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Political philosophy is the study of the fundamental questions about the state, government, politics, property, law and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it should take and why, what the law is, and what duties citizens owe to a legitimate government, if any, and when it may be legitimately overthrown - if ever.
Two key aspects are the political economy by which property rights are defined and access to capital is regulated, and the rules of truth and evidence that determine judgements in the law. Each theory of criminal justice is derived in part from some such view of these.
1 History of political philosophy
1.1 The classical period
Political philosophy most broadly concerns the nature and forms of power; more specifically, it involves the principles for proper governance.
As an academic discipline, political philosophy has its origins in ancient Greek society, when city-states were experimenting with various forms of political organization including monarchy, tyranny, aristocracyAristocracy is a form of government in which rulership is in the hands of an "upper class" known as aristocrats . The Greek origins of the word aristocracy imply the meaning of "rule by the best". This inevitably means those with the power to hold wealth,, oligarchyOligarchy is a form of government where most political power effectively rests with a small segment of society (typically the most powerful, whether by wealth, military strength, ruthlessness, or political influence). The word oligarchy is from the Greek, and democracyA democracy is a form of government under which the power to alter the laws and structures of government lies with the voting citizenry (referred to as "the people", because in modern times it usually consists of all people over 18 years of age), and all. The first classic work of political philosophy is Plato'sFor the computing technology, see PLATO System. Plato ( Greek: Platon (c. 427 BC c. 347 BC) was an immensely influential classical Greek philosopher, student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, writer, and founder of the Academy in Athens. Plato, who is be The Republic, which was followed by Aristotle'sAristotle ( Greek Αριστοτλης Aristotelēs) ( 384 BCE March 7, 322 BCE) was a Greek scientist and philosopher. Along with Plato, he is often considered to be one of the two most influential philo Politics. Roman political philosophy was influenced by the Stoics, and the Roman statesman CiceroFor other uses see Cicero (disambiguation Marcus Tullius Cicero ( January 3, 106 BC December 7, 43 BC) was an orator and statesman of Ancient Rome, and is generally considered the greatest Latin prose stylist. Biography Cicero was born in Arpinum and caug wrote on political philosophy.
The early Christian philosophyChristian philosophy is a two-millennia tradition of rational thought as applied to the Christian tradition and is based on the Greek pagan thinker Plato, neoplatonism, stoicism guided and corrected by divine revelation of Christian teaching and the Bible of Augustine was by and large a rewrite of Plato in a Christian context. The main change that Christian thought brought was to moderate the Stoicism and theory of justice of the Roman world, and emphasize the role of the state in applying mercy as a moral example. Augustine's City of God is an influential work of this period that refuted the thesis, after the First Sack of Rome, that the Christian view could be realized on Earth at all - a view many Christian Romans held.
