Modern Political Philosophy and the U.S. Government

Modern Political Philosophy and the U.S. Government

Where did our government system today come from? One may ask this question and discover that the rise of the current political system is derived from five-hundred years of Modern Political Philosophy. Political Thought is known as the nature and purpose of human association to discover how and why we are structured in this current democratic system. Political Thought philosophers such as Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke wrote ideas of human life and by studying the great thinkers' political thoughts and liberties, helps us get a better understanding of how we are formed as one with our government.

Machiavelli, an aristocratic political philosopher of the fifteenth century, used a critical methodology to conduct his work which reflects our current government system. Machiavelli's methodology consisted of Instrumental Rationality and Realism verses Normative Thinking. His methodology was expressed through his work of The Prince, written to teach a good dictatorship to the ruler of Florence, Italy, Lorenzo Madeci. Instrumental Rationality consisted of a formula using factors "x" and "y". Basically, if you want something in life, or to have a good government in this sense, one must do "x" in order to reach their goal, "y". The methodology of Realism verses Normative Thinking focuses on the aspect that Machiavelli is a realist and against the ideas of Normative Thinkers. Normative Thinkers view government based on norms and values but only preach what should or ought to be done and continually think with out any prospects. Through his work, Machiavelli reaches a point of a push for democracy and interjects a republic because he views this as the best form of government, consequently what America has today. Machiavelli believes in checks throughout the republic because it creates stability since many have inherent flaws, as well as a good military service because there are soldiers who want to fight and stand up for their country. Machiavelli's thoughts reflect of what our government structure is today.

A second political philosopher and the greatest social contract thinker in philosophy, Thomas Hobbs, based his thoughts upon fear. We must live in fear and always be on edge to any surprise in life. Hobbes, unlike Machiavelli, does not have any reflection on today's American government system because Hobbes's preference of government is a totalitarian government, which we are far from. Hobbes's methodologies consist of Deductive Reasoning, Philosophy of the whole, and Social Contract Theory. Hobbes is a deductive thinker, which is the use of logic of a theory to generate propositions that can be tested, to the point where he believes his extensive formula starting from body and matter will reach a totalitarian government. The aspect of Philosophy of the whole comes from his starting point of the extensive formula because if you want to understand the whole (state) then you must understand the components first (citizens) and in order to accomplish that one must understand humans and body. Hobbes keys in to form a government by social contract theory, which derives from the agreement among individuals to form a government. Hobbes gives a pessimistic view of human nature without a government; he believes the following: humans are selfish animals constantly at war with one another, our lives are short, brutish, and nasty, and fear of a violent death is the principle motive which causes the people to create a state due to the fact that we kill each other because we have no other choice in human nature. Our American government today does not reflect in any way the view of Hobbes because with a totalitarian government we would have absolutely no choice or say in how we live.

Although Machiavelli and Hobbes do not relate clearly enough to our current U.S. government, a third political philosopher, John Locke, contributed an enormous amount of thoughts which reflect our American system. John Locke is on the opposite side of Hobbes whereas Locke believes in limited government to create peace and stability for all citizens. Limited government is enforced by natural laws, which are given by God and thought of by using reasoning capabilities. Even though God can not make us follow natural law today, we, as citizens, were created to enforce these laws which in some cases may create society ills, violations of natural laws creating extra suffering that humans have to deal with. From these natural laws created by God, we have natural rights, important moral claims in hearing individuals which promotes the protection of certain values. Examples of natural rights which we use today are: freedom of religion and freedom of speech which are in our Bill of Rights. Due to our reasoning capabilities we are able to work with one another