Polıtıcal Thought

Yanıt Açıklaması: In the Bible, briefly, the believers are advised to obey their rulers until the rulers’ commands conflict with those of God. This obedience is not limited to only kings that never sin, but to those who often sin. David, himself, also often sinned, as quoted in the Bible. Thus, the correct answer is B.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Natural law (ius naturale) is a system of right or justice held to be common to all human beings and derived from nature, rather than from the rules of society, i.e., positive law

Yanıt Açıklaması: Related with the social side of religion, Avicenna added a fourth tract to practical philosophy (in addition to ethics, household management, and politics), which he called “the discipline of legislating”.

Yanıt Açıklaması: On natural law and other kinds of law Aquinas again follows the tradition of civil and canon law going back to the Roman Stoics , instead of Aristotle. He distinguishes divine law (eternal and positive) from human law, and among human laws he distinguishes natural law from the law of nations and civil law. Law is concerned with direction to the common good, which belongs to the whole people.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Despite the dominance of empiricism in political science, there occurred significant contributions to the study of political ideas and history of political thought in the post-war era. Contextual approach was one of these contributions. In broad terms, the contextual approach stresses the need to historicize the works of political theory in order to understand the particular historical moment and its impact upon the political thinking. The contextual approach is one of the important responds against to the perspectives that ignore the contextual dynamics leading to the emergence of particular ideologies and political aspects.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Religion is suited to direct the members of society towards human perfection and thus to contribute simultaneously to the attainment of individual happiness and the well-being of the city: “… the first ruler of the excellent city must already have thorough cognizance of theoretical philosophy; for he cannot understand anything pertaining to God’s, may He be exalted, governance of the world so as to follow it except from that source. It is clear, in addition, that all of this is impossible unless there is a common religion in the cities that brings together their opinions, beliefs, and actions; that renders their divisions harmonious, linked together, and well ordered; and at that point they will support one another in their actions and assist one another to reach the purpose that is sought after, namely, ultimate happiness…” (Book of Religion 27: 113).

Yanıt Açıklaması: An issue that signifies John of Salisbury’s thought as worthy of attention is the analogy he sets between the different offices of political society and the distinct parts of the human body. Like all bodies, the commonwealth is guided by a soul, which John assigns to those who direct the practice of religion. Because the political creature is essentially a secular entity, the body politic is ruled by the prince, who “occupies the place of the head”

Yanıt Açıklaması: Those who elect the caliph must possess all of the qualities given in I to III.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Although all the options above are attributed to Aristotle, one of them totally contradicts with what he actually believed. Aristotle stated that “the rule of law is better than the rule of men”. Thus, the correct answer is E.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The originality of Polybius’ theory depended on his conception about the power relations of politics behind the scene. His claim for a mixed constitution, foresaw a check and balance system for the conflicting powers. According to him, the success of Roman constitution was to ensure this check and balance system. Polybius built his constitutional understanding on not the social classes but? political forces? and institutional? balance. It can be?said that he pointed? out the way for the ?modern constitutional? separation of powers? system.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The foundations of politics had largely been seen as ethical, especially under the code of Islamic Law (shari‘ah), since the Ancient Greek legacy were being transferred to the Islamic intellectual background. However, the uprise of theology in the 11th century, and major attacks on the philosophical legacy of Al-Fa^ra^bi^ and Avicenna as “Philosophers” and accusations of heresy by the Ash‘arite theologians-especially by Abu Hamid Muhammad Al-Ghaza^li^, had the strongest reaction from Ibn Rushd (Averroe¨s) of Cordoba, Andalus in the 12th century.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Another issue that signifies John of Salisbury’s thought as worthy of attention is the analogy he sets between different offices of political society and the distinct parts of human body. Thus, the correct answer is C.

Yanıt Açıklaması: None is true except (B) -- the term “the rule of law” implies that institutions of the government will abide by the legal boundaries.

Yanıt Açıklaması: In the middle ages, this strong relation between jurisprudence and politics was much emphasized by Al-Mawardi, who could be claimed to be the first Islamic poitical scientist. Thus, the correct answer is E.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Not only the object and the content, but also methods of investigation changed with Sophists. Previously, methodological understanding of philosophers of nature was based on the method of deduction.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Jean-François Lyotard is a French philosopher and sociologist. He also worked on the literary theory. He is accepted as one of the major proponents of the postmodern turn

Yanıt Açıklaması: The contextual approach emphasizes the necessity of placing political thoughts emerged in a particular time and milieu in their own social and historical context in order to be capable of properly understanding authentic conceptions of philosophers.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Epicurus developed his philosophy based on four different sources: Platonic lecturers of Athens, atomist doctrine of Democritus, septic views of Pyrrhus, and hedonist philosophy of Aristippus. Even though he was affected by all these philosophers, he was a strong critic of them. Unfortunately, he taught his ideas like dogmas and his school gained almost a semi-religious character. Thus, while the further contributions were restrained by this feature, the Epicurean philosophy became easy to be studied. Investigating only Epicurus’ personal philosophy is adequate for understanding the general conception of Epicurean school indeed.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Lying to an enemy is by no means justifiable, because lying would severely harm the trust required to restore peace after war

Yanıt Açıklaması: Ibn Khaldûn, in the beginning of the fourth chapter of The Muqaddimah, uses dynasty, ‘mulk’ and ‘state’ as standing for one another. The correct answer is C. The state/mulk, according to Ibn Khaldûn, is a necessary being for providing the comfort for human societies, who by nature tend towards welfare and comfort. The ground for this, in other words, what enables mulk to do what it is supposed to do, is found in ‘umrân. The fundamental aspect which makes room for the existence of the organization of state-or mulk, according to Ibn Khaldûn- is asabiyyah. The following signify the determining role of asabiyyah on ‘umrân: States-especially the great ones- depend upon ruling through lineage and/or alliance The great state is the one in which rulers succeed one another in a long period of time; this is the fundamental rule in sovereignty and applies until the decay The rightful ownership is taken from the hands of those who lost it through the asabiyyah possessed