Topic 1

1. Political thought of the ancient worldAncient East, Ancient Greece, Rome2. Political thought of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance3. Political thought of modern times (Hobbes, Hegel, Marx, Fourier, Jean-Jacques Rousseau)

1. Political thought of the ancient world Ancient East, ancient Greece, Rome

Political thought of the Ancient East

In the East, India and China made a particularly important contribution to the development of ideas about state and law. For all their originality political ideas(Indian thought, with the exception of treatises on the art of management - arthashastras, which are mainly secular in nature, is purely religious and mythological, and Chinese thought is rationalistic) both systems reflected a social and political system based on the so-called Asian mode of production. It is characterized by: supreme state ownership of land and exploitation of free peasants - community members through taxes and public works. Oriental despotism became a typical state form. Paternalistic ideas about power have become widespread. The monarch was bound only by custom and tradition. At the same time, it was emphasized that the goal of the state is the common good, the king is the father of his subjects, who do not have the right to present any demands to him. The ruler is responsible to the gods, not to men. The political thought of the East is imbued with faith in the wisdom of old institutions and traditions, in their perfection.

Ancient India gave us Buddhism, the oldest world religion that preaches the cycle of rebirth of the human soul through suffering. It was there that the caste system of dividing society arose (there were 4 castes: Brahmans - sages and philosophers, Kshatriyas - warriors, Vaishyas - farmers and artisans, Shudras - servants).

In ancient India, the country was ruled by "dharma" and "danda". “Dharma” is the righteous fulfillment of one’s duties (the Dharmashastras wrote about the nature and content of “dharma”), and “danda” is coercion, punishment” (the Arthashastras wrote about it). The essence of government was to maintain “dharma” with the help of “danda”. The ancient Indian scientist Kautilya in the 1st century BC said that the activity of a wise sovereign lies in the ability to rule through law, war and diplomacy.

1) A special place in the history of ancient Indian Political thought is occupied by a treatise called “Arthashastra” (“Instruction on Benefits”). Its author is considered to be the brahmin Kautilya.

The Arthashastra is the science of how one should acquire and maintain power, in other words, a manual on the art of rulership. His discussions of the art of government are free from theology, rationalistic and realistic.

The purpose of society is the welfare of all living beings. The common good was not viewed through the prism of individual interests and human rights. It was understood as the preservation of the social order created by divine providence, which is achieved by each person fulfilling his dharma. However, dharma does not act on its own without compulsion.

The king, declared the viceroy of the gods, forces his subjects to obey the dharma with the help of punishment - danda. A weak king strives for peace, and a strong king strives for war. And the good of man consists in submitting to the power of the king; this is his sacred duty.

2) Fundamental role in all history The teachings of Confucius (551-479 BC) played a role in the ethical and political thought of China. His views are set out in the book Lun Yu (Conversations and Sayings), compiled by his students. For many centuries, this book had a significant influence on the worldview and way of life of the Chinese. Children memorized her, and adults appealed to her authority in family and political matters.

Based on traditional views, Confucius developed a patriarchal-paternalistic concept of the state. He interprets the state as a big family. The power of the emperor (“son of heaven”) is likened to the power of a father, and the relationship between rulers and subjects is family relations, where the younger ones depend on the older ones. The socio-political hierarchy depicted by Confucius is built on the principle of inequality of people: “ dark people", "common people", "low", "younger" must obey "noble men", "best", "higher", "elder". Thus, Confucius advocated an aristocratic concept of government, since the common people were completely excluded from participation in government.

Some provisions of Confuncianism (predetermination of fate) were opposed by the Mohists (representative of Mo Tzu), who called on people to help others, to live in accordance with the principles of universal love in a world without wars and violence.

Another direction of political thought - legalists advocated strict regulations, compliance with laws, and punishments. Their representative Shang Yang (400–338 BC) believed that the state is a war between rulers and subjects, that people need to be constantly controlled. Officials were forced to take state exams to confirm their competence. A state monopoly reigned in the field of industry and trade. Shang Yang believed that the people are simple material from which anything can be made, the weakening of the people leads to the strengthening of the state, its main goal was to strengthen military power states. In the end, he fell victim to his own laws, since the owner of the inn refused him lodging for the night (the law prohibited strangers from spending the night at the inn) and he was killed by robbers.

Finally, Taoism (representative of Lao Tzu - Wu 1st century BC) said that everything obeys the natural law of things themselves - Tao. A person should not interfere with this law and change it, since, in the end, justice will still prevail, and the weak will eventually become strong. And whoever tries to change the course of events will fail. This gave rise to a paradoxical statement - a person should do nothing, not interfere in anything. The main method of government is inaction, avoidance political life. This is what leads to stability, order and prosperity.

· The basis of political and legal thought was the religious and mythological worldview inherited from the tribal system. Religion was given a leading place (the priesthood ruled mainly). The political and legal teachings of the Ancient East remained purely applied. Their main content was questions related to the art of management, the mechanism of exercising power and justice.

· The formation of political and legal thought of the Ancient East was greatly influenced by morality, therefore many concepts are ethical and political doctrines, rather than political and legal concepts. (An example is Confucianism as a more ethical than political and legal doctrine).

The socio-political theories of the Ancient East were complex ideological formations, consisting of religious dogmas, moral ideas and applied knowledge about politics and law.

Political thought Ancient Greece

1st period – IX – XI centuries BC. This is the era of the formation of Greek statehood. Among the scientists of that time, one should name Hesiod, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and among the statesmen - Archon Solon, who published a set of the first Athenian laws.

Pythagoras has priority in developing the concept of equality; Heraclitus was the first to say: “Everything flows, everything changes, and you cannot step into the same river twice.”

II period - X - XI centuries BC - this is the heyday of political thought and democracy in Ancient Greece. This time gave the world glorious names - Democritus, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pericles.

Democritus(460 - beginning of the 9th century BC) - came from the Thracian city-polis of Abdera, from a wealthy family. Democritus remained for centuries as the creator of the atomic theory. He viewed politics as the most important art, the task of which is to ensure the common interests of free citizens in a democracy. He was an active supporter of democracy and wrote: “Poverty in a democracy is as much preferable to the so-called welfare of citizens under kings as freedom is to slavery.”

Socrates(469-399 BC) lived between two wars - the Persian and Peloponnesian. His youth coincided with the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta, the crisis, and then the restoration of Athenian democracy and its flourishing. Socrates was 7 years old when democracy was restored. All his life he fought against it and at the age of 70 he voluntarily drank poison according to the verdict of an Athenian court, which accused him of speaking out against democracy. Socrates' ideal was aristocratic Sparta and Crete, where laws were observed and rule was exercised by educated people. He called the arbitrariness of one tyranny, the arbitrariness of the rich - plutocracy. Socrates saw the lack of democracy (the power of all) in incompetence. He said, “We don’t choose a carpenter or a helmsman with the help of beans, why should we choose our rulers with the help of beans?” (In Ancient Greece they voted using beans - “for” - white beans, “against” - black). The philosopher did not write down his statements; his students did this later.

One of the most talented students of Socrates - Plato(427 - 347 BC) was born into an aristocratic family on the island of Aegina. In the field of politics, he wrote many studies - “State”, “Politician”, “Laws”. He considered timocracy to be imperfect types of states ( a form of government in which the right to participate in government power is distributed according to property or income.), oligarchy, tyranny, democracy. And the ideal type of state is the competent rule of sages - philosophers, aristocrats, in which the functions of defense would be performed by warriors, and peasants and artisans would work. Since family and property seemed to him to be a source of opposing interests, he opposed personal property, for the community of wives and the state education of children.

Great philosopher of antiquity Aristotle(384 - 322 BC) was the son of the court physician of the Macedonian king Philip Nicomachus, who later became the teacher of Alexander the Great. In his work Politics, he was the first to highlight political knowledge, theoretical, empirical (experimental) and normative approaches to politics. He said that man is a political animal, and examined the development of society from family to community, village, and then to the state (city - polis). Aristotle believed that the whole precedes the part, man is only a part of the state and is subordinate to it. Citizens must be free and have private property. The larger the middle class, the more stable the society. And the reason for all revolutions is property inequality. Aristotle identified three correct forms of government, striving for the common good (monarchy, aristocracy and polity), and three incorrect ones, focused on personal good (tyranny, oligarchy, democracy).

III period - called Hellenic. Its representatives Epicurus, Polybius and the Stoics preached apoliticality, non-participation in public affairs and main goal states focused on overcoming fear and ensuring the safety of people. Polybius wrote about the perfection of the Roman system, which combined the advantages of the kingdom (consul), aristocracy (senate) and democracy. Ancient Greece is experiencing decline and city-states are disappearing, giving way to Ancient Rome.

Political thought of Ancient Rome

The political and legal theory of Ancient Rome developed under the influence of the already existing theory of Ancient Greece (Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Epicureans, Stoics). However, in this case we cannot talk only about simply borrowing the provisions of our predecessors,

since the Romans developed their theory, taking as a basis everything that was most rational from the ancient Greeks.

Ancient Rome left us two great achievements in the field of politics - Cicero and Roman law. Great speaker, writer and statesman In ancient times, Marcus Tulius Cicero (106 - 43 BC) believed in the justice of the law, the natural rights of people, sacredly observed duty himself and called on others to do the same. The ancient Greeks talked about him - he stole from us the last thing that Greece could be proud of - oratory. Cicero considered the best form of government to be mixed, which dominated in Ancient Rome - royal power, optimates and popular power.

Acting as an eclectic thinker, Cicero tried to combine in his theory the most diverse views of ancient thinkers. Cicero's state has a natural origin, growing out of the family as a result of the development of people's natural inclinations to

communication. The essence of such a state comes down to protecting the property interests of citizens. Its fundamental principle is law. Cicero deduces law itself from direct natural law, “for law is a force of nature, it is mind and consciousness smart person, he is the measure of right and wrong.” Cicero sees the political ideal in a mixed form of government: an aristocratic senatorial republic connecting the beginning

monarchy (consulate), aristocracy (senate) and democracy (national assembly). Paying attention to slavery, Cicero speaks of it as a phenomenon caused by nature itself, which grants the best people dominion over the weak for their own benefit. A person in charge of the affairs of the state must be wise, fair and knowledgeable in the doctrines of the state, and master the fundamentals of law. Cicero's legal principle states that everyone must be subject to the law.

If the legal document of Greece was the Draconta, then the legal document created by Cicero for the Romans was called “Roman law.”

There are three parts to Roman law: natural law – the right of peoples to marriage, family, raising children, and a number of other natural needs given to man by nature itself; the law of peoples is the attitude of the Romans towards other peoples and states, including military events, international trade, issues of the founding of the state; the right of citizens, or civil law, is the relationship between civil Romans. In addition, law in Ancient Rome was divided into public, which relates to the position of the state, and private, which relates to the benefit of private individuals.

Roman law is the main legacy that Ancient Rome left to Europe. It was born in the 1st – 11th centuries BC. The essence of Roman law was that private property was declared sacred and inviolable. Private law became the civil law of the entire Roman people. In the early period of the formation of Roman law, a major role in this matter belonged to the ancient lawyer Gaius, who compiled his “Institutions”. IN this work he divided Roman law into three parts: 1. The law of individuals in terms of freedom, citizenship and position in society. 2.Right from the point of view of a person – the owner of a particular thing. 3. Procedure, a type of action that is carried out in relation to people-owners and things. The significance of Gaius' taxonomy for Roman law was very great; it formed the structure of all private law. Subsequently, the theory of Roman law was developed and improved by Paul Ulpian and Emperor Justinian. Towards the end of the history of Ancient Rome, it consisted of the following parts: Roman law for elementary education; digests – 38 excerpts from Roman jurists; collection of imperial constitutions.

1. In ancient Rome, if a patient died during an operation, the doctor's hands were cut off.

2. In Rome during the Republic, a brother had the legal right to punish his sister for disobedience by having sex with her.

3. In ancient Rome, a group of slaves belonging to one person was called... a surname

4. Among the first fifteen Roman emperors, only Claudius did not have love affairs with men. This was considered unusual behavior and was ridiculed by poets and writers, who said: by loving only women, Claudius himself became effeminate.

5. In the Roman army, soldiers lived in tents of 10 people. At the head of each tent was a senior person, who was called... the dean.
6. B Ancient world, as in the Middle Ages, there was no toilet paper. The Romans used a stick with a cloth at the end, which was dipped in a bucket of water.

7. In Rome, rich citizens lived in houses - mansions. The guests knocked on the door of the house with a knocker and a door ring. On the threshold of the house there was a mosaic inscription “salve” (“welcome”). Some houses were guarded by slaves tied to a ring in the wall instead of dogs.

8. In ancient Rome, noble gentlemen used curly-haired boys as napkins at feasts. Or rather, of course, they only used their hair, which they wiped their hands on. For boys it was considered incredible luck to get into the service of a high-ranking Roman as such a “table boy.”

9. Some women in Rome drank turpentine (despite the risk of fatal poisoning) because it made their urine smell like roses.

10. The tradition of the wedding kiss came to us from the Roman Empire, where the newlyweds kissed at the end of the wedding, only then the kiss had a different meaning - it meant a kind of seal under the oral marriage contract. So the marriage deal was valid

11. The popular expression “return to one’s native Penates,” meaning a return to one’s home, to the hearth, is more correctly pronounced differently: “return to one’s native Penates.” The fact is that the Penates are the Roman guardian gods of the hearth, and each family usually had images of two Penates next to the hearth.

12. The wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius, Messalina, was so lustful and depraved that she amazed her contemporaries who were accustomed to many things. According to historians Tacitus and Suetonius, she not only ran a brothel in Rome, but also worked there as a prostitute, personally serving clients. She even set up a competition with another famous prostitute and won it, servicing 50 clients versus 25.

13. The month of August, which was previously called Sextillis (sixth), was renamed in honor of the Roman emperor Augustus. January was named after the Roman god Janus, who had two faces: one looking back - in last year, and the second looked forward - into the future. The name of the month of April comes from the Latin word "aperire", which means to open, possibly due to the fact that flower buds open during this month.

14. In ancient Rome, prostitution not only was not illegal, but was also considered a common profession. Priestesses of love were not covered with shame and contempt, so they did not need to hide their status. They walked freely around the city, offering their services, and to make it easier to distinguish them from the crowd, prostitutes wore shoes on high heels. No one else wore heels, so as not to mislead those who wanted to buy sex.

15. In Ancient Rome, there were special bronze coins to pay for the services of prostitutes - spintrii. They depicted erotic scenes - as a rule, people in various positions during sexual intercourse.

Patricians and plebeians

The widest division was between the patricians, those who could trace their ancestry back to the first Senate established by Romulus, and the plebeians, all other citizens. Initially, everything government agencies were open only to patricians, and they could not marry with other classes. Modern politicians and writers (Coriolanus, for example) in the Royal period and in the Early Republic thought of the plebeians as a crowd scarcely capable of rational thought. However, the plebeians who had their labor taken away had the opportunity to bring about change. After a series of social protests, they received the right to hold office and appoint a tribune of the plebeians, and the banning law was repealed mixed marriage. The office of plebeian tribune, founded in 494 BC, was the main legal defense against the arbitrariness of the patricians. The tribunes originally had the power to protect any plebeian from the patrician magistrate. Later revolts forced the Senate to grant tribunes additional powers, such as the right to veto legislation. The tribune of the plebeians had immunity, and he was obliged to keep his house open during the entire period of his official duties.

After these changes, the distinction between patrician status and plebeian status became less important. Over time, some patrician families found themselves in predicament, while some plebeian families rose in status and the composition of the ruling class changed. Some patricians, such as Publius Clodius Pulcher, petitioned to gain plebeian status, partly to gain the position of tribune, but also to reduce the burden of taxes. Rome, as a participant in world trade, was undergoing numerous changes: those who could not adapt to the new commercial facts of Roman society often found themselves in the position of having to marry the daughters of wealthier plebeians or even freedmen. People who achieved higher positions, such as Gaius Marius or Cicero, were known as novus homo (" new person"). They and their descendants became nobiles (“noble”), while remaining plebeians. Some religious offices remained reserved for patricians, but in general the distinction was largely a matter of prestige.

Classes according to property status

At the same time, the census divided citizens into six composite classes, according to their wealth status. The richest were the senatorial class, those who had at least 1,000,000 sesterces. Membership in the senatorial class did not necessarily entail membership in the Senate. The wealth of the senatorial class was based on the ownership of large agricultural lands, and members of this class were prohibited from participating in commercial activities. With a few exceptions, all political positions were filled by men from the senatorial class. Below them were the equites ("horses" or "knights"), with 400,000 sesterces, who could engage in trade and formed an influential business class. Below the horsemen were three more classes of property-owning citizens; and finally the proletarians, who had no property.

Initially the census was supposed to determine military service, then limited to the first five classes of citizens (collectively adsidui), including equestrians - those who could afford to keep a war horse. The sixth class, the proletarians, could not serve until the military reforms of Gaius Marius in 108 BC. e. During the Republic, the census classes also served as Rome's electoral college. Citizens in each class were registered in centuries, and at elections a single vote was cast from each century; however, higher classes had more centuries, each with fewer participants. This meant that the rich man's voice had higher value than the voice of the poor.

Non-citizens

Women

Freeborn women belonged to their fathers' social class until marriage, after which they joined their husband's class. Freed women could marry, but marriages with senators or equestrians were prohibited, and they did not join their husband's class. Slaves were allowed to marry, depending on whether their owners would allow it.

Foreigners

Latin law, a form of citizenship with fewer rights than full Roman citizenship, was initially applied to the allied cities of Latium and gradually spread throughout the empire. Latin citizens had rights under Roman law, but did not vote, although their chief magistrates could become full citizens. Freeborn foreigners were known as peregrines, and there were laws regulating their behavior and disputes. The differences between Latin law and Roman law continued until 212 AD. BC, when Caracalla extended full Roman citizenship to all freeborn men in the empire.

Freedmen

Freedmen (liberti) were freed slaves who had a form of Latin law; their freeborn children were full citizens. Their status changed from generation to generation, throughout the period of the Republic; Titus Livy states that freedmen in the Early Republic mostly joined the lower subclasses of the plebeians, while Juvenal, writing during the Empire, when financial aspects alone dictated the division of classes, describes freedmen who were accepted into the equestrian class.

Freedmen made up the majority of civil servants during the early Empire. Many became extremely wealthy as a result of bribes, fraud, or other forms of corruption, or were gifted large fortunes by the emperor they served. Other freedmen participated in the trade, amassing vast fortunes that were often rivaled only by those of the wealthiest patricians. Most freedmen, however, joined the plebeian classes, and were often farmers or merchants.

Although freedmen were not allowed to vote during the Republic and early Empire, children of freedmen were automatically granted citizen status. For example, the poet Horace was the son of a freedman from Venusia in southern Italy.

Many of Juvenal's satires contain angry denunciations of the claims of wealthy freedmen, some of whom "with the chalk of the slave market still at their heels." Although himself also the son of a freedman, Juvenal primarily saw these successful men as “new rich men” who boasted too much of their (often ill-gotten) wealth.

Slaves

Slaves (servi, "servi") were mostly descended from debtors and from prisoners of war, especially women and children captured during military campaigns in Italy, Spain and Carthage. During the Late Republic and Empire, most slaves came from newly conquered areas: Gaul (known as France today), Great Britain, North Africa, the Middle East, and what is now eastern Turkey.

Slaves initially had no rights. However, as time passed, the Senate, and later the emperors, established that legislation must protect the life and health of slaves. But until slavery was abolished, Roman men routinely used their slaves for sexual purposes. Horace, for example, writes about his love for his young, attractive slave. The children of slaves were themselves slaves. But in many cases, testators (for example, Tacitus) freed their children, considering them to be the legal heirs.

1. Mouth rinse

In Ancient Rome there was so little need developed business that the government has introduced special taxes on the sale of urine. There were people who made a living only by collecting urine. Some collected it from public urinals, while others went from house to house with a large vat and asked people to fill it. Today it is even difficult to imagine ways to use collected urine. For example, her clothes were cleaned.

The workers filled the vat with clothes, after which they poured urine on them. After this, one person climbed into the vat and trampled on the clothes to wash them. But this is nothing compared to how the Romans brushed their teeth. In some areas, people used urine as a mouthwash. It was claimed that it made teeth shiny and white.

2. General sponge

In fact, when going to the toilet, the Romans took with them special combs designed to comb out lice. And the worst happened after people relieved themselves in great need. Each public toilet, which was usually used by dozens of other people at the same time, had only one sponge on a stick, which was used for wiping. However, the sponge was never cleaned and was used by all visitors.

3. Methane explosions

Every time a person entered a Roman toilet, he risked death. The first problem was that creatures living in the sewer system often crawled out and bit people while they relieved themselves. Even more worst problem consisted of the accumulation of methane, which sometimes accumulated in such quantities that it ignited and exploded.

Toilets were so dangerous that people resorted to magic to try to stay alive. The walls of many of the toilets were covered with magical spells designed to ward off demons. Also in some of the toilets there were statues of the goddess of fortune, Fortuna, to whom people prayed when entering.

4.Blood of gladiators

There were many eccentricities in Roman medicine. Several Roman authors wrote that after gladiatorial fights, the blood of dead gladiators was often collected and sold as medicine. The Romans believed that gladiator blood could cure epilepsy and drank it as medicine.

And this was still a relatively civilized example. In other cases, the livers of dead gladiators were completely cut out and eaten raw. Oddly enough, some Roman doctors actually report that this treatment worked. They claim to have seen people who drank human blood and were cured of epileptic seizures.

5. Cosmetics made from dead flesh

While defeated gladiators became a cure for epileptics, the victors became a source of aphrodisiacs. In Roman times, soap was quite rare, so athletes cleaned themselves by covering their bodies with oil and scraping off dead skin cells, as well as sweat and dirt, with a tool called a strigil.

As a rule, all this dirt was simply thrown away, but not in the case of gladiators. Their scrapings of dirt and dead skin were bottled and sold to women as an aphrodisiac. This mixture was also often added to face cream, which women used in the hope that they would become irresistible to men.

6. Erotic art

The volcanic eruption that buried Pompeii has left the city perfectly preserved for archaeologists. When scientists first began excavating Pompeii, they found things that were so obscene that they were hidden from the public for long years. The city was full of erotic art in the craziest forms.

For example, one could see a statue of Pan copulating with a goat. In addition, the city was full of prostitutes, which was reflected on... the sidewalks. And today you can visit the ruins of Pompeii and see what the Romans saw every day - penises carved into the roads, which pointed the way to the nearest brothel.

7. Penises for good luck

The topic of penises was quite popular in Rome, unlike modern society. Their images could be found literally everywhere, they were even often worn around the neck. In Rome, it was considered fashionable for young men to wear copper penises on a necklace. It was believed that they were not only fashionable and stylish, but could also “prevent harm” that could be caused to the people who wore them.

Also, penises were painted “for good luck” in dangerous places to protect travelers. For example, pictures of penises were painted almost everywhere on rickety and rickety bridges in Rome.

8. Exposure of the buttocks

Rome is unique in that for the first time in history, written evidence of the exposure of the buttocks was recorded. The Jewish priest Josephus first described the display of the buttocks during the riot in Jerusalem. During Passover, Roman soldiers were sent to the walls of Jerusalem to watch for an uprising.

One of these soldiers, according to Josephus, “turned his back to the city wall, lowered his trousers, bent down and uttered a shameless sound.” The Jews were furious. They demanded that the soldier be punished and then began throwing stones at the Roman soldiers. Soon, riots broke out in Jerusalem, but the gesture was preserved for thousands of years.

9. Fake vomiting

The Romans took the concept of excess in everything to a new level. According to Seneca, the Romans at banquets ate until they simply “couldn’t eat anymore,” and then artificially induced vomiting in order to continue eating. Some people vomited into bowls that they kept near the table, but others did not “bother” and vomited directly onto the floor next to the table, after which they continued to eat.

10. Goat manure drink

The Romans didn't have bandages, but they found an ingenious way to stop bleeding from wounds. According to Pliny the Elder, people in Rome covered their abrasions and wounds with goat dung. Pliny wrote that the best goat droppings were collected during the spring and dried, but emergency situations Fresh goat droppings were also suitable. But this is far from the most disgusting way the Romans used this “product”.

Charioteers drank it as a source of energy. They either diluted boiled goat droppings in vinegar or stirred it into their drinks. Moreover, it was not only poor people who did this. According to Pliny, the greatest fanatic of drinking goat dung was the Emperor Nero.