Polıtıcal Thought

Yanıt Açıklaması: John of Salisbury is aware of the difference between potentiality and actuality, and pushes forward voluntariness as the precondition for a potential provided by nature to become actual, as regards the social issues.

Yanıt Açıklaması: “Policy” in political thought means the way governments address the social-political problems to achieve their goals.

Yanıt Açıklaması: It is a common belief among the Medieval Christians that Jesus Christ was a king. However, Jesus himself is believed to have said: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18: 36), and he seemed to recommend obedience to the Roman Emperor: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God, the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22: 21). These all lead us to thinking that none of Christ’s followers would have power over the others: “…You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that are the greater, exercise power upon them. It shall not be so among you…” (Matthew 20: 25-26). “…Be not you called rabbi. For one is your master, and all you are brethren. And call none your father upon earth: for one is your father, who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, Christ…” (Matthew 23: 8-10). Despite these texts, the clergy accepted titles of honour and claimed authority and power. Worse than that, the Church saw itself as Christ’s kingdom on earth, and claimed a share in Christ’s power. Paul’s writings, in some sense, might be claimed to serve as a justification for the Church to do so: “…For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not you judge them that are within? For them that are without, God will judge, … (1 Corinthians 5: 12-13)”, was usually taken to imply that the Church has no jurisdiction over non-Christians (“them that are without” means outside the Church). However, the general history of civilisations is full of counter examples whereas the history of thought provides us with the opportunity to observe the gradual increase in the reference to the fullness of Papal power in the later medieval political writings. Therefore, it is possible to argue that The Church-as the fundamental institution-had characterised Christianity in a way that Jesus himself was unable to foresee.

Yanıt Açıklaması: In Augustine’s philosophy, it is also possible to point out that the peace of all things lies in the tranquillity of order, and order is the disposition of equal and unequal things in such a way as to give to each its proper place.

Yanıt Açıklaması: In proposing the political ideas of the Policraticus, John of Salisbury sought to illustrate the principle that philosophy is helpful in achieving the good life of both the individual and the entire community. John’s thought is of vital importance; because it primarily confronts with the tensions between the demands of everyday life-whether in the classroom or at court, and the requirements of living well in a moral and religious sense.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Despite the fact that Christianity did not condemn any property holding, and that medieval political writers had seen property as natural and right and demanded respect for it, Christianity seemed to suggest a type of voluntary poverty, and a type of sharing goods which might be related with communism. The early Christian community in Jerusalem seemed to be united towards this as a social ideal, which made them share a single heart and a soul (Kilcullen-Robinson 2017: 5). Following the ideals of early Christianity on voluntary poverty, the leading institutions of medieval Europe included monasticism and other forms of religious life, which praise poverty and communal living, instead of saving and claiming property (Kilcullen-Robinson 2017: 5).

Yanıt Açıklaması: The postmodern approach to the political ideologies and thinking is an outcome of the critique of both contextualization and the Straussian understanding of political ideas. Therefore, the postmodern theorists questioned the notion of representation and the identification of social reality with the elements that supposedly represent the social world itself. From such a point of view, the social life can be understood with reference to the discourses and the discursive frameworks.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey that are two epic poems which are the central works of ancient Greek literature. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek Kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the journey to home of Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Ideas which medieval political thinkers owe to Aristotle (or which could be claimed to be reinforced by Aristotle) might be summarised as the following list: It is natural for human beings to form cities. “Political” [i.e., city] life is natural to human kind. The city or state exists not just for security and trade, but to foster the “good life”, the life according to virtue ( Politics III.9, 1280a32–b35). Women should, in general, be ruled by men ( Politics I.5, 1254 b13). The inferiority of women was already the general opinion, but Aristotle reinforced it, not only by what he said in the Politics but also by his biological theories. The good forms seek “the common good”, i.e., the good of both ruler and ruled. The best is kingship, the worst tyranny. “The common good” became a basic conception in medieval political philosophy. The “ideal polity” was not a topic of pre-Aristotelian medieval thought, but it became a common theme.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Legitimacy can be defined as rightfulness. It should not be limited to being legal, or in accordance with the laws, despite rightfulness to a great extent stems from the legal framework.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Augustine’s most famous contribution to theology was the doctrine of predestination, a position that is only pronounced later in life. Thus, the correct answer is B.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Greek political thought linked to Roman politics through Polybius. He was a Greek, educated in Greece and thus tried to explain the Roman institutions and political developments by the conceptions of Greek political thinking.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Canon law (ius canonicum) refers to the body of laws made within certain Christian churches (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, independent churches of Eastern Christianity, and the Anglican Communion) by lawful ecclesiastical authority for the government of both the whole church and parts thereof and of the behaviour and actions of individuals.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Thomas Hobbes is one of the early modern political philosophers.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The term ideology refers to various meanings as well as negative and positive connotations in different ways of use. One of these ways concerning the use of the concept of ideology can be pointed out as the production of meanings, symbols, and ideals.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The origins of the terms of right and left lie in certain historical events such as the French Revolution and their meanings have transformed to a certain extent in relation to the social political contexts in which they are drawn upon to make distinctions between the political actors.

Yanıt Açıklaması: When we quickly look through the history of thought in the Islamic world after the death of Averroës (1198), we see that the Islamic civilization, in terms of flourishing philosophical thought and/or originality/productivity, has started to vanish.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Averroës was conscious of the fact that what he just said would be impossible when shari‘ah is understood fully literally. He-following the line of thought in Plato and Al-Fârâbî- had drawn attention to the significance of the “difference in human nature”-i.e., difference between philosophers and non-philosophers, but was aware that shari‘ah was addressed to all Muslims, and not only to the philosophers of the community. As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is B. Averroës drew attention to the significance of the “difference in human nature”.

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: The imperative to know, and to know rationally for which the prophet is an extreme model- is based on Aristotle’s concept of happiness as the activity which differentiates humans from all other organic life: “the activity of the intellect is thought to be distinguished by hard work (spoud., ijtih.d), since it employs theory, and it does not desire to have any other end at all except itself; and it has its proper pleasure …. Complete happiness (eudaimonia, sa ‘.da) is this (Nicomachean Ethics, 1177b19–25)”.