Political Philosophy

Political Philosophy varies from one country to another while the entire world has derived its basic connotations from the ancient Greeks, Chinese and Indian civilizations. In other words, named as political thoughts or beliefs, political philosophy is about enforcing a law by an authorized person, the necessity, purpose and objective of his presence, what makes the law legitimate issued by the government, the allowances allowed in the law, the freedoms it protects and denies.

 Apart from the above said functions, the termed policy also what rights the citizens are entitled to by the legitimate government, the position where it could be disobeyed or overthrown, the form of the law that controls their action and why besides ensuring regular functioning of the government body. The field of political philosophy is understood better by studying topics such as liberty, justice, property, rights and law.

The ancient medieval period civilization had hugely influenced the modern day political philosophy which has its root found from the Greek civilization. Government forms such as aristocracy, tyranny, monarchy were experiment in the times to finally arrive on the now existing system of democracy. Roman political philosophy was formed by Stoics which led to Plato’s Republic that is the base form of contemporary system that rules the government and the people.

Religion and politics are twins as it has been intervening together since the ages of Romans and Greeks playing a significant part in deciding the fate of the people. Christianity in medieval times believed that God’s two laws namely cosmic law and scriptural law exists within which the natural law or rules of conduct and human law alias specific laws applicable to specific circumstances was expected to coexist. Modern day political philosophy that evolved after great thinkers and philosophers influenced its decision is under constant criticism as the judicial law breaks the basic code by issuing death penalties which is against the law of nature.

Medieval Islam had its source from perception of power and influence while European thoughts were hugely dominated by the Christian way of thinking even though it had much in common to Mutazalite Islamic ideals. The secular political philosophy emerged during the European Renaissance shedding the theological political thought which after the World War II gave way to communism, Marxism and Anglo American thoughts. Free commodities and rights to civilians was widely emphasized with the development of contemporary political philosophy that had undergone much changes in past centuries.      

Questions:

• Is American political philosophy based mainly on Greek civilization?
• How does religious belief influence political philosophy?