Plato:
1. "The fundamental idea of The Republic came to Plato in the form of his master's
doctrine". Sabine.Discuss?
2. "Republic conveys the broadest and the deepest analysis of political idealism ever
made". Leo Strauss. Comment?
3. "The Republic of Plato defies classification".Sabine. Analyse?
4. "Plato's philosophy is the most savage and most profound attack on liberal ideas
which history can show." Crossman Discuss?
5. Justice is the order of the state and the state is the visible embodiment of
justice.Comment?
6. "Justice is the hinge of Plato's thought , as the text of his discourse." Barker.
Comment?
Aristotle:
1. Aristotle's political thought is a blend of idealism and realism.Elucidate?
2. Aristotle's theory of revolution projects him as a status-quoist. Discuss?
3. "The most perfect admixture of the political elements ,the more lasting will be the
constitution".Aristotle. Comment?
4. Aristotle's treatment of the subject of revolution is most empirical and full of
objectivity . Do you agree?
Machiavelli:
1. "Machiavelli is a consistent, passionate and a devoted champion of
Republicanism."Skinner. Analyse?
2. Machiavelli laid the foundation of the new science of politics in the same way as
Galileo's dynamics became the basis of the modern science of nature.Discuss?
3. Machiavelli touched the nerve of political science with his value free orientation and
moral indifference. comment?
4. “A product of Renaissance, such as Machiavelli repudiates the old medieval nation of
an objective moral order" W T Jones. Comment?
5. "The most revolutionary aspect of Machiavelli’s idea about politics is the reason of
the state." Ebenstein. Evaluate?
Hobbes:
1. "Leviathan is the greatest and perhaps the sole master piece of political philosophy
written in english language".Oakshott . Comment?
2. Where there is no common power, there is no law ;where there is no law, there is no
justice. Discuss?
3. It is the clear cut individualism which makes Hobbes philosophy most revolutionary of
the age. Comment?
Locke:
1. "Locke's theory of revolution is perhaps the most valuable aspect of his political
philosophy". John Plamenatz. Comment?
2. Evaluate Locke as a bourgeoise apologist?
Rousseau:
1. Rousseau's concept of social contract exemplifies the transition from natural liberty
to civil liberty. Discuss?
2. "The mere impulse of appetite is slavery, while obedience to law we prescribe to
ourself is liberty". Comment?
Bentham:
1. "Quantity of pleasure being equal, pushpin is as good as poetry."Comment
2. "The greatest happiness of. the greatest number is the foundation of morals and
legislations". Elucidate?
Mill:
1. The only freedom which deserves a name is that of pursuing our own good in our
own way ,so long we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs. Comment?
2. "The subjection of women to men being a universal custom ,any departure from it
quite naturally appears natural........."
J.S. Mill. Comment?
1. "Pleasure and freedom are the only things desirable as ends.All desirable things are
desirable either for pleasure inherent in them or as the means to the promotion of
pleasure........". J.S Mill. Comment?
Kant::
1. "Reason is the distinctive quality of human agency which impels each person to treat
himself and every other person as an end in itself". Comment?
Hegel:
1. "The history of mankind does not begin with a conscious aim of any kind........".
Analyse?
2. The state represents the synthesis of virtues of family and civil society.Discuss?
Marx:
1. "Dialectics is a science of general laws of motion, development of nature , human
society and thought..."
Engels. Elaborate?
1. "Our epoch, the epoch of bourgeoise , possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it
has simplified the class antagonism." Marx. Comment?
2. For Marx freedom means the ability to achieve the totality of human goods.
Comment?
Hannah Arendt:
1. The most distinctive aspect of Hannah Arendt's thought is her analysis of problems of
human freedom and the various forms of power prevailing in the society. Comment?
2. Violence appears where power is in jeopardy, but left to its own course , power
disappears. Comment?
3. "Only the mobs and elites can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism.
Masses have to be won by propaganda." Discuss?
4. Ideology is based on the " logic of an idea". Hannah Arendt.Comment?
5. "The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative, the day after the
revolution". Discuss?
6. Action as distinguished from fabrication, is never possible in isolation, to be isolated
is to be deprived of the capacity to act.Comment?
Gramsci:
1. According to Gramsci, consensus rests at the level of civil society, hence must be won
there.Discuss?
2. How Gramsci broadly defines the term intellectual. In what way his theory of
intellectuals is a recalibration of Marxist notions about class and ideology?
3. How Gramsci delineates the two levels of superstructures and how its functioning
differs from the state?
