty of inference

(à la Mr. Spock)

  • Rather, it is the faculty of apprehending

truth, including moral truth

  • The goal of ethical life is to train passion

and appetite to follow reason

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SLIDE 12

The Classical View of the Passions

  • Reason is not just the faculty of inference

(à la Mr. Spock)

  • Rather, it is the faculty of apprehending

truth, including moral truth

  • The goal of the moral life is to train passion

and appetite to follow reason

  • This requires education & discipline from a

young age, beginning with music, poetry, & athletics

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SLIDE 13

The Christian Adaptation of the Classical View

  • Liturgical worship
  • Regular fasting tied to the liturgical

calendar

  • Confession
  • Hospitality to strangers
  • Almsgiving & care for the poor
  • Patient endurance of suffering
  • Obedience to an elder
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SLIDE 14

The Churches Hold the Key

  • Only in community with others is it

possible to effectively combat the passions

  • The churches set the moral tone for

all of society, even those who do not believe

  • Only when the churches recover the

disciplines they have lost can our society recover its sanity.