Political Philosophy
In this essay, you will address the relationship between political theory and political practice in the writing of either Machiavelli (the Prince) or Martin Luther King, Jr. (Letter from Birmingham City Jail). Each writer has an overt statement (or multiple statements) about his guiding ideas, and also shows several ways by which those ideas need to be translated into action. You should provide an argument identifying the most important ideas and the application of them. Be careful not to get distracted by your own opinions or political beliefs (or apparent applications to current-day political struggles). Your task is to clearly and carefully examine those of your chose writer

Do a quick first reading of the assigned materials in this module and respond to the following questions in this discussion. You’ll find that participating in the discussion will prompt you to go back and reread portions or all of the readings. Philosophy requires reading for understanding, often necessitating reading a passage more than once and thinking about it.

You must make your first post before you’ll be able to see and respond to those of your classmates.

Question:

This module is on Political Philosophy, a branch of Ethics. How ought we to conduct ourselves in a social order? In today’s charged political climate, it is undoubtedly one of the most controversial and contentious areas of philosophy. Participation in this discussion, as in them all, requires complete objectivity.

Carefully construct the ideal form of governance using the theories and principles discussed in this and the previous modules. Be prepared to defend your arguments. Provide counterarguments to your classmates ideal government utilizing good philosophical analysis.

Any position is accepted, but reason must be free of fallacies, especially those of the ad hominem variety. Personal attacks will not be tolerated and will incur heavy deductions.

When you refer to information from the text, identify the location in parenthesis (MLA Intext Citation). In your replies, either support your fellow student’s answers or kindly refute them. Analyze reasoning, pointing out strong or weak premises or reasons as well as fallacies.  Philosophy is built upon successful written and spoken communication.