The State: What Philosophers Write About It

8 hrs. 4 min.

Miscellaneous

Language Russian

Authors Friedrich Nietzsche, Plato, Niccolò Machiavelli, Nikolai Berdyaev, Immanuel Kant, Dante Alighieri, Karl Marx, John Locke, Aristotle, Mikhail Bakunin, Georg Hegel, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Hobbes Thomas, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, John Chrysostom

Author Friedrich Nietzsche

Author Plato

Author Niccolò Machiavelli

Author Nikolai Berdyaev

Author Immanuel Kant

Author Dante Alighieri

Author Karl Marx

Author John Locke

Author Aristotle

Author Mikhail Bakunin

Author Georg Hegel

Author Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Author Hobbes Thomas

Author Hannah Arendt

Author Walter Benjamin

Author John Chrysostom

Narrator Igor Pronin

Description

Since ancient times, the state has been a key element of society and its organization. Even in Antiquity, intellectuals thought about the nature of power. Ancient Greek thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle viewed the state as a system of norms that defines the way of life of those involved in governance, while the Roman philosopher Cicero emphasized the personal responsibility of the ruler. However, over the centuries, views on this phenomenon changed. During the Renaissance, political theorists such as Niccolò Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes believed that the state becomes a mechanism of rewards and punishments, while power is a force that allows moral violence. Later, John Locke justified the division of powers into legislative, executive, and judicial; and Kant spoke of perpetual peace as the final goal of all states. Subsequent philosophers largely criticized power: it has enormous force capable of easily manipulating people’s minds, so it is important to set its limits and direct it toward the good. This book will help you understand how the concept of the state evolved in world philosophy and what leading thinkers put into it.