A condensed summary of this chapter for last-minute revision: thinkers, key quotes, definitions, and comparison tables. The full notes are available separately for detailed reading.
1 Three Common Images of Politics
| Image | Who Holds It |
|---|---|
| Public service | Politicians, election candidates |
| Manipulation/self-interest | Those who link it to “dirty politics”, “scams” |
| “What politicians do” | A few people, who link politics with “scams” |
It is not only ordinary people who despair of politics: businessmen and entrepreneurs blame politics for their woes even as they benefit from and fund political parties, and cinema stars also complain of politics.
2 Quotes and Thinkers Worth Remembering
3 Socrates-Plato : The Search for Justice
In Plato’s book “The Republic”, a dialogue between Socrates, Cephalus and Polemarchus shows that “speaking the truth and paying debts” and “doing good to friends, harm to enemies” are both inadequate definitions of justice. Through reason, this is proven: the injuring of another can be in no case just.
4 Definitions, Exactly as They Should Be Written
5 Two Separate Comparisons, Don’t Mix Them Up
5.1 Mathematics versus Political Theory
Mathematics
- One single definition of a triangle/square
- Concerns objects
- One fixed correct answer
Political Theory
- Many definitions of equality/freedom/justice
- Concerns relationships between human beings
- Diverse opinions, deliberation required
5.2 Four Reasons to Study Political Theory
Relevance to all groups (the mathematics-learning comparison), informed citizenship (the citizen-audience metaphor), everyday discrimination (caste-religion-gender-class), and rational debating skills (debate and elocution competitions).
- Three common images of politics: public service, manipulation, “what politicians do”
- The tradition of political theory: Kautilya-Aristotle to Rousseau-Marx-Gandhi-Ambedkar
- Gandhi observed that politics envelops us like the coils of a snake, and we must wrestle with it
- Socrates-Plato: the injuring of another can be in no case just
- Mathematics versus political theory: one definition versus many, two separate comparisons, don’t mix them up
- Four reasons to study political theory: relevance, informed citizenship, everyday discrimination, debating skills