"The prince must be fox and the lion at the same time." Comment

Machiavelli is a realist thinker who gives theories in terms of power. He in his book "The Prince" gave this statement/ advice to the prince. That, Prince, should rule with the cleverness like a fox and the braveness like a lion at the same time. The purpose of these dual values in the prince is to make him rule for a long time solely for the national interest. He suggests to the prince that it is better to be feared than to be loved by the people.

His own experience in the field of bureaucracy reflects in his book. In the late 15th century Italy was in a state of corruption. Italy was the seat of the Roman church. Roman church was the corrupt institution and source of all evil. The church was the main reason for the non-unification of Italy into a nation-state. According to Machiavelli, Prince must use his iron hand to rule the corrupt state. Support the common people over noble because feudalism is in its breakdown stage but stay sceptical for others. 

He believes that men are by nature ungrateful, deceitful, coward, fickle-minded and avaricious. Man is soo greedy that he can easily forget the loss of his father than the loss of his patrimony. So, the wise prince must execute rather than confiscate, understand the basic nature of man and use it in politics accordingly. On this advice, Sabine criticizes him by calling him "narrowly dated, narrowly located". His description of human nature is too much shaped by his experience of human nature during his time in Italy.

Initially, reason and philosophy were two important qualities that the prince must-have. Machiavelli gave psychology and history to the prince to understand human nature and better guide for politics. As Dunning said, "everybody is Machiavelli, but no one dares to admit it."

Explain Aristotle's critique on Plato's idealism.

Aristotle is the greatest disciple as well as the greatest critique of Plato. Plato advocates idealism in his theories and Aristotle is a rational thinker which make him the critique of Plato. Both have different perspectives about the existence of idea, one believes reality is mere a reflection of idea and other believes idea is inside the reality, if reality goes away its also goes away. For Plato reality and idea are two different worlds but for Aristotle reality and idea exist together.

Aristotle criticize Plato's idea of justice. Plato in his state only give duty and no rights. He put power in one hand, absolute power can degrade the system. There is no all round development of individual only functional specialization based on his theory of myths of metal and there is no judicial system.

Aristotle is the biggest critique of Plato's theory of philosopher king(PK). For Aristotle, PK is the best form of government but not practicable. PK is a just man who have a just soul. According to Plato, only just man can make a just state. A state of bliss and prosperity. Aristolte criticize Plato by calling it a utopia. His concern is soul of man contain both reason and appetite even if PK have 99% reason but he also have appetite and it may dominate one day. 

In order to create an ideal state/ just state, Plato gave his theory of communism of family and property. In which Plato take away private ownership from ruling classes. He believes it promote corruption because of the essence of self attached with it. Aristotle is a supporter of property. He argue that property is the source of inspiration and motivation. It bring donation. It is a symbol of success and reason because only a man of reason with his skill and efforts can make his property. It brings qualities like generosity, hospitality and liberality.

Polity is the best practicable form of government. Comment

 Aristotle is the father of comparative politics. The above statement is coming from his theory of constitution. Based on his study of 158 constitutions, he has given the classification which becomes a guide for all the subsequent thinkers who ventured to clarify governments. For Aristotle, constitution, government and state are similar terminologies. Therefore, he is also known as the father of constitutionalism because he did not differentiate between the constitution and the manner of the government. 

He has given 6 basic forms of the constitution. He has classified the constitution basis on two parameters. The objective of the governance and the number of people ruling. Aristotle proposes 6 fold classifications, 3 good and 3 bad. The three good consists of the Monarchy(rule of one), Aristocracy(rule of few) and Polity(rule of many). The corresponding types of perverted constitutions are Tyranny, Oligarchy and Democracy. In this scheme, the absolute best form of constitution is Monarchy, the absolute worst is Tyranny.

In his classification, the rule of Monarchy or Philosopher King is best but unachievable, its practical form is Tyranny which is the worst of all. Polity is the rule of the middle class in the interest of the people. It represents the golden mean of Oligarchy(rule of few rich) and Democracy(rule of many ignorant). Rich does not trust poor, poor conspire against the rich. Both trust the middle class. Polity avoids two extremes. The extremes of richness and poverty and the extremes of arrogance and ignorance. The middle class have reason and moderate wealth. This makes them the greatest lawmaker.

The hidden message of Aristotle's theory is a state where large gaps exist between the rich and poor classes those states will be prone to conspiracy and in states in which a greater number of people in the middle class exist those states are stable.

Slavery is natural and beneficial both for the master and slave. Comment

Aristotle in his theory of slavery defines slavery and justified its importance for everyone master, state, economic system and even to slave itself. He beliefs that slavery is a natural institution. Slaves by nature are dependent, not virtuous, less capable in the development of the state but they are physically strong which makes them a great helper. This belief can be traced back to Plato's theory of soul, which beliefs in natural disabilities and differences exist in the human soul.

According to Aristotle, slaves are naturally inferior and masters are naturally superior. Just like the soul rules the body similarly reason rules the appetite. Master has reason therefore slaves depend on it. Slaves provide leisure to master, leisure is necessary for the welfare state. In its essence, it promotes the proportionate distribution of honour and resources. Aristotle is conservative in nature. He believed it as a profitable institution that has sustained the test of time and has reduced chaos and disorder in society. In a state of stability, a nation can grow economically and prosper.

It is good for masters because the master is the citizen of the state which means he has reason and property and is concerned with the issues of the nation and community, slaves can provide assistance in daily works which required physical strength. Slaves in the presence of masters can share virtues and grow rationality, knowledge and capacity. Even liberate if reason and capacity developed.

Aristotle in his categorization defies legal slavery. Prisoners of war are forced slaves who are defeated in a war which does not justify the low rationality. Slavery was essential for all-around development but the master has no right to misuse his power. Slaves are only assistance but not subordinate. But thinkers like Barker says, "justification for the necessity of slavery rather than deduction". In the age of human rights, his words are criticized by comparing on capacity.

The aim pursued by revolutionaries, like the origins of revolution, are the same in tyrannies and kingship as they are under regular constitution. Comment

Aristotle by this statement reflects the essence of revolution which can appear in any form of government worst like tyrannies or best like kingship under the constitution.  Aristotle treats constitution, government and state are interchangeable terminologies. He has compared 158 constitutions and given a detailed view of the cause of revolution.

He prefaces stability and is sensitive toward any change in the political system. Unlike the contemporary revolution associated with Karl Marx, Aristotle's concept of revolution means any change in the political order- big or small, peaceful or violent, change in the number of people, change in the constitution. He has given a general cause or regime specific cause that exists in all forms of government. Among the general cause, the commonest cause is the feeling of inequality which is linked with the feeling of injustice. Thus, he is sensitive about the psychological conditions of men also. The feeling of inequality may be real or imagined. 

Other general causes include a universal passion for power and privileges, carelessness and corruption of the ruling classes, the rivalry between classes, inequalities between income and wealth, impartial behaviour of state giving more privileges to certain individuals and ignoring others and sudden influx of foreigners. In the context of regime specific changes, the monarchy has family quarrels and jealousy, oligarchy suffers the class rivalry, poor conspire against the rich and rich neglect the poor, in the democracy, people will elect the demagogic leaders who will lead into tyranny.

Aristotle has given some additional solutions also as cultivating the spirit of obedience to the law which reflects his concept of the universal justice, educating citizens about the civic virtues, inculcating patriotism, never mistreating any class of people and regulating the distribution of honours. Aristotle has given a very narrow definition of revolution. He believed that revolution brings violence, bloodshed and destruction and without recognizing the fact that revolutions like Marx said are the locomotive of history.

Rule of law is better than rule of men. Comment

Aristotle has compared rule of law with the rule of philosopher king/person and has established the superiority of rule of law. The context of Aristotle's theory is the criticism of the institution of philosopher king. Plato has given absolute powers to the philosopher king. In Plato's words, "no law or ordinance is mightier than knowledge." The rule of men is the best form of government. Plato gave the organic view of the state like families have a father similarly state have a king.

Aristotle is the greatest disciple as well as the greatest critique of Plato. If Plato talks about best, Aristotle talks about the best practicable. According to Aristotle, it is utopia to think that we can find the philosopher king and even if we find a philosopher king there is no guarantee that he will act with reason only. For Plato, the philosopher king create a just state because he has a just soul and that soul is dominated by reason. Aristotle argues that even the reason dominate but appetite exists and may dominate someday.

According to Aristotle, law and reason are the same. They are two sides of the same coin. The purpose of both is to guide man about right and wrong. Law is an outward manifestation of reason. If the reason is in the soul, the law is in the book of law. Not only both are the same. Law comes with additional security and benefits.

Law is reason without passion. Law does not change according to person. It is impersonal. It represents the collective wisdom which is preferable to the wisdom of one person. It represents the wisdom of ages and it could not be wise to challenge the collective wisdom of ages in the name of ultimate knowledge. The inherited message of Aristotle is to not sacrifice good for the sake of the best. 

Machiavelli's secularism

Every thinker is the child of his time, this statement suits most in the case of Machiavelli. Lasky called Machiavelli the child of a renaissance. During this time church was the most corrupt institution and also Italy was the seat of the Roman church. Machiavelli is the realist. He is considered the father of western secularism. He was the first person who could dare to suggest that politics and ethics are two different domains. He was the first person to establish the autonomy of politics from ethics or religion. He defines politics as statecraft which is the management of power. He considers religion as a matter of personal domain.

Machiavelli was neither immoral nor anti-religious. He considers that political actions cannot be guided from the yardstick of religion. The yardstick of politics is national interest. He was against the interference of the church in politics and not the use of religion by a prince.

Distributive Justice. Comment

 The entire Greek philosophy revolves around the importance of justice. It is an abstract idea, and it is difficult to define it in fixed terms. As it is seen differently by different thinkers. Aristotle regards justice as a virtue but it is more than a virtue. It is virtue in action. In Aristotle's classification of justice, a subcategory of particular justice is distributive justice.

According to Aristotle, this form of justice is the most powerful law to prevent any revolution. As this justice belief in the proper and proportionate distribution of resources like office, post, honour as per their requirement is a citizen of a state. The distribution of goods and wealth is merit-based. Aristotle does not believe in the democratic or oligarchic methods of justice only those citizens will receive who contribute to the highest level in support of the state. Because the virtuous people are few. Most of the offices will be given to those few only. 

Plato's communism is a supplement machinery to give effect to and reinforce that spirit which education is to create. Discuss

The purpose of Plato is to make an ideal state. The root cause of problems in his state Athens was corruption. Plato believes is that idea is the ultimate reality. The idea is the purest form of anything. And only a man of reason has an Idea of an ideal state. According to Socrates, knowledge is true knowledge if it teaches virtues of philosophy and not the knowledge of money and power. Plato was the greatest disciple of Socrates, inspired by him Plato give his theory of education. Plato believes that education is the only tool to find the aptitude of the person. A person in which reason dominates over courage and appetite will become a member of the ruling class. The wise man among the members of the ruling class will become his philosopher king. A man of reason, a man of just soul and a symbol of sacrifice. According to Plato, it would be foolish to question the authority or limit the power of philosopher king. His wisdom cannot be questioned by the common people. Knowledge of a man is more important than the knowledge of a book.

Plato also gives his theory of communism which is basically supplemented machinery to remove every possibility of distraction by Philosopher king from his duty/obligation toward the state. Plato believes that property and family have the essence of self which can bring nepotism and corruption in the ruling class. To tackle such desires of the ruling class Plato take away these affairs from the personal sphere to the state's responsibility only in the ruling class. Private property is evil for society, cause conflicts. Philosopher king with his wisdom and above additional safeguards will bring true happiness in the life of citizens and Athens will become an ideal state.

Plato's theory of education is the logical result of his conception of justice. Discuss

Plato's desire was to make an ideal state or just state. A state where citizen's life can enrich and grow virtuously. In the words of Plato, State is individual writ large. In a sense, Plato's conception of justice of citizens is related to the just state. In his theory of education, Plato believes education is a way to find the aptitude of a person. According to Plato, the goal is to go beyond senses (world of matter) to pure conceptual knowledge (world of idea). True knowledge guide to take the right decision. In the human soul, three spiritual qualities exist. Those are the reason, courage and appetite. And one thing dominates out of three which defines human character, Plato believes with his method of education which is capable in finding the true quality of soul, a man in which appetite dominates will become the part of producing class, a man of courage become part of a soldier class and a reasoned man become a member of the ruling class.

Plato gives a holistic view of education. Primary education(0-6 years) character building, Secondary education (6-18 years) basic knowledge of different subjects with a first screening test, those who pass will study further and failed will join the producing class, (18-20 years) compulsory military education with a second screening test, passed will study and rest join soldier class and finally higher education(20-50 years) they will be part of ruling class and only one in them will become philosopher king. 

According to Plato's theory of justice, a just society is in which people have virtues, follow their duty/obligation toward the state because these things will bring peace, harmony and excellence. Justice will come if we can find the just soul, a soul of reason because only the just soul of a just man can bring justice. According to Plato, with two conditions justice can be maintained. If there is a functional specialization means all three classes ruling, soldier and producing do their work with sincerity and the second is non-interference into each other work.

Plato is an enemy of the open society. Comment

Karl Popper was a critique of Plato, he mentioned his name in his book 'Enemies of the open society' with other thinkers like Hegel and Karl Marx. In his book's first volume 'Spells of Plato', he even mentioned him as Fascist. According to Karl Popper, Plato's concept of justice that is based on functional specialization restrict society into 3 classes this not only create boundaries in the movement of thoughts of each class but also indirectly creates a privileged system like guardian class have the power to rule but not the property and vice versa with producing class.

According to Popper, the institution of philosopher king is totalitarian in nature. Totalitarianism is considered bad, anti-democratic, anti-freedom in liberal thoughts. Totalitarianism exists between the two world wars (1919-1939) in European countries Germany, Itlay.

Popper criticizes Plato on three grounds. 1) Essentialism 2) Holism 3) Historicism

• Plato's hatred toward Democracy. Plato project democracy as the worst form of state. It is the rule of ignorants. Plato held that anyone can become a ruler just by chance.
• Plato proposes holistic change rather than piece meal social engineering.
• Plato believes in the essence or idea. Plato believes that he has an idea of Ideal state. An idea can be misleading.

Levinson does not consider Plato as the enemy of the open society. Because Fascism was a real concept and Fascists have established a very exploitative system. Plato's Republic was a utopia. We never know what form Plato's Republic could take place if this was ever implemented. It was seen that Plato's intention was not to exploit people. Plato's desire is to give a life of excellence and virtue to all the citizens of the state.

According to Karl Popper, if we do not see Plato as an enemy of the open society is because of the spell of Plato and the tradition of admiring Plato. 

The state is individual writ large.

This Statement is coming from Plato's theory of justice. Plato wanted to show that the principles of justice that applied to an individual level can also work the same at the level of the state. In a sense that the state is nothing but a magnified version of an individual.

Just like the 3 elements are organised in a specific manner in a soul, similarly, the state is organised into 3 classes. The basis of classes is in the spiritual quality of the soul. Three classes are ruling class, soldier class and producing class based on their soul dominated by reason, courage and appetite respectively. 

Man is not self-sufficient hence man form a state. Each class plays a vital role in it without this state cannot be sustained. Each class understand the importance of the other class. The essence of Plato's idea of justice is proper stationing. Justice is non-interference in each other work. The difference between state and individual by Plato is similar to the difference between a small letter and a big letter. In the words of Plato, state does not come from oak or rock, state is inherent in the mind of the people living in the state.

The hidden message in Plato's view is that a state is nothing but an idea. State is just the collection of people organically related to each other. Only if people are just, state can be just. Principles of justice are the same for individuals and state.  By this view of Plato, we consider a co-relation between ethics and politics.

Plato's communism and compare it with modern communism.

Plato's theory of communism was his conception of justice. He believes that his communism is to classify reason and appetite. Plato's communism is based on property, family instincts and personal life. He believes that family and property would distract man's attention from his duty/obligation toward the state. As family and property is the main source of disagreements in the society. To make an ideal state, the ruling class and guardian class should surrender their family and property. 

Plato's communism of property is in no way related to modern communism. Because there is nowhere mention of socialization of the mean of production. Plato is only concerned with the one mode of production, that is property that has to be socialized. The land and its production are in the hands of the farmers. So only the guardian class is deprived of property, not the producing class. According to Plato, Producing class is powerless and also dominated by appetite. So it may create chaos if they were too deprived of property and family, but the guardian class will maintain the strict supervision so that they do not become too rich or too poor. 

In terms of similarities between Plato's communism and modern communism. But the convergent is superficial like both consider that private property is evil, both belief in the concept of class. But in-depth there are wide gaps. In modern communism, the state is bad and the society is divided into two classes the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, classification based on wealth and their nature is always antagonistic. The purpose of communism is to make a stateless society with only one class in it. Whereas in Plato's communism, state is the most important institution and provide a good life. Society is divided into three classes their classification is based on their soul quality, Purpose is to make an ideal state by class specialization and non-interference into each others business to maintain peace and harmony.

Comment : 'Until philosophers are kings, or kings and prices of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, cities will never be rest from evil.'

Plato knew that the root cause of the problems in Athens was corruption. Plato wants to make Athens an ideal state. With the above statement, Plato was providing a solution to make an ideal state and proposed an institution of a philosopher king. 

To make an ideal state first method is to teach political king philosophy. Plato wants to combine politics with philosophy. Therefore he sends teachers to train political leaders the philosophical truths. The results were rarely what Plato could have desired, for the same irrational politics prevailed no matter what the philosopher thought and this disappointed him. He made two attempts in his life to teach political leaders the philosophy but he failed both times.

 According to Plato, the present institution of politics is guided by sophist's methods. Sophists believe that the ultimate source of happiness is money. In their just society model, might is right. In pursuit of happiness, men can disobey the state law to follow their own interests. According to Plato, the institute of philosopher king will bring justice and real happiness. Philosopher king is the man of reason and therefore his knowledge is mightier than any law or ordinance. He is a symbol of sacrifice. Plato justifies this with his theory of communism. Philosopher king has no desire for family and property.  According to Plato, family and property have an essence of self which can distract the king from his duty toward the state.

He has knowledge of philosophy. With this, he can provide real happiness to the people and make Athens an ideal state. According to Plato, a man of integrity is more important than a man of wealth or a man of property. Integrity is the quality of being honest and having high moral principles. The institute philosopher king holds such high standards.

Comment: 'Reality is the shadow of ideas'.

This statement tells Plato's conception of reality. According to Plato, reality is a shadow of an idea. According to Plato, idea is the ultimate reality. Ideas belong to the world of essence which is beyond the world of appearance. Idea is the perfect form of anything. Physical objects may change but idea is permanent. 

His theory of ideas comes from Socrates theory of knowledge. Plato wants to make an ideal state. To make an ideal state there must have an idea of it. Man of reason has idea. According to Plato, reality is important for a good life. It tells about 'what it is'. But ideas transform from 'what it is' to 'what ought to be'. It is the essence of everything. It is intangible. In order to establish his view, Plato gives the allegory of the cave. According to Plato when we are in a state of ignorance, we consider a world of appearance as real. Our situation is like the man inside the cave with his back toward the sunlight and hands tied. Only when this person is pushed out of the cave, he will realize that what he was considering real was just the illusion of reality or shadow of reality. Only when he has true knowledge he can understand the difference between reality and idea. True knowledge is permanent in nature and did not change like the physical world.

The message behind the above statement is that the ruling class should understand that the physical world is temporary in nature. They should understand that money is not the ultimate source of happiness. It is more important to be a man of integrity rather than a man of wealth or a man of property. Integrity is the utmost virtue or quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.

We can say that Plato has established the superiority of idea over matter, philosophy over physics and he should be rightly called as 'Father of Political Philosophy'.

Comment : 'For, no law or ordinance is mightier than knowledge. '

The justification of absolute power enjoyed by the philosopher king is the theme of the statement. Plato wants to make Athens an ideal state. And according to Plato, until a king become a philosopher or philosopher become king ideal state can not be established. 

According to Plato, Philosopher king is the symbol of knowledge and sacrifice. Plato has given absolute power to the philosopher king with only one exception of the constitution which he cannot change. Philosopher king has the ultimate knowledge which cannot be challenged or changed by the common people or the book of laws. If we limit the powers of philosopher king with ordinary wisdom of people that would be foolish to limit the expert of medicine by the book of medicine. He is a man of reason and has knowledge of philosophy and he knows the path of "good life". According to Plato, good life is the final justice to the people and path of a just state by the just king only.

Aristotle is the critique of the Institution of philosopher king. Aristotle prefers rule of law over the rule of men. Howsoever knowledgeable he is. It is impossible to find a philosopher king. Philosopher king was also a human being. If he has a reason, he also has an appetite. It may happen that appetite becomes dominant over reason. Until now law has served the purpose. Law represents collective wisdom and wisdom of ages.

According to Aristotle, Plato is sacrificing good for the sake of best. But best is unachievable. If the rule of philosopher is best then rule of law is best practicable. The ideas of Aristotle are more practical than Plato. It appeals to common sense as suggested by Lord Acton, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Hence, there should be checks and balances.

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

 Regionalism in world politics is an old concept. It generally happens to ensure power balance or wisely says building the capacity of regional members relatively. Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is one of the regional groupings. SCO is a permanent international intergovernmental organisation having headquarters in Beijing, China. Generally, the organisation is found to fulfil the common interest of the founding members and mostly the common interest changes with time which changes the structure and objectives. Its founding leaders are the two great powers of the East- China and Russia. Its other initial members were Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan to the northwest of china roughly shares 3 million sq km of border and Uzbekistan all together form SCO in 2001 a few months before the 9/11 attack, signed the charter in 2002 and enter into force in 2003.

 The SCO was preceded by the creation of a 'Shanghai Five'- Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The three former Soviet republics shared a long frontier with China. The purpose of the Shanghai Five was to stabilise this frontier as well as building on the shared Sino-Russian interest in preventing American meddling in their Central Asian backyard. India and Pakistan were inducted as full members in 2017. Iran reached its track to full membership on 17 September 2021 which have ethnic and linguistic links with the Persian-speaking Afghan Tajiks.

Besides Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia are observers. The SCO has several "Dialogue partners". They include Armenia, Azerbaijan from the neighbouring Caucasus region, Turkey a step further to the West and newly added two from the Middle East- Saudi Arabia and Qatar and one from the other side of the Red Sea, Egypt.

Nepal and Sri Lanka from the subcontinent and Combodia from southeast Asia are also dialogue partners. For an organisation that bears the name of Shanghai, but is focused on Central Asia, its associates look disparate.

Central Asia is a part of India's extended neighbourhood and provides a platform to connect with its traditional friends and challenging neighbours. A platform to express India's outlook toward central Asian developments and find converging areas for mutual benefits and growth.

SCO members are well aware that India is an energy deficient country. Central Asia and Russia are extremely well endowed with Fossil fuels, Natural gas as well as nuclear and Hydropower potential. India's rapidly expanding energy need will provide an assured and stable market to these countries. TAPI pipeline and IPI pipeline are few steps taken in this direction.