Government And The Moral And Metaphysical Implications Of...

Over the length of this course, we have discussed several aspects of politics. We have studied citizenship and obligations to society as a citizen, justice and what it means to us as individuals, and how to go about enacting change within a community and around the world. Some of the most important topics from this class included the characteristics, duties, and obligations of rulers of government. In addition to the concept of rulers, we also studied the notion of authority and the moral and metaphysical implications of authority to individuals autonomy. Within each concept of study, we read works from many authors with conflicting ontologies, constructed from their differing views on human nature. Within the study of rulers, we read differing views from five different authors. The first author, Plato, wrote in his book, The Republic, that there are different levels of understanding the world. The lowest level of understanding, he said, was when someone could see the shadow of the image, then above that level of understanding was to understand the images themselves. That level consisted of most of the people within a society. A select view could understand the next level; scientific manifestations of objects. Finally, the highest level of understanding was known as understanding the pure forms. Plato wrote that whoever understood the pure forms of the world was fit to be the ruler, which he called the philosopher king. He believed this philosopher king would guide theShow MoreRelatedAnalects Mencius And Xunzi1512 Words   |  7 PagesThe Analects, the Mencius, and the Xunzi Confucius was China’s first moral philosopher, and his ideas influence people all over the world even in the present day. Confucianism is a philosophy, a political ideology, and a way of life. 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