Polıtıcal Thought

Yanıt Açıklaması: Philosophy of society/politics (falsafa medeniyyah) as a legacy of Al-Fa^ra^bi^’s thought, in line with Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, comprises an intrinsically anthropological and ethical element; and thus, falsafa madaniyya is the part of philosophy dedicated to an inquiry into the kamal al-insan, the perfection of man, as an individual.

Yanıt Açıklaması: All are true of Cicero except D.  He argued that egoism was against nature, therefore he was against the Epicurean views, which suggested giving up with social issues and searching for individual happiness.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Thomas Aquinas claims that the best form of government is a mixed government combining elements of democracy, aristocracy, and kingship. Thus, the correct answer is A.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Free population of Athens had four strata: Eupatrides, geomores, demiurgus, and thetes-the nobles, small farmers, craftsmen, and poor peasants, respectively. Both inter-class and intra-class struggles between these groups had led to different types of administrations such as Aristocracy, oligarchy, plutocracy, and democracy. Contrary to the Sparta, political debates and competition were very vivid in Athens and participants were also large in numbers. The reason behind the prosperous philosophical and political tradition of the ancient Greece is demonstrated in association with this background that someway illustrates a form of what we call today as democracy.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Six different types of modes of governing can be pointed out in Ancient Greece political thought: 1. The government of a single person who aims the common good: Monarchy 2. The government of a minority group who aims the common good: Aristocracy 3. The government of the majority of the people which aims the common good: Politeia 4. The government of a single person whotargets the interests of single person:Tyranny 5. The government of a minority group whoaims the interests of the rich: Oligarchy 6. The government of the majority of the people aiming the interests of the poor: Democracy

Yanıt Açıklaması: According to The Muqaddimah, the power of muk is materialized only through the execution of law, development cannot be achieved without justice, wealth cannot be acquired without development, the major criterion Allah will evaluate humans is justice, and people cannot survive without acquiring wealth. So, the correct answer is A.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Al-Farabi argues that ultimate happiness is a state associated with afterlife but this ultimate happiness is attained by active intellect – thinking and reasoning.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The political writings of Al-Ma^wardi may be seen as the sum of two distinct styles: 1. The format focusing on the individual ruler as a social figure, as well as his ideal characteristics and lessons learned from the preceding generations, the “Mirrors for Princes” format, which has an important role in the advising tradition in Islam (nasi^hatna^mah); 2. The format in which the theory of the caliphate (ima^mah) is put forward, which is more complicated in structure and focused on issues of government. Within the context of the first style, it is convenient to count The Advice to Kings (Nasi^hat Al-Muluk); and within the second,Al-Ahka^m As-Sulta^niyyah.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Contrary to idealist philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, a materialist contribution to social philosophy was important.

Yanıt Açıklaması: One of the main separations of Sophists from the traditional Greek philosophy was the aim of their investigation. Till to Sophists, the Greek philosophy was a search for the objective reality. However, the aim of the Sophists was not contemplative, but practical. Hence, they became an educational movement in Greek polis. They were teaching the art of life and how to control it to the youth.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The critical perspective against to the established institutional conceptions of the political thoughts is called as the “postmodern turn”.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Political theory, however, is based on argumentation and reasoned reflection. It is subject to systematic critical reflection, which has mostly been affected by the stamp of Ancient Greek thought. Ancient Greek tradition of political thinking produced a canon in both senses of the term: the first is a collection of works and ways of approaching to the “political”, deemed as inspiring sources of reference, and the second is pieces of melodies (regarded as themes) which are reproduced and imitated in other parts of the musical compositions (regarded as works of political theory).

Yanıt Açıklaması: Aristotle’s Politics was translated into Latin for the first time in the mid-1260s, in another word, 13th Century. Although the Politics did not become part of the core curriculum, it was closely studied by many of the leading philosophers of the scholastic period. Notable commentaries on the Politics were written by Thomas Aquinas and Peter of Auvergne. William of Ockham gave a concise and profound summary and interpretation of Arsitotle’s political theory, too.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Eschaton is a theological term, meaning the final event in the divine plan; the end of the world. It stems from the Greek word eskhatos, meaning “the last”

Yanıt Açıklaması: The Christian theologians of late antiquity are referred to as the Fathers of the Church. The most influential of them in medieval Europe was Augustine; others included Ambrose, Cyprian, and Gregory (ibid). Many of the Fathers were influenced by the Platonism and Stoicism, as every educated person became acquainted with in the ancient world.

Yanıt Açıklaması: There are various terms that are identified and pointed out as ideals of political thoughts. When we look at the history of the political thoughts and how they have been developed, we can see that liberty, freedom, justice and equality are frequently pointed out as an ideal. On the other hand, ideology is not an ideal, albeit one of the main concepts in political thought. It basically refers to the production of meanings, symbols, and ideas to be drawn on whilst interpreting various dimensions of the social reality.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Sparta was a city on the south of Peloponnesus peninsula and consists of few villages.

Yanıt Açıklaması: People’s access to the material conditions of life sets the background of political debate. Expressing this through a famous statement, a well-known historical materialist, namely Karl Marx, claimed that “mankind always takes up only such problems as it can solve; since looking at the matter more closely, we will always find that the problem itself arises only when the material conditions necessary for its solution already exist or are at least in the process of formation” (Marx, 1904 [1859], pp. 12-3). From a general perspective, followers of historical materialist tradition perceived the social circumstances as putting their stamp on the way people formulate their problems regarding social justice, equality, social order and good government. Not the ideas that derive out from historical conditions and intellectual context, but the material conditions and the inherent contradictions within material circumstances were constitutive with regards to the history of mankind and history of political ideas.

Yanıt Açıklaması: “In the Latin West, his metaphysics and theory of the soul had a profound influence on scholastic arguments, ın the Islamic East, too, he was the basis for considerable debate and argument. Even the philosopher-theologian Al-Ghazali, in his attack (The Incoherence of Philosophers) admitted that no serious Muslim thinker could ignore him. In general, Avicenna could be claimed to be the principal representative of philosophy in Islam.” Thus, the correct answer is B.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Argumentum ad hominem means argument toward human; and used when the criticism/objection is directed against a certain individual/society in person, rather than against the opponent’s thoughts/ideas. Augustine had offered to prove that by Cicero’s definition, the Romans never had a republic: “I shall attempt to show that no such commonwealth ever existed, because true justice was never present in it” (City of God II.21, p. 80), since the Romans did not obey the true God (ibid, XIX.21). But this is an argumentum ad hominem.