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Liberalism Ancient and ModernLeo Strauss
(1968)
1 of 15 10-2011Cristina Varela, Ciencia Política (2009-1)
Contents1. Concepts
2. Power of education
3. Ideal of democracy and democracy as it is
4. Perspectives of liberalism: classic and modern doctrine
5. Preface to Spinoza's critique of religion: Teologico-Political predicament
6. Critical view
7. Index
2Cristina Varela
1.What is liberal education2.Liberal education and responsibility 3.The liberalism of classical political philosophy4.On the Minos5.Notes on Lucretius6. How to begin to study the guide of the perplexed 7.Marsilius of Padua 8.An Epilogue9.Preface to Spinoza's critique of religion 10. Perspectives on the good society
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Liberal democracy
Liberalism
ConservatismCommunism
G.Almond
Progressivism
Concepts
Cristina Varela
Classical and Modern Political
Philosophy
Liberal Education
4Cristina Varela
Liberal education is education
towards culture.
Will consist in studying with
the proper care the great books which the greatest minds have left behind. A
study which the more
experienced pupils assist the
less experienced pupils,
including the beginners.
Liberal education is
liberation from vulgarity
'apeirokalia' for the greeks
Lack of experience in
things beautiful
It cannot be simply indoctrination
Liberal education is education in a variety of cultures.
Culture is any pattern of conduct common to any human group.
Liberal education is literate education: education in letters or through letters.
5Cristina Varela
6
Modern Democracy:
Ideal of democracy & democracy as it is
Far from being universal aristocracy, would be mass rule were it not for the fact that the
mass cannot rule, but is ruled by elites. Democracy is then not indeed mass rule, but
mass culture.
Mass Culture is a culture which can be appropriated by the meanest capacities without an intellectual an moral effort, at a very low
monetary price.
Elites: groupings of men who for what ever reason are on
top.
Cristina Varela
La educación liberal es la escalera por la cual ascendemos de la democracia de masa a la democracia como fué originalmente concebida.La educación liberal es el esfuerzo necesario para fundar una aristocracia dentro de la sociedad democrática de masas.
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"Liberal education is the ladder by which we try to a s c e n d f r o m m a s s democracy to democracy a s o r i g i n a l l y m e a n t . Liberal education is the necessary endeavor to found an aristocracy within democratic mass society."
Cristina Varela
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Education in the highest sense is philosophy. Plato
Monologues into a Dialogue
Noesis
Noeseos
understanding of understanding Metatheory
Liberal Education demands the complete break with the Noise, Rush, cheapness, thought lessness of the V a n i t y F a i r o f t h e intellectuals as well as of their enemies.
"Philosophy is quest for wisdom or quest for knowledge regarding
the most important, the highest or the most
comprehensive things; is virtue and is
happiness". However, "Wisdom is
inaccessible to man, and hence virtue and
happiness will be always imperfect."
"By becoming aware of the dignity of the mind, we
realize the true ground of the dignity of man and there with
the goodness of society." Strauss
Philosophy vs Politics
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The word 'Liberal' always have had a political meaning, is almost opposite to it's present political meaning.
Gentleman's vs
Philosopher's
Justice of a society
ruled by gentlemen
ruling their own right?
Just government is government who rules in the interest of the whole society, and not merely of a part.
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Classic Doctrine
Modern Doctrine
" Veo hombres piadosos que querrían sofocar la libertad, como si la
libertad, ese gran privilegio del hombre, no fuese una cosa casi santa.
Más allá veo otros que piensan llegar a ser libres atacando todas las
creencias; pero no veo a nadie que parezca percibir el vínculo estrecho
y necesario que une la república, la religión y la libertad."
Alexis de Toqueville
Starts from the natural equality of all men. Sovereignty belongs to the people. Sovereignty as to guarantee the natural rights of each. It achieves this result by distinguishing between the sovereign and the government and by demanding that the fundamental governmental powers be separated from one another.
Cristina Varela
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Sartre
Descartes
Havelock
Hamilton
Mill
Burke
The liberal temper in Greek Politics
"Siempre habrá una diferencia no
pequeña entre sujetar a una muchedumbre y gobernar
a una sociedad."
POSITIVISM
EXISTENTIALISM
"En toda comunidad tiene que
haber una obediencia, bajo el
mecanismo de la constitución
estatal según leyes de
coacción, pero al mismo tiempo
un espíritu de libertad, puesto
que cada uno aspira a ser
convencido por la razón de que
esa coacción es conforme al
derecho, a fin de no caer en
contradicción consigo misma."
Harm Principle
Natural Law: the great principles of reason and equity.
"The men who will hold power will be the men of the learned professions."
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Aristotelian Political Science &
New Political Science
1. For Aristotle, political science is identical to political philosophy. New political philosophy argues the distinction between philosophy and science.
2. No natural awareness is genuine knowledge. New political science is no longer based in political experience, only scientific knowledge is genuine knowledge.
3. According to the Aristotelian political science, views political things in the perspective of the citizen, it follows that language. The new political science cannot speak without having an elaborated technical vocabulary.
4. Aristotelian political science evaluates political things. The new political science conceives of the principle of action as 'values' which are merely 'subjective'.
5. Aristotelian man is the rational and political animal: zoonpolitikon/ connection between morality and law. The whole consist of essentially different parts. The new political science in the other hand is based on the fundamental premise that there are no essential differences: there are only difference of degree. According to the universal science of which the new political science is part, to understand a thing means to understand it in terms of its genesis or it's conditions. New political science cannot admit that the common good is something that it is.
Theologico-Political Predicament
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"Theologico-political predicament" refers to the ultimate results of the early modern attempt to
separate theology from politics.
Spinoza: natural difference between nature and morality.
Everything that is, is natural. For Spinoza there are no natural ends, there is no natural
end to man. A man end is not natural, but rational.
Theologico-Political Treatise
Spinoza cannot legitimately deny the possibility of revelation. Philosophy, the quest for ev ident and necessary knowledge, rest itself on an unevident decision, on an act of will, just as faith. Hence the antagonism between Spinoza and Judaism, between unbelief and belief, is ultimately not theoretical, but moral.
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Epicureanism
Modern Unbelief
Is hedonism, the classic form of the critique of religion. Is so radically m e r c e n a r y t h a t i t conceives of theoretical doctrines as the means for liberating the mind f rom the ter rors ofreligion. Epicureanismfights the re l ig ious'delusion' because of itsterrible character.
Modern unbelief is no longer Epicurean. Fights because it is a delusion: regardless of wether religion is terrible or comforting, qua delusion it makes men oblivious to the real goods, of the enjoyment of the real goods, and thus seduces them into being cheated of the real.
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"The success of liberal politics and liberal economics frequently rests on irrational forms of recognition that liberalism was supposed to overcome. For democracy to work, citizens need to develop an irrational pride in their own democratic institutions, and must also develop what Tocqueville called the “art of associating,” which rests on prideful attachment to small communities. These communities are frequently based on religion, ethnicity, or other forms of recognition that fall short of the universal recognition on which the liberal state is based. The same is true for liberal economics. Labor has traditionally been understood in the Western liberal economic tradition as an essentially unpleasant activity undertaken for the sake of the satisfaction of human desires and the relief of human pain." The end of history, Francis Fukuyama.
Critical View
16
Map reflecting the findings of Freedom House's 2010 survey, concerning the state of world freedom in 2009, which correlates highly with other measures of democracy . Some of these estimates are disputed.
Free (89)
Partly Free (58)
Not Free (47)
State of World Freedom in 2009
Index of Names
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Índice OnomásticoAristotle
Bacon, Francis
Burke, Edmund
Cohen, Hermann
Comte, Auguste
Democritus
Descartes, René
Epicurus
Goethe
Hamilton, Alexander
Havelock, Eric A.
Hegel, Georg
Heidegger, Martin
Herzl, Theodor
Hobbes, Thomas
Kant, Emmanuel
Kojève, Alexandre
Locke, John
Lucretius
Machiavelli
Maimonides
Marx, Karl
Mill, J. St.
Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, Baron
Nietzsche, Friedrich
Plato
Protagoras
Rosenzweig, Franz
Rousseau, Jean Jaques
Spinoza
Thomas Aquinas
Thucydides
Bibliografía recomendada
Recommended Bibliography
Ackerman, Bruce: La justicia social en el Estado liberalAristóteles: La política., Ética a NicómacoBentham, Jeremy: Anarchical FallaciesBuchanan, James: Social choice, Democracy and free markets.Constant,Benjamin: De la liberatad de los antiguos comparada con la de los modernos.Gardner, Ron: The strategic inconsistenciy of Paretian Liberalism.Habermas, Jürgen: The structural transformation of the public sphere., Conciencia moral y acción comunicativa.Hume, David: Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Treatise of Human Nature. Herlz, Theodor: The Jew's State.Kant, Emmanuel: Teoría y Praxis., Fundamentación para una teoría de las costumbres.Locke, John: Some Thoughts Concerning Education., Federalist Papers Mill, John Stuart: Sobre la libertad.Nietzsche, Friedrich: Also Sprach Zarathustra.Nozick, Robert: Anarquía, Estado y Utopía.Platón: La República.Polanyi, Michael: Life's irreductible structure.Rawls, John: La justicia como equidad., Teoría de la justicia, El liberalismo político. Rousseau, Jean Jacques: El Contrato Social.Spinoza, Baruch de: Tratado Teológico Político., La ÉticaStrauss, Leo: On tyranny: Tyranny and wisdom, Alexander Kojéve., leostrausscenter.uchicago.eduToqueville, Alexis de: La Democracia en América.Wollstonecraft, Mary: A vindication of men rights.