Study questions

Study questions

Social and Political Philosophy II: PHIL 244
Lecturer: Sandy Berkovski

Bilkent University
Fall 2025

1  Introduction: St Paul

  1. What is the source of political authority?
  2. Can there be a legitimate disobedience of the (political) authority?
  3. Why should we obey the political authority?
  4. What is the main principle of Law?

2  Hobbes

I
  1. According to Hobbes, what is the origin of all conceptions in a man's mind?
  2. Why does Hobbes argue that colors and sounds are not in the bodies that cause them?
  3. According to Hobbes, what is the main doctrine taught by the "philosophy-schools" regarding the cause of vision, hearing, and understanding
II
  1. How does Hobbes define "imagination," and how does it relate to ßense"?
  2. What does Hobbes mean by "decaying sense"?
  3. According to Hobbes, what is the connection between "superstitious fear of spirits" and "civil obedience"?
  4. Hobbes argues that the "religion of the Gentiles" and the belief in fairies and ghosts arose from what specific human ignorance?
  5. What specific group of people does Hobbes accuse of using superstitious fear to "abuse the simple people" and keep "in credit the use of exorcism, of crosses, of holy water, and other such inventions"?
  6. How does Hobbes suggest that universities (the "schools") handle these superstitious doctrines, and how should they handle them instead?
III
  1. What is the role of prudence in the train of imaginations, and how does it relate to anticipating the future?
  2. Can we conceive God? How?
IV
  1. What are the two primary uses of speech, according to Hobbes?
  2. How does Hobbes describe the relationship between speech, reason, and science? What role do "definitions" play in this process?
  3. Hobbes identifies four abuses of speech. What are they?
  4. What does Hobbes mean by "insignificant names"? Provide one example from the text.
VI
  1. What are the two concepts of motion identified by Hobbes?
  2. What is the notion of endeavor?
  3. What is love?
  4. What is pleasure?
  5. What is the concept of good?
  6. What is the concept of will? How is it related to deliberation?
  7. What is happiness?
X
  1. What is the concept of power?
  2. What are the manifestations of power?
XI
  1. What is the governing factor of human behaviour, according to Hobbes?
  2. What do people obey others?
  3. Can people love virtue? Why? How?
  4. Why do people trust others?
  5. Why do people embrace traditions?
  6. What is the link between ignorance and social disturbances?
XII
  1. What is the primary cause of mankind's inclination to believe in invisible powers and create their own religions?
  2. How should we distinguish between the acknowledgment of one God and the creation of many gods by men?
  3. What is the connection between the religion of the Gentiles and their politics?
  4. What is the relationship between supernatural revelation and natural reason?
  5. How did political leaders have historically use religion to maintain power and control over their subjects?
XIII
  1. What is the meaning of equality in the state of nature?
  2. How does diffidence cause conflict in the state of nature?
  3. What are other sources of conflict?
  4. What is the definition of war?
  5. Why should war be avoided?
  6. What does Hobbes mean to prove by showing that we do not normally trust each other?
  7. Is there justice in the state of nature?
  8. What is the main reason for preferring peace over war?
XIV
  1. What is the difference between the law of nature and the right of nature?
  2. Formulate the first law of nature. What is its justification?
  3. How does the second law of nature follow from the first law of nature?
  4. How is morality related to right of nature?
  5. What kind of rights can never be given up? What is the significance of this fact?
  6. What kind of a contract is covenant?
  7. Are there valid covenants in the state of nature? Why?
  8. Is there morality in the state of nature?
XV
  1. Formulate the law of justice.
  2. Is it rational to be just?
  3. How does the distinction between injustice in manners and injustice in actions help to explain the obligations in foro interno and in foro externo?
  4. How does the distinction between commutative and distributive justice help to explain the difference between justice and equity?
  5. Formulate the law of gratitude. What is the difference between the duty of justice and the duty of gratitude?
  6. Formulate and explain the law of compleasance.
  7. What is the relation between morality and laws of nature?
XVII
  1. What are the parties of the political covenant?
  2. How does the picture on the frontispiece help to illustrate the political covenant?
XVIII
  1. Name and explain any two rights of the sovereign.
  2. Does Hobbes advocate political censorship?
  3. How does Hobbes justify obedience to the sovereign even when the sovereign is a tyrant?
XXI
  1. What is the concept of freedom (liberty)?
  2. What kind of freedom can the subjects enjoy in a political society?
  3. Can the sovereign be unjust to his subjects? Discuss with reference to the David and Uriah story.
  4. Can the subjects legitimately disobey the sovereign?
  5. Do the subjects have the right to avoid military draft or desert the army?
  6. Do the subjects have the right to pursue a rebellion against the sovereign?
  7. What is the significance of the silence of the law?
XXVI
  1. What is a civil law?
  2. What is the difference between counsel and command?
  3. Why is the sovereign not subject to civil laws?
  4. What is the relation between civil laws and laws of nature? Explain with the aid of an example.
  5. What does Hobbes mean when he says that unwritten laws are laws of nature?
  6. What is the significance of the claim that every law requires interpretation? What is the special difficulty in interpreting laws of nature?
  7. What is the fundamental law of the political society?
XXVIII
  1. Isolate different elements in Hobbes' definition of punishment.
  2. What is the basis of legitimacy of the punishment inflicted on the citizens by the state?
  3. How is punishment different from revenge?
  4. How to determine the legitimate pain inflicted by punishment?
  5. Can death penalty be a legitimate form of punishment?
XXIX
  1. Name and explain any two reasons of the collapse of the political society.
XXX
  1. What is the "office" and the "obligation" of the sovereign? Does this contradict the claim that the sovereign has no obligations to the citizens?
  2. What is the ground of that office?
  3. Why should citizens be educated in legal and political philosophy?
  4. Can simple people be successfully educated in legal and political philosophy (or only the members of the intellectual elite)?
  5. What kind of facts should citizens learn in the course of their political education?
  6. Should the citizens' obedience be sincere?
  7. Why should the sovereign rule with equity?
  8. What is the difference between just laws and good laws?

3  Mill

II
  1. Does Mill accept the society's authority in regulating free speech?
  2. Why can't the society limit the dissident opinion if it is convinced in its falsity?
  3. What is the danger of consensus?
  4. Does the society have a duty of protecting itself from false views?
  5. What, according to Mill, is the way of forming true beliefs?
  6. Does free discussion have an intrinsic value, according to Mill?
  7. What claim should the examples of Socrates and Jesus illustrate?
  8. What does the example of Marcus Aurelius illustrate?
  9. How, according to Mill, can knowledge be achieved? What are the implications for the freedom of speech? (37)
  10. Should freedom of speech be practised only among the elite? (38)
  11. What is the condition of "partial truth"? (45)
  12. What does the example of Rousseau illustrate? (46)
  13. Why does Mill claim that conservatism and reformism are both necessary ingredients of political life? (47)
  14. How does Mill argue that there can be no complete, infallible moral system? (48)
  15. What are the principles of civility in public debates? (53)
IV
  1. What are the two principal duties of people in a society? (73)
  2. Is Mill's view guilty of indifference to others? (74)
  3. Why should every person have authority in determining his conduct? (74)
  4. What kind of acts are the proper objects of punishment? (76)
  5. Are there duties to oneself, in addition to duties to others? (76-77)
  6. Formulate the argument that every part of one's conduct may properly be regulated by others. (78)
  7. How does Mill respond to this argument? (81)
  8. Should certain practices like pork consumption be disallowed on the grounds that they offend sensibilities of others? (83)
  9. Is taxation a just arrangement, according to Mill? (85-86)
  10. Should we be tolerant of polygamy? (89-90)

4  Hegel

  1. What is the notion of Spirit?
  2. What is the role of Spirit in history?
  3. What is the role of freedom in world history?
  4. What are subjective causes of human action?
  5. What is the point (justification) of misfortunes we observe in history?
  6. What is the relation between goals (passions) of individual people and the goal of world history?
  7. Who are the world-historical individuals?
  8. What is the Cunning of Reason?
  9. What is the source of people's dissatisfaction in political conditions?
  10. What is the role of God in historical development?
  11. What is the ethical life of the state?

5  Marx

  1. Explain the concept of the alienation of labour. Give a couple of examples.
  2. Why does Marx claim that man is only acting freely in fulfilling his animal instincts?
  3. In what sense is man alienated from his species?
  4. In what sense is man alienated from his fellow men?
  5. What is the origin of the division of labour?
  6. What are the contradictions created by the division of labour?
  7. How does the division of labour lead to alienation?
  8. What, historically, are the different forms of ownership?
  9. How is Marx's conception of history different from Hegel's?
  10. Why do communists propose abolition of private property?
  11. Why do communists propose abolition of traditional family?
  12. Why do communists propose abolition of national states?

6  Weber

History, sociology, and the state (32-58)
  1. What is a common feature of political organizations?
  2. What are three different ways of legitimating political authority?
  3. What is a sense of political vocation?
  4. What are the two prerequisites for the continuing maintenance of political rule?
  5. What are the two different possible relations between the ruler and material resources?
  6. What is Weber's definition of the modern state?
  7. What is the class of `professional politicians'?
  8. How is it distinct from the class of part-time politicians?
  9. What are the economic conditions for a person to live 'for politics'?
  10. How does a plutocrat live `from politics'? How is he different, in this regard, from a paid official?
  11. How does the presence of professional bureaucracy alter the political debate in a state?
  12. What are the emotional sanctions of modern bureaucracy?
  13. What is the role of the division of labour in the emergence of bureaucracy?
  14. How did the rulers gradually lose any specific expertise?
  15. What influence did the parliamentary system have on the change of government structures?
  16. What are the social origins of professional politicians that have emerged in the past?
  17. Why have the lawyers become prominent in the political life of a democratic society?
  18. What is the role of impartiality and responsibility in the political leader's activity?
  19. What is the significance of the class of journalists in the democratic society?
  20. How does Weber characterise the class of party officials?
Ethics and politics (76-92)
  1. What are the three necessary qualities of a good politician?
  2. What are the two deadly sins of a politician?
  3. What is the point that the example of unfaithful husband is supposed to illustrate?
  4. What are the dangers of immersion in the past?
  5. What is the ethics of conviction?
  6. How is the ethics of conviction different from the ethics of responsibility?
  7. What are the possible parallels between the ethics of responsibility and utilitarianism?
  8. Why does Weber describe politics as a pact with the devil?
  9. Can the ethics of conviction and the ethics of responsibility be harmonised?
  10. Does Weber advocate Realpolitik as as a political ideology?
Charismatic leadership (Economy and Society)
  1. According to Weber, what is charismatic leadership?
  2. Can political success be the basis of charismatic authority? from legal-rational authority, according to Weber?
  3. According to Weber, how does charismatic leadership arise?
  4. How does charismatic authority relate to social and political change, according to Weber?
  5. Weber argues that charismatic authority is not sustainable in the long term. What factors contribute to the decline of charismatic leadership?
  6. How does Weber explain the relationship between charisma and routinization?
  7. In Weber's theory, what is the role of followers in sustaining charismatic leadership?
  8. How does Weber's theory of charismatic leadership contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of power and authority in society?


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