Political Science 2237E Lecture Notes - On Liberty, Natural Selection, Escalator

• School: Western University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: Political Science 2237E
• Professor: Douglas Long

Document Summary

We start with the 17th century because the foundations of modern science were laid in mathematics and mechanics by descartes, bacon, and newton. If you understood god and his relationship to his creation, you would understand politics (because you would understand god"s law) Hobbes classified the state as a mortal god who we should fear as we fear the real god. Essentially based on newton"s law that people will continue in one direction, hobbes believes that people will constantly seek power after power until they are stopped by the state. Political science is now architecture, physics, and motion that results in competition; hobbes believed we could only be stopped by the power of the state, however hobbes is out of date because we no longer fear the state. Politics is the domestication and channeling of conflict that makes it fruitful but does not stop it.