Polıtıcal Thought

Yanıt Açıklaması: The goods and evils of government stated by Augustine in The City of God might be summarised as follows: 1. Government may be, and must be, rule by the ideal Christian ruler; such a ruler would lead his people in obedience to God. 2. Government may simply be a tyranny-as a realisation of evil and/or love of self, which is an expression of the “earthly city” (civitas terrana/diaboli). 3. Government exists to organise the cooperation of “men of good will” (speaking in modern terms), i.e., citizens of the two cities united by an interest in earthly peace and other earthly goods, valued by both Christians and non- Christians (KilcullenRobinson, 2017: 9).

Yanıt Açıklaması: Monasticism or monkhood is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work.

Yanıt Açıklaması: A caliph should not have a desire for wealth.

Yanıt Açıklaması: By denigrating the contextualization of political ideas, the Straussian approach points out the need to conceive universal human condition in an abstract form that aims to evaluate it independently from time and place. Arguing that study of political thought should be focused on the way universal rational arguments are drawn on and presented, it aims to provide a refreshed approach to the history of political ideas.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The fundamental aspect which makes room for the existence of the organization of state-or mulk, according to Ibn Khaldûn- is asabiyyah. The correct answer is B. In The Muqaddimah, ‘umrân bears the following meanings: To settle down/live at a given place Visiting a location Building up a construction (‘imar’) To be settled with, as humans and animals with regard to the place itself, to be frequently visited, be held in good condition To take care of a given place, cultivate Bedâwah means the rural life without the nomadic-settled distinction. Khadârah means sedentary culture and urban life. Taghallub means sovereignty over winning wars/battles.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Weber is considered as one of the founders of sociology, with Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx. Among his other contributions, his way of classifying ideal types of authorities under three categories, as charismatic, traditional, and legal, was a seminal work.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Marsilius of Padua refutes the doctrine of papal fullness of power and, argues that the pope is not and should not be the source of government power.

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: In such direct impact upon decision making processes, power is usually exercised over people to change their behaviour. In such cases, power is defined as a form of such relation which results in compliance of some to some others. In Steven Lukes’ (1974) well-known classification, this approach to power is criticized because of being limited by its sole focus on decision making and behaviour. Lukes has also criticized another point of view focusing on the context in which the decisions are made, and the way the political agenda is shaped.

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

Yanıt Açıklaması: His direct resources of inspiration included Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Plato’s Republic, and Aristotle’s Politics. Thus, the correct answer is E.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The term government comes from the Latin gubernare and Greek kubernan. It means steering a ship and implies that the path taken by the society and the state is determined by those who govern. It is not about ideology.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The canon of political thought relied on a series of thinkers and their ideas on the state (back then the city-state, i.e. polis), society, power, history, justice and the forms of government to evaluate and understand political developments and transformations.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Christianity is agreed to be indifferent to matters of slavery; which is also compatible with the Ancient Greek thought. The following quotations from the different parts of The New Testament show that slavery is not considered a big social problem in the eyes of Christianity.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The essential features of modern democracy are the separation of powers, the rule of law, a system of checks and balances and the government bounded by law. To sustain stability in a society, judicial institutions must keep their integrity and their institutional legitimacy.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Fasl al-Maqal is the work where Averroes’s fundamental assumption on the relation between philosophy and religion is expressed clearly. Thus, the correct answer is D

Yanıt Açıklaması: According to Aristotle, the structure of the being cannot be understood just by considering the external appearance. Rather, internal relations and connections should be revealed and the substance or cause of the being must be comprehended metaphysically.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Coming to the relation between ethics and politics, Averroe¨s evaluates these two as two parts of the same science. The state, on his view, was the ground which provided the necessary conditions for pursuing a good life. In order to make room for the good of everyone, the ruler had to inculcate virtue in the souls of citizens; and for performing this duty, according to Averroe¨s, the ruler has two choices as he had thoroughly elaborated in Fasl al-Maqa^l: 1. Persuasion, 2. Coercion.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Political ideas in the Bible concerning obedience might be summarised as follows: The human beings are usually ruled by kings or emperors. There are very few traces of republican institutions in the Bible (There is one exception: 1 Machabees 8: 14–16 is an admiring description of Roman republican government.) Kings are quite often evil; and are tyrants and enemies of God. The ruled often share the bad deeds of the rulers. The kingship of King David is a model (although David also often sinned). Subjects must obey rulers, even the wicked. It is wrong to disobey, and especially to make any attack on the person of the ruler (2 Samuel 1:14–16). But obedience to rulers is always limited by obedience to the commands of God. That means, the supremacy and the sovereignty of God is thought as superior to any worldly rule or ruler.

Yanıt Açıklaması: In political terms, and in our case, legitimacy requires people’s positive perception of the political system and leader. In relational terms, legitimacy requires the people’s approval and conceiving the government as rightful to govern.