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Politics and Hope: American Visions In his work "Liberalism, Natural Law and the Individual: Egoism and Sociability in the Work of Hugo Grotius" Kristy King estimates the value of Grotius works. The author emphasizes the role of sociability in them. It is said that Grotius (High de Groot) was a great jurist and humanist and the founder of international law. He was the author of the work De jure belli in which he examined the law of war and peace.
King says about Grotius investigation of natural laws. It includes rules of conduct for nations as well as for private individuals. In Grotius work there were a lot of driven from Bible and from classical history. King tries to prove that in De Jure Praedae Grotius did not pay his attention on the role of egoism but on the principle of sociability. Grotius regarded war as an instrument of national policy but said that to start war without certain causes is criminal. King emphasizes that in his work Grotius tried to make the conditions of warfare more humane taking into account respect for private persons and their property.
In "Liberalism, Natural Law and the Individual: Egoism and Sociability in the Work of Hugo Grotius" the author proves that Grotius conception of a natural law was based on understanding of human nature. It means that it is psychologically marked by sociability as well as self-interest. The De jure praedae further demonstrates that Grotius was originally determined to this subject, not by any speculative intellectual interest, but by a special occasion presented by his professional engagements. King argues that in both works De Jure Praedae and De Jure Belli which was written later the author tried to show the role of sociability taking into account that sociability is psychologically based on human nature. Those treatises cannot be regarded as egoistic theory because the main principle of individual lives is the sociable desire to reject self-interest. The desire compels people to enter into a mutually obliging social contract and to fulfill the demands of sociability inherent in the state of nature. "The Totemic Sovereign: Freudian Substructure in Hobbes''s Theory of State" by Kevin Cameron investigates Hobbes's theory of state formation.
In the Leviathan, his major treatise, Hobbes spoke about two ways of state formation: commonwealth by institution and commonwealth by acquisition. Hobbes pointed the existence of the state of nature. It was before the rise of civil society. The state of nature had no power which can enforce principles of justice and social order. So, the life of individuals depends on the inevitable result of circumstances. But the life in that state was full of conflicts in which every individual is each other's enemy.
Those conflicts are exacerbated by the relative equality of the power of different individuals, and by their inability to attain true personal security. Fears and violence of the state of nature made individuals to establish a civil state. The power in a civil state was based on sovereign with absolute monopoly. It was ruled by means of coercion. The sovereign monopoly protected individuals against the threat of an invasion from without. Kevin Cameron examines Hobbes understanding of the role of sovereign authority.
According to Hobbes sovereign authority could originate in conquest. In a civil state individuals were faced with the alternative: fight or surrender. Until individuals live in societies that are large enough and well organized they will wage wars against another as uncertain. They had to organize society for their defense and form sovereignty by institution. Cameron emphasizes that Hobbes' theory of state is contradictions. From one side it is egoistic because proves the necessity of an absolute authority for living in peace.
From the other side it must also be capable of embracing relations of mutual reciprocity with others. Thats why Hobbes's over eign is both powerful and free. But Kevin Cameron pointed that contradictions can be theoretically surmounted taking into account Freud's theory of the primal horde. There is the necessity for social order and peace. Thats why people consent the sovereign and obey the sovereign. John Evans in his work "Synthesizing Classical and Christian Ideals in Early American Political Thought: John Adams and the Virtue of Magnanimity" argues about a public conception of virtue.
He points two points of view: John Adams (who was a Unitarian) and of Christian theology. John Evans examines Christian political thought and says that it stresses the complete ruin of man's ethical nature against a backdrop of the sovereign grace of God in salvation. Christian political thought teaches that people are utterly unable to follow God or escape their condemnation before him and that only by drastic divine intervention in which God must overrule their unwilling hearts can people be turned from rebellion to willing obedience. According to this viewpoint, the plan of God is worked out in every event. The opposite of hopelessness is the virtue of magnanimity. Magnanimity means literally the courage to be or to become great.
It implies a stretching to the greatness God has put into us as well as into our pupils as image-bearers and not to be satisfied with less. We expect to find in us and in them this God-given potential and we make us and them worthy of it. Magnanimity means that we as teachers as well as our pupils are crowned and ennobled to develop all the virtues. John Adams believed in the oneness of God as opposed to traditional Christian belief in the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). He emphasized the moral authority, but not the deity, of Jesus. He was a free thinker who evolved his beliefs in the direction of rationalism and humanism.
According to John Evans, Adams point of view as to the virtues of justice, wisdom, courage coincides with the virtue of magnanimity and can be treated as a synthesis of classical and Christian ideals. Bibliography: Kevin, Cameron. "The Totemic Sovereign: Freudian Substructure in Hobbes''s Theory of State." Conference Paper, the Western Political Science Association, New Mexico. March, 17, 2006. John, Evans. "Synthesizing Classical and Christian Ideals in Early American Political Thought: John Adams and the Virtue of Magnanimity. " Conference Paper, the Western Political Science Association, New Mexico. March, 17, 2006 Kristy, King. "Liberalism, Natural Law and the Individual: Egoism and Sociability in the Work of Hugo Grotius" Conference Paper, the Western Political Science Association, New Mexico. March, 17, 2006
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