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- Title
SPİNOZA'DA DEMOKRASİ DÜŞÜNCESİ.
- Authors
GÜRSUL, Erdal
- Abstract
In the history of political thought, there is an ongoing debate on "what is the best government" about the state or forms of government, starting from Plato in Ancient Greece until Benedictus Spinoza in the Modern Age. In Plato and Aristotle, the state, which was thought to realize the good in human nature, was considered as an absolute monarchy in a theocratic character, although it described human nature as bad in the Middle Ages. Despite this understanding of state and government, first Machiavelli and later Thomas Hobbes advocate an absolute worldly monarchy, even though they also call human nature evil. Machiavelli, who thinks a powerful ruler should rule the state despite Plato's philosopher-king, defends the worldly absolute monarchy without a legitimate ground. Hobbes tries to solve this legitimacy problem, which is left behind by Machiavelli, through contract. Spinoza, on the other hand, sets off from this historical trait and defends democracy, which is excluded from these forms of government up to Spinoza, in terms of both being the rule of the majority and defending freedoms. Spinoza places absolute democracy versus absolute monarchy at the foundation of his political thought as an indispensable form of government of the state with precisely these excluded aspects. His idea of democracy, which is based on freedom of thought and expression, appears as a form of government of a modern state that eliminates social hierarchies on the one hand and is free of theological foundations on the other. The aim of this study is to examine the desired and excluded political governments from Antiquity to the Modern Age and the state forms that emerged as a result, to explain with the reasons that Spinoza defended democracy as an indispensable good form of government, and thus, to show that he has laid the groundwork for the establishment of the modern state.
- Subjects
MONARCHY; POLITICAL philosophy; HUMAN behavior; LIBERTY of conscience; PLATO, 428-347 B.C.; MACHIAVELLI, Niccolo, 1469-1527; SOCIAL hierarchies; HOBBES, Thomas, 1588-1679
- Publication
Academic Journal of Philosophy / Felsefi Düşün, 2023, Issue 20, p1
- ISSN
2148-0958
- Publication type
Article