PHIL2634 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Thomas Aquinas, Divine Providence, Tyrant
Document Summary
The third lecture discusses medieval monarchy and republicanism . Empire in the west in the fifth century ce onwards, the main form of government was kingship, which began as warlordism. Over the centuries kingdoms were formed from the consolidation of territory, and as the economy revived (first around italy) from the eleventh century ce, independent city-states or self-governing republics emerged that built their power on trade rather than land. But neither monarchies nor republics were democratic , and in fact for a very extended period, knowledge of the practice of greek democracy was lost, as were the ancient works in which it had been discussed. Ancient greek texts like aristotle"s politics were simply unavailable. The idea that ordinary people should have final authority over and actively participate in their own government struck medieval thinkers as bizarre, not to mention dangerous.
