International Relations - Essay Example

?Q1 In what ways is Plato’s thought central to the development of ancient and medieval political theory? Are there any parallels in his philosophy ofthe polis to our modern conception of the state? How does he explain the relationship between human nature and political community? How can we use Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave as a metaphor for thinking about International Relation today? Plato was the first to establish a theory which was considered to include both the political power and the political leadership legitimization. He was known to be an Athenian; his generation came immediately after that of the Socrates. Although he was not the conversation leader, his dialogue features the Socrates. Plato has the political doctrine attributed to him, it was mainly obtained from the statesman, the laws and even from the republic Taylor, (121-122). He focused mainly on the following; that living a good life is considered to be our actions final end, which is individuals pursuing happiness in life. Plato also highlights that an individual having a good life depend on utilizing personal skills and abilities and that of other different external goods. He further adds that all these require individuals to have virtues. Virtues on the other hand forces individuals to have the knowledge of the good. Plato concludes that the search of happiness required an individual to possess the knowledge of good. Thus through his various contributions Plato is perceived to play a key role in the establishment of the ancient d the medieval political theory. In bringing about the philosophy, polis also resulted in what Aristotle referred to as being two lives. This included the life of politics and that of philosophy. There were several issues that needed clarification and it included; whether philosophers could conduct themselves politically, whether they could be involved in the normal politics in the current regimes or come up with their own, and also if they were suppose remain purely philosophical without getting involved in politics. Considering the above questions, the philosophical life of Socrates was considered as having been involved in politics before experiencing death philosophically. However for both Plato and Aristotle they perceived politics as being less divined and considered it to be less attractive as compared to studying the world truth which to them was extensive. Even though philosophy may handle issues on politics its major task is more as compared to that of politics. It is important to understand that those who established the earlier political philosophy were focused in differentiating and making philosophy independent from the ordinary actions of politics. This does not necessarily imply that they did not possess ordinary intentions of politics, but rather to clearly state that the establishment of political philosophy was meant to problematized the ordinary political life value. Considering the conception of the modern state it greatly varies with the polis philosophy. There is no clear difference between the state and the political life. It is even difficult to determine which one is above the other, which in reality the state should be superior. According to Plato a political community which is just is structured in a manner where every citizen gets an appropriate opportunity to make contribution for the sake of the communities to benefit. Hence, individuals should have virtues which include social virtues, and an individual can attain this through the theoretical teaching and through education provided. The knowledge of the good according to Plato has different ways; it includes the different modes where an individual’s character is trained and the theoretical knowledge obtained. This consists of a particular type of knowledge considered to be of second-order which mostly concerns the appropriate logical patterns and the given criteria used particularly in the epistemic quality of beliefs evaluation. True reality is not always obvious to majority of us mainly because of how we conduct our lives. We tend to mistake the reality and truth for what we see and hear. This mainly forms the Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave basic premise, where prisoners are seated in a cave while tied and are staring at different images in front of them. Situations concerning international relations are described metaphorically in the current world. The several key elements used by Plato describe the current international relations. Here there are several ideas concerning society and apply to the international relations. The world’s fundamental perception is transformed. There is a possibility that reality will be perceived in a deeper, genuine and authentic manner. Reality which is considered reasonable. Q3. What are the key differences between Christianity and Islamic thought in the Middle Age? How does their understanding of order reflect different geo-historical (i, e; political, cultural, economic) experience? What are the elements (philosophical, ideological, territorial, and legal) that made the emergence of these two communities possible? Are there any parallels between the medieval conception of power and the rise and expansion of Rome? Between the western Christianity and the Islam, there were no important interactions which were of importance. As result since the two religions did not interact mutually in terms of science and the natural philosophy, significant contrasts existed between the two. These differences mainly focused on the way the scientific heritage which was received by the two religious traditions was responded to and utilised. There are several differences that surpass both the natural philosophy and science. Christianity began within the Roman Empire and it extended in a manner which considered being slow, quiet and even persistent. Christianity was considered to be disseminated in a slower pace unlike that of the Islam. According to Lassner, and Michael (83-84), the effective representation of Christianity in the whole Roman Empire came several years later after the birth of Christ. Just like the rest of the religions which existed in the empire, Christianity gained equality in 313 through the Milan Edict which is also known as the tolerance Edict. In 392, was considered the state religion, this was four centuries later after Christ was born. This was the period when the pagan temples were closed and the pagan worship forbidden under the order of Theodosius who was the emperor. Islam greatly contrasted with Christianity in that within a short period it had already covered a wider area geographically. Islam was considered to be a religion which dominated a wider area which was between Gibraltar which had its location in the western side and India which was on the east. This took place within a short period which was estimated to be less than one hundred years after Muhammad had died in 632. This rapid spread is considered to have been possible only through conquest. Christianity is considered to have extended slowly, Islam on the other hand by proselytizing originated from outside the roman world and was considered to be an intruder that was alien. The Islamic perceived the Greek learning as being alien regardless of most of its converts being pagans and even those who before were Christians. This is clearly portrayed by the manner in which two different kinds of sciences were differentiated by the Muslims. These sciences were the Islamic sciences which were mainly founded on the Koran, the law of Islam and all its traditions. The other kind of science was the foreign science or the pre-Islamic science and mainly consisted of the both the Greek science and the natural philosophy. It can be concluded that Christianity having extended in a slower pace enable the Christians to adjust to the secular learning which belonged to the Greek, while the rapid spread of Islam was of great disadvantage in that they faced various challenges in relating with the Greek learning. Another difference arises from the church and the state relationship. In Christianity, the state was distinguished from the state. The two acknowledged the independence which existed between them regardless of the two having contending powers all through the Middle Ages. The two viewed themselves as being two swords. The church did not come up with theocracy even though they asserted supremacy over the state. On the hand the Islam and the state are considered to be unified. The state played a key role in that it had to ensure that the Muslim religion was progressing well and that all individuals within the state were good and practiced Islamic. Another difference which was considered significant was that the organizational and the structural of the Islam and the medieval Christian. In the cases of Islam there was no authority which could determine the religion orthodoxy unlike Christianity which had papacy in place to ensure existence of faith and to fight heresy. In summary, Islamic religion is considered as being democratic and consensus played a key role in it while the medieval Christendom was perceived to be a religion which was centralized and under the pope who was a single individual with authority to transform the opinion and belief of religion. The centralized Christianity is expected to have been very strict regarding the secular growth learning than the Islamic religion which was best known to be focused on consensus. However this was not the case, the revelation of the record was that the church was more involved in secular learning and in most cases the Aristotelian natural philosophy. This was not the case in Islam, all the philosophers together with Aristotelian natural philosophy were not tolerated and in most cases they faced more hostility form the Islam community. Several elements made the emergence of both the Islam and Christianity possible. Among the great stories in the world history is the Greek science and the natural philosophy’s impact on the Islam and the Latin Christianity’s civilization. The Greek science transmission into Arabic which was successful and later that of the Arabic and the Greek science into Latin resulted in the Greco-Islamic-Latin science in the Middle Ages In the seventeen century, the scientific revolution stage was set by the natural philosophy together with the Greco-Islamic-Latin science. The natural philosophy and the science transmittal right from Greek to Arabic and then the Arabic to Latin was a one way process (Hyman, et al. 88-90). Sources Grant, Edward. The Nature of Natural Philosophy in the Late Middle Ages.USA, CUA Press, 2010. Hyman, Arthur. et al. Philosophy in the Middle Ages: The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish . Indiana, Hackett Publishing, 2010. Lassner, Jacob & Michael David Bonner. Islam in the Middle Ages: the origins and shaping of classical Islamic civilization. Carlifornia, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2010. Taylor, A. E. Plato: the man and his work. New York, NY: Courier Dover Publications, 2001. Read More