Synopsis IAS
  • Profile
    • New Student
      New to Synopsis IAS?Create an account to register.
      Register

    • Already Registered
      Login to buy courses.
      Log In

  • Home
  • Courses
  • Blog
  • PYQs (GS & Optional)
  • Western Political Thought: Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, John S. Mill, Marx, Gramsci, Hannah Arendt

    • Trace the evolution of Western Political Thought from ancient to contemporary period.
    • Thinkers of Western Political Thought
    • Plato
      • Critically examine Plato's theory of Forms.
      • Explain Aristotle’s critique of Plato’s Idealism.
      • “Plato was an enemy of the open society.” (Popper) Comment.
      • Comment: “Western thought, one might say, has been either platonic or anti-platonic but hardly ever non-platonic.” (Popper)
      • Comment: “Plato’s communism is a supplementary machinery to give effect to and reinforce that spirit which education is to create.” (Nettleship)
      • Comment: “The State is Individual Writ Large.” (Plato)
      • Comment: “The State is Individual Writ Large.” (Plato)
      • Plato’s theory of education ‘is the logical result of his conception of justice’. Discuss.
      • Explain Plato’s communism and compare it with modern communism.
      • Comment: “Until philosophers are kings, or kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, cities will never have rest from evil.” (Plato)
      • Comment: “For, no law or ordinance is mightier than knowledge.” (Plato)
      • Comment: ‘Reality is a shadow of ideas’. (Plato)
    • Aristotle
      • Explain the Aristotelian view of politics. To what extent do you think it has contributed to the development of modern-day constitutional democracies?
      • “Everywhere, inequality is a cause of revolution.” — Aristotle. Comment.
      • Comment in 150 words: Aristotle’s Conception of Equality
      • Central to Aristotle’s political thought is his classification of the different types of political constitutions in the Politics. Evaluate.
      • Comment: “The state is a creation of nature and man is by nature a political animal.”
      • Comment: “The polis exists by nature and that it is prior to the individual.” (Aristotle)
      • Comment: “Polity or constitutional government may be described generally as a fusion of oligarchy and democracy.” (Aristotle)
      • Comment: “Polity is the best practicable form of government.” (Aristotle)
      • Comment: “Slavery is natural and beneficial both for the master and the slave.” (Aristotle)
      • Comment: “Rule of law is better than rule of men.” (Aristotle)
      • Comment: “The authority of the master and that of the statesman are different from one another.” (Aristotle)
      • Comment: “The aims pursued by revolutionaries, like the origins of revolution, are the same in tyrannies and kingships as they are under regular Constitutions.” (Aristotle)
    • Machiavelli
      • Machiavelli's secularism.
      • Critically examine Machiavelli’s views on religion and politics.
      • Explain how Machiavelli’s application of empirical method to human affairs marks an important stage in the evolution of political science.
      • Draw parallels between Arthashastra tradition and the ‘Realist’ tradition represented by Machiavelli.
      • Discuss the importance of Machiavelli in the history of political thought. Is it correct to say that Machiavelli’s theory is ‘narrowly local and narrowly dated’?
      • Comment: “Machiavelli’s political philosophy was narrowly local and narrowly dated.” (Sabine)
      • Comment: Power is an end in itself and he (Machiavelli) inquires into the means that are best suited to acquire, retain and expand power, thus separates power from morality, ethics, religion and metaphysics. (Ebenstein on Machiavelli)
      • Comment: “The prince must be fox and the lion at the same time.” (Machiavelli)
    • Hobbes
      • Comment on Hobbesian notion of Political Obligation
      • Comment: “How would and my fellow human beings behave if we were to find ourselves in a state of nature, and what does this behavior tells us about our innate pre-dispositions?” (Thomas Hobbes)
      • State of Nature as State of War (Hobbes)
      • “Covenants without swords are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all.” (Hobbes)
      • Comment: Hobbes as an individualist.
      • Comment: “Hobbes starts as an individualist but ends as an absolutist”.
      • Individualism is inherent in Hobbes’ absolutist ideology. Comment.
      • Consider: “Liberty or freedom, signifies properly the absence of opposition in external impediments of motion.” (Hobbes)
      • Comment: “Hobbes relieved sovereignty completely from the disabilities which Bodin had inconsistently left standing.” (Sabine)
      • Examine the place of ‘obligation’ in political theory.
    • Marx
      • Marx's concept of 'alienation' is an essential part of the reality in capitalism. Explain.
      • Discuss Karl Marx's concept of class.
      • Explain Marx’s understanding of Human Essence and Alienation.
      • What is meant by ‘relative autonomy’ of State in Marxist analysis?
      • Evaluate Marx’s instrumentalist approach to the State.
      • Examine in detail Marx’s prescription for ending alienation and reaching the stage of de-alienation.
      • Comment: “Marx’s work could be seen as a compound of three elements—Green philosophy, English political economy and French socialism.” (Lenin)
      • Comment: “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being determines their consciousness.” (Marx)
      • ‘Marx treats individual primarily as a member of a class.’ Critically examine his views on the ‘economic man.’
    • Hegel
      • Explain Hegel’s theory of dialectical idealism.
      • Comment: “State is a march of God on the Earth.” (Hegel)
      • Comment: “Contradiction is the very moving principle of the world.” (Hegel)
      • Comment: “............................. all human history is a process whereby ideas objectify themselves in material reality.” (Hegel)
    • Lenin
      • Comment: “Leninism is Marxism in the epoch of imperialism and proletarian revolution”. (Stalin)
      • Comment: Lenin’s theory of ‘Democratic Centralism’.
    • J.S. Mill
      • John Stuart Mill is a “reluctant democrat”. - C.L. Wayper
      • “All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility”. (J. S. Mill)
      • Critically examine: “In the first place, it is mostly considered unjust to deprive anyone of his personal liberty, his property or any other thing which belongs to him by law .......................” (John Stuart Mill)
    • Locke
      • Comment on the assertion of Laslett that Filmer and not Hobbes was the main antagonist of Locke.
      • ‘Locke is an individualist out and out.’ Substantiate this statement.
    • Miscellaneous thinkers
      • Comment: “Sin, therefore is the mother of servitude, and first cause of men’s subjection to men.” (St. Augustine)
      • Comment: ‘The relation.....of the state and its parts to tranquility will be seen to be similar to the relation of the animal and its parts to health.’ (Marsilius of Padua)
  1. PYQs and Practice Questions
  2. UPSC Optionals
  3. PSIR Optional
  4. Western Political Thought: Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, John S. Mill, Marx, Gramsci, Hannah Arendt
  5. J.S. Mill

John Stuart Mill is a “reluctant democrat”. - C.L. Wayper (UPSC 2018, 10 Marks, )

जॉन स्टुअर्ट मिल एक "अनिच्छुक लोकतंत्रवादी" है। - सी.एल. वेपर
View Answer

Introduction
Read More

“All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility”. (J. S. Mill) (UPSC 2014, 10 Marks, )

"चर्चा की सभी चुप्पी अचूकता की धारणा है"। (जे.एस. मिल)
View Answer

Introduction
Read More

Critically examine: “In the first place, it is mostly considered unjust to deprive anyone of his personal liberty, his property or any other thing which belongs to him by law .......................” (John Stuart Mill) (UPSC 1999, 30 Marks, )

समालोचनात्मक परीक्षण करें: "सबसे पहले, किसी को भी उसकी व्यक्तिगत स्वतंत्रता, उसकी संपत्ति या किसी अन्य चीज से वंचित करना, जो कानून द्वारा उसके पास है, से वंचित करना ज्यादातर अन्यायपूर्ण माना जाता है ......................." (जॉन स्टुअर्ट मिल)
Enroll Now

Introduction
Enroll Now
Login

Login With Username/password

---------------------- OR ----------------------

Login With OTP

Forget Password

Register

Login (If You are already registered)
Submit

Forget Password

Login/Register

Welcome

Coutinue to Purchase Courses
View Courses
My Courses
View My Purchased Courses
Refer and Earn
© Copyright Synopsis IAS. All Rights Reserved