Political Treatise Simplified on Superphysics

The Need for Laws

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How a community governed as a Monarchy or Aristocracy should be organised as to not degenerate into a Tyranny.

¹ Philosophers look at the vices and deride, berate, and execrate them.

Natural Right

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¹ My Tractatus theologico-politicus dealt with natural rightl and civil right.

My Ethics explained what is sin, righteousness, justice, injustice, human freedom.

I will explain them here to save you time.

Natural Right

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⁸ Therefore man uses his reason for self-preservation instead of for the highest pitch of human freedom.

This is part of the sovereign right of Nature.

It follows that Nature’s right and established order forbids only those things that no one desires and no one can do.

Sovereign Powers

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¹ The order maintained by any state is called civil.

The body of the state in its entirety is called a commonwealth.

The public business of the state, under the sovereign, is called affairs of state.

Sovereign Powers

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⁷ 1. In a state of Nature (Section 2, previous Chapter), the man who is guided by reason is most powerful and most in control of is own right.

Rights of Sovereign Powers

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[I] The right of sovereigns is determined by their power.

Its basis is that the sovereigns are the mind of the state that guides the citizens.

So they alone have the right to decide what is good, bad, fair, unfair.

The Highest Aim of Society

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

¹ In Section 2 of Chapter 2 I showed that a man is most completely in control of his own right when he is most guided by reason.

Consequently (see Section 7, Chapter 3), a commonwealth is most powerful and most completely in control of its own right if it is founded on and guided by reason.

Monarchy: Its Nature

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[Since men, as we have said, are led more by passion than by reason , it naturally follows that a people will unite and consent to be guided as if by one mind not at reason’s prompting but through some common emotion, such as (as we said in Section 9, Chapter 3) a common hope, or common fear, or desire to avenge some common injury. Now since fear of isolation is innate in all men inasmuch as in isolation no one has the strength to defend himself and acquire the necessi5 [dominandi bbidine The connotation IS sexual (see the General OeflDltions of the Affects followIng ElDef48).]

Monarchy: Its Organisation

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The Persians used to worship their kings as gods. Yet even their kings did not have the powerl to revoke laws once established, as is evident from Daniel, Chapter 6.

Aristocracy: The First Model

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An aristocracy should consist of many patricians.

Its strength is that it comes closer than monarchy to an absolute form of government.

Therefore, it is more suitable for the preservation of freedom.

I have defined aristocracy as a state where the government is in the hands of a certain number of men, called patricians, chosen from the people.

The Supreme Council and Syndics

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¹¹ What are the basic institutions by which the supreme council should be supported and strengthened.

Section 2 of this Chapter showed that the council of a medium-sized state should have 5,000 members.

The Supreme Council and Syndics

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[19.] The sovereignty of this kind of state is vested in this council as a whole and not in each individual member.

The patricians must be so bound together by laws as to form a single body directed by a single mind.

The Supreme Council and Syndics

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²⁷ To ensure that all patricians stand on equal terms in making decisions and in electing ministers of state and that all business is speedily dispatched, the system observed by the Venetians deserves our full approval.

The Supreme Council and Syndics

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³² Some of the syndics, appointed by the supreme council, are to:

sit on the senate but without the right to vote
see whether the laws concerning that council are duly observed
summon the supreme council when any matter has to be referred from the senate to the supreme council.

The right to summon the supreme council and submit matters for its decision lies with the syndics.

The Justice System

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³⁸ With regard to the number of judges, however, a consideration of this kind of constitution does not demand any special figure; but, as in the case of monarchy, it is of prime importance to see that the judges are too numerous to be corrupted by a private person.

Aristocracy: The Second Model

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[I] So far we have been considering an aristocracy that takes its name from just one city, the capital of the whole state. It is now time to deal with the kind where the sovereignty is held by several cities, a kind which I regard as preferable to the former. l

Taxes in an Aristocracy

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[8] No taxes are to be imposed by the senate on the subjects.

To meet the expenditure required by decree of the senate for transacting public business, it is not the subjects but the cities that should be assessed by the senate, each city having to contribute a share of the expenditure proportionate to its size. This sum the patricians of the city will collect from their own townsfolk in whatever way they please, that is, either by direct assessment or, as is much fairer, by indirect taxation.

Aristocracy: Its Organisation

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[I] Now that the fundamental laws of both kinds of aristocratic government have been explained in detail, it remains for us to enquire whether by reason of any discernible fault they are liable to disintegrate or change into a different form.

Wealth in Aristocracies

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⁶ I conclude that those vices prevalent in peacetime should never be directly prevented but only by indirect means.

They are prevented by laying such a foundation to the state that most menI won’t say will be eager to live wisely, for that is impossible-will be guided by such feelings as will conduce to the greater good of the commonwealth.

So our chief objective is that the wealthy, if they cannot be thrifty, should at any rate be eager for gain.

Democracy: Its Nature (unfinished)

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¹ What is the difference between an aristocracy and a democracy?

An aristocracy depends solely on the will and the free choice of the supreme council that any particular person be made a patrician. Thus: