Useful notes on Medieval Political Thoughts!
Political thought broadly concerns the nature and forms of power, more specifically, it involves the principles for proper governance. As an academic discipline, political thought has its origins in the ancient Greek society, when city-states were experimenting with various forms of political organization including monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy and democracy.
The first classic work of political philosophy is Plato’s The Republic, which was followed by Aristotle’s Politics. The Stoics and the Roman statesman Cicero’s writings on political thought influenced Roman political philosophy.
The early Christian philosophy of Augustine of Hippo was by and large a rewrite of Plato in a Christian context. The main change that Christian thought brought was to moderate the Stoicism and theory of justice of the Roman world, and emphasize the role of the state in applying mercy as a moral example.
The rise of Islam based on both the Quran and the political philosophy of Muhammad drastically altered the power balances and perceptions of origin of power in the Mediterranean region. Early Muslim philosophy emphasized an inexorable link between science and religion, and the process of ‘ijtihad’ to find truth, in effect all philosophy was political’ as it had real implications for governance.
This view was challenged by the Mutazilite philosophers, who held a more Greek view and were supported by secular aristocracy who sought freedom of action independent of the mosque. However, by the medieval period, the Asharite view of Islam had, in general, triumphed and all philosophy was henceforth subordinated to theology, a situation that persisted until the rise of modern Islamic philosophy.
Christian thinking heavily influenced medieval political thought in Europe. It had much in common with the Islamic thinking, in that the Roman Catholics also subordinated philosophy to theology. Perhaps the most influential political philosopher of the medieval period was St. Thomas Aquinas, who helped reintroduce Aristotle’s works, which had been preserved in the interim only by the Muslims.
Aquinas’s use of them set the agenda for scholastic political philosophy, and dominated European thought for centuries. However, the most influential work was Nicola Machiavellis the Prince, in 1532 and The Discourses, a rigorous analysis of the classical period. The modern political thought is largely derived from this work.