Following are the thinkers taken into account in this post.
1) Plato
2) Aristotle
3) Nicclo Machiavelli
4) Voltaire
5) Jean Jacque Rousseau
6) Ram Mohan Roy
7) Periyar
8) Vivekanand
9) Gandhi
10) Ambedkar
Plato:
Ø Was disciple of Socrates(although not confirmed,but
they must have met as they were in the same city)
Ø Influenced by Socrates Idea –
Ø In dialogue form the thought of Socrates emerges as
we don’t have any written text by Socrates.
Ø Blended Ethics, Political Philosophy, moral
psychology, Epistemology and Metaphysics.
Ø Academy in Athens
Ø Philosophical System-“Platonism”-quality of goodness
is universal.
Ø Central work “Republic”
v Deals with Idea of Justice- i.e. Justice is universal
Value and the foundation of the best political order.
v Discussed happiness,virtue, Platonic love.
v Three Parts of Soul :
1. Reason –Desire truth and the
good of Individual
2. Spirit- Preoccpied with
honour and competitive behavior.
3. Appetite- Direct in
satiating base tastes and desires.
v In favour of Philosopher King who
would maintain justice and virtue.
v Felt democracy could lead to demagoguery and anarchy.
Ø Argued for body of knowledge-possible to heal
political problems like factionalism, Corruption of Moral .
Aristotle:
Ø Father of logic and reason.
Ø Disciple and Contemporary of Plato.
Ø Defined fundamental principal of rational
view of existence of man ‘s consciousness.
Ø His school called Lyceum- his research student known
as “Peripatetics”.
Ø Logic and reasoning –tools for conduct of Scientific
Invention.
Ø His logic= verbal reasoning> lies Syllogism.
Ø Defined soul =perfect expression or realization of a
natural body.
Ø Ethics is means to find chief end or highest
good, in Greek “eudaimonia”(actually more than happiness).
Ø Happiness = activity of rational soul in accordance
with Virtue.
Ø Virtue are subset of good qualities that people have
–that is not innate and acquire by Practice and lost by disuse.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Ø Expressed the idea that political realism in essence
gets boiled down to the political-ethical principle, that “might is right”.
Ø Presented the pragmatic point of view that moral
imperatives have no place in political arena.
Ø Cynical about human nature - advocate rise of strong
leader who must be cunning and ruthless enough to keep a resistive population
in check and maintain political order but such strong leader must rule by
establishing a republic in a vibrant and free political culture in which
dissent is tolerated.
Ø Criticized moralistic view of political Power.
Ø Morality and Polity are two different facets.
Ø Legimate & illegitimate power can not be judged on
the basis of morality.
Ø “Prince”i.e. ruler, must visualize political power as
an end in them.
Ø Prime concern of ruler should be the acquisition and
maintenance of power.
Ø Maintaining power and retaining order is more important
than sticking to the philosophy morality and virtue.
Ø Advocate fear among people to make them adherent to
the law, Instead of love.
Voltaire:
Ø Advocacy for civil liberties including the freedom of
religion and free trade.
Ø His conception –irreverent towards establishing
tradition(that’s why his ideal state was England where he experience much
liberty than his native France)
Ø Crusading against tyranny, bigotry and superstitions.
Ø Natural science defender
Ø Embraced Natural religion
Ø Aim of life is not to reach heaven through penitence,
but to achieve happiness & fulfillment through progress in the fields of
Science & Arts.
Rousseau:
Ø He marked end of the age of reasons.
Ø Progression in Science and arts causes corruption of
virtue and morality + also created jealousy,fear and suspicion.
Ø Material progress made govt more powerful which
crushed individual liberty + make it difficult for individual to forge sincere
friendship.
Ø Ridiculed Private Property
Ø Social Contract Theory -Legitimate govt.
is the one which is the result of contract
between men..... if any govt. does not have this contract then it has no right to rule.
Ø As musician philosopher, placed melody above the
harmony.
Ø Point out that human beings in the state of nature,
are amoral creature ,neither virtuous nor vicious ,and one society
get formed vices began to develop
Ø Man is born free but everywhere he is in chain-
favors liberty for human being.
Ø Liberty can be fostered only through a system of
obedience to a self imposed law.
Ø Defined society as an artificial person united by a
general will.
Rammohan Roy:
Ø His favorite maxim “true way of serving god was to do
good to man.”
Ø To abridge the gap between
percept (The British liberal ideology) and Practices followed in
India, -Pro Active Response to change.
Ø Attempt to locate the right and socially useful
source of knowledge
Ø Critique of Mughal Polity, and in favor of
the providential nature of British Rule.
Ø Modernization of India not only by material
development but also intellectual - tried to transform medieval literati to
modern intelligentsia.
Ø For him reform is struggle between liberty
and tyranny, justice and injustice and between right and wrong throughout the
world.
Ø Made distinction between law and morality-strived for
codification of law,(but also maintained that person having high social
standard should be treated differently )
Ø Was a modern man- tradition to him not rigid but
flexible enough to be reinterpreted and revalidated in the light of new
experiences.
Periyar(Erode Venkatanaicker Ramasamy):
Ø Firebrand leader of anti-Brahminism movement in
Madras Presidency.
Ø Mounted heavy attack on Brahminism.... not on Brahmin.
Ø Message of egalitarians and scientific temper.
Ø Humanism is Supreme , said “forget God, think man”.
Ø His movement ended Brahmin hegemony.
Ø 1924- Vaikkom Satyagrah inKerala.
Ø Founded his non politicaloffshoot DravidarKazhagam
(Parent organization of:)
DMK AIDMK MDMK
Ø Launched self respect movement to change what appears
to be adverse to man feeling of respect -Chengalpattu in Feb 1929.
Ø Propagation of nationhood combined with civilization
mission of self-redemption of the human.
Ø Relied on the faculty of reason possessed by
everyone.
Ø His battle was to fought within the minds of the
individuals and their collective consciousness, to let them free from their
subjugative or second class mind.
Ø He wanted from people redemptive of their humanity.
Ø Rejected trio of God, religious scripture (as they
sanction casteism),and God in totality.
Ø Man obstruction from enquiry & rationality lead
to chaos & deterioration.
Ø Asked people not to accept anything with
ratiocination.
Ambedkar:
Ø Forerunner in political arrival of dalit citizens.
Ø Cause bahujan-dalit identity formation- radical assertion
of dalit
Ø Advocated free social order –recognizing individual
as end in itself-by association between individual s in society founded on
liberty equality and fraternity
Ø Most importantly focused on Political rights- that
can lead to social and Economic rights.
Ø Equitable and just distribution of political power as
means of social development- balanced through political reservation
for different section of people
Ø For Indian democracy to flourish laid three condition
A. hold fast to constitutional
method of achieving our social & economic objective.
B. nation is greater than
hero,So Bhakti and hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and
eventual dicatatrship,reject heroism
C. Make political democracy as
road to social democracy
Vivekanada :
Ø Adopted the revivalist approach to traditional
Hinduism.
Ø Propagated spiritual awakening-which restore self
belief in man and made him aware of his potentiality, gave the call “back to
Veda”,for the Hindus.
Ø For him spiritual awakening was never removed
completely from the social
Ø The edification of the soul and self are two
dimension but of the same human revolution.
Ø He interpreted tradition afresh with new new social
and historical requirement.
Ø Attacked on the traditional Hinduism.
Ø Knowledge (both secular + spiritual) needed + the
emphatic understanding of others,Which broadens the social base of nationalism.
Ø Want to strengthen the manhood of his countrymen, was
strictly against the mendicancy of Congress + the general unpreparedness of his
countrymen for an effective political revolution.
Ø Favor constructive borrowing from western ideals and
bred it with our spiritual awakening.
Ø He has said to have given the individual identity to
his fellow countrymen.
Ø Given new impulses to old message
Gandhi:
Ø Given the concept of "Swaraj and Ramrajya (an
ideal imagined village)”.
Ø In this village, mode of conduct point out men on the
path of their duty, control of desires and the path of mastery over mind &
Passion.
Ø Knowledge of self & living within bounds.
Ø Favors in village democracy in which power moves from
base to the top, rather than from the top to bottom.
Ø His devised “Satyagraha which is different from the
passive resistance.
Ø It means truth + insistence, postulate the conquest
of adversary by self suffering.
Ø A satyagrahi pre supposed
Self
discipline Self
purification Recognized
social status of satyagrah Should
know the distinction between evil and evil doer Free from addiction
