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There to Here: Ideas of Political Society : John Locke and His Influence on 300 Years of Political Theory
Political Science reading.
- GenresPhilosophy
402 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1991
About the author
Craig Thomas
83 books94 followersDavid Craig Owen Thomas was a Welsh author of thrillers, most notably the Mitchell Gant series.
The son of the Western Mail rugby union writer, JBG Thomas, Craig was educated at Cardiff High School. He graduated from University College, Cardiff in 1967, obtaining his M.A. after completing a thesis on Thomas Hardy. Thomas became an English Teacher, working in various grammar schools in the West Midlands, and was Head of English at the Shire Oak School, Walsall Wood.
After unsuccessfully trying script writing for radio, Thomas wrote part-time, with his wife as editor, in two fields: philosophical thoughts in books of essays; and techno-thriller genre, which although invention is often attributed to the better-known Tom Clancy, many feel that Thomas was its true originator. Most of Thomas's novels are set within MI.6 and feature the characters of Sir Kenneth Aubrey and Patrick Hyde.
His best-known novel which brought him to global prominence, Firefox became a successful Hollywood film, both directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. After writing his third novel, 1960s Cold War espionage thriller Wolfsbane, he left teaching altogether in 1977. His later books include Snow Falcon and A Different War. Shortly before his death he finished a two-volume commentary on German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
Thomas and his wife Jill had lived near Lichfield, Staffordshire, but moved to Somerset in 2010. He died on April 4, 2011 from pneumonia, following a short battle with acute myeloid leukemia. He was 68.
The son of the Western Mail rugby union writer, JBG Thomas, Craig was educated at Cardiff High School. He graduated from University College, Cardiff in 1967, obtaining his M.A. after completing a thesis on Thomas Hardy. Thomas became an English Teacher, working in various grammar schools in the West Midlands, and was Head of English at the Shire Oak School, Walsall Wood.
After unsuccessfully trying script writing for radio, Thomas wrote part-time, with his wife as editor, in two fields: philosophical thoughts in books of essays; and techno-thriller genre, which although invention is often attributed to the better-known Tom Clancy, many feel that Thomas was its true originator. Most of Thomas's novels are set within MI.6 and feature the characters of Sir Kenneth Aubrey and Patrick Hyde.
His best-known novel which brought him to global prominence, Firefox became a successful Hollywood film, both directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. After writing his third novel, 1960s Cold War espionage thriller Wolfsbane, he left teaching altogether in 1977. His later books include Snow Falcon and A Different War. Shortly before his death he finished a two-volume commentary on German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
Thomas and his wife Jill had lived near Lichfield, Staffordshire, but moved to Somerset in 2010. He died on April 4, 2011 from pneumonia, following a short battle with acute myeloid leukemia. He was 68.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 10, 2022
We tend not to think of the ideas behind the way we live. Things are the way they are and accepted as the way they will be in the future. Over one lifetime this isn't an unreasonable assumption, but over history ideas take fire, usually in two steps. First comes a philosopher proposing ideas and then a leader inspired by those ideas connects with a public receptive to change.
There to Here examines two conflicting schools of thought about humanity. One, called natural law theory, dates back to Greek and Roman stoicism and was updated in the writings of John Locke. In this school, all individuals are considered equal in their personhood. Quite apart from the obvious differences in physical and mental abilities or of needs and desires, each of us as a person is worthy of respect and is not to be placed above or below any other person. You and I are equally persons before we have our own personality. We have an inherent right to respect, a natural law, that precedes manmade law.
The other school of thought began with Plato's Republic and was more recently characterized in Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan. The ideal community is sought. Individuals are active agents in constant motion, vying for place and power and in need of restraint to promote their own good. Without the structure of government to keep order, all will be in conflict in lives that are famously characterized by Hobbes as "nasty, brutish and short." In contrast to the natural law school, this communitarian school looks at what men do rather than what they are.
It is Craig Thomas' goal to show how both schools of thought developed since the 1600's (Locke and Hobbes) to be represented in the 20th century by liberal democracy on one hand and communism and fascism on the other. The reader is treated to a wonderful examination of how the concepts of the individual and the state were developed in the thinking of Hegel, Marx, Durkheim and Weber.
For the communitarians, the individual finds identity only in the state, rather than being a person in his own right. Hobbes proposed a single ruler with absolute authority over all members of the community and we have seen in Nazism and Stalinism how individuals were freely destroyed in the millions at the behest of a leader seeking to perfect a state.
To this reader living in 21st century America, grounded in the ideas of the founding fathers who drew heavily on the work of John Locke, Locke's thinking seems quite understandable and persuasive. In contrast the communitarian ideas so dreadfully imposed by communism and fascism are repulsive. Hegel's concept of a world-spirit, an ideal out there coming to ever improving realizations over the ages in different societies, is outlandish and fantastic, but it was influential.
This is not light reading, but Thomas writes clearly and successfully follows the two threads of thought as he works his way though three centuries of political thinking. This book is a great aid to understanding political philosophy by connecting philosophers together. It provides illumination that would be difficult if one read the work of each one at a time. Curiously, Craig Thomas did not write any other work concerning philosophy though he was a prolific author.
There to Here examines two conflicting schools of thought about humanity. One, called natural law theory, dates back to Greek and Roman stoicism and was updated in the writings of John Locke. In this school, all individuals are considered equal in their personhood. Quite apart from the obvious differences in physical and mental abilities or of needs and desires, each of us as a person is worthy of respect and is not to be placed above or below any other person. You and I are equally persons before we have our own personality. We have an inherent right to respect, a natural law, that precedes manmade law.
The other school of thought began with Plato's Republic and was more recently characterized in Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan. The ideal community is sought. Individuals are active agents in constant motion, vying for place and power and in need of restraint to promote their own good. Without the structure of government to keep order, all will be in conflict in lives that are famously characterized by Hobbes as "nasty, brutish and short." In contrast to the natural law school, this communitarian school looks at what men do rather than what they are.
It is Craig Thomas' goal to show how both schools of thought developed since the 1600's (Locke and Hobbes) to be represented in the 20th century by liberal democracy on one hand and communism and fascism on the other. The reader is treated to a wonderful examination of how the concepts of the individual and the state were developed in the thinking of Hegel, Marx, Durkheim and Weber.
For the communitarians, the individual finds identity only in the state, rather than being a person in his own right. Hobbes proposed a single ruler with absolute authority over all members of the community and we have seen in Nazism and Stalinism how individuals were freely destroyed in the millions at the behest of a leader seeking to perfect a state.
To this reader living in 21st century America, grounded in the ideas of the founding fathers who drew heavily on the work of John Locke, Locke's thinking seems quite understandable and persuasive. In contrast the communitarian ideas so dreadfully imposed by communism and fascism are repulsive. Hegel's concept of a world-spirit, an ideal out there coming to ever improving realizations over the ages in different societies, is outlandish and fantastic, but it was influential.
This is not light reading, but Thomas writes clearly and successfully follows the two threads of thought as he works his way though three centuries of political thinking. This book is a great aid to understanding political philosophy by connecting philosophers together. It provides illumination that would be difficult if one read the work of each one at a time. Curiously, Craig Thomas did not write any other work concerning philosophy though he was a prolific author.
Displaying 1 of 1 review