RC#6

Nobody can tell in advance whether any given work of political thought will have the effect of Hobbes's

Leviathan or Rousseau's Social Contract, or to take a later example, Marx and Engels's The Communist

Manifesto. It depends entirely on whether the underlying shift in thinking that the philosopher proposes

corresponds to political and social change in such a way that the new ideas can become the commonplaces

of the following generations. Other works of political philosophy have enjoyed a limited success and then

disappeared virtually without trace. But the need for political philosophy is always there, especially perhaps

at moments when we face new political challenges that we cannot deal with using the conventional wisdom

of the day. At these moments we need to dig deeper, to probe the basis of our political beliefs, and it is here

that we may turn to political philosophy, not perhaps at source, but as filtered through pamphlets, magazines,

newspapers and the like – every successful political philosopher has relied on media-friendly disciples to

put his or her ideas into circulation. But even if political philosophy answers to a genuine need, are its own

credentials genuine? Political philosophy claims that it can bring to us a kind of truth about politics,

something different from the opinions that guide us from day to day. This claim was presented most

dramatically by Plato, often regarded as the father of the subject, through the allegory of the cave in the

Republic. Plato likens ordinary people to prisoners who have been chained in a cave in such a way that

they can only see the shadows of things on a screen in front of them. Plato says that these shadows were

the only real things.

Now suppose that one of the prisoners was to be freed and emerged blinking into the light. In time he would

come to see real objects in the world, and understand that what he had seen before were no more than

shadows. But if he were then to return to the cave to try to persuade his fellows of their mistake, they would

be unlikely to believe him. This, Plato thinks, is the position of the philosopher: he has genuine knowledge

while those around him have only distorted opinions, but because the path to philosophical knowledge is

long and hard, very few are willing to take it.

But was Plato justified in drawing such a sharp contrast between philosophical knowledge and common

opinion? My conception of political philosophy does not involve endowing philosophers with a special kind

of knowledge not available to other human beings. Instead they think and reason in much the same way as

everyone else, but they do so more critically and more systematically. They take less for granted. It is

easiest to explain this by an example. Suppose we were to ask a politician what his goals were; what aims

or values the political community he belongs to should be trying to achieve. If he belonged to a contemporary

Western society, he would probably come up with a fairly predictable list: law and order, individual liberty,

economic growth, full employment, and one or two others. How might a political philosopher respond to

this? Well, first of all she would turn the spotlight on the goals themselves and ask which of them really

ultimate goals were.

45. Which of the following statements is/are true with reference to the need for political philosophy?

A. There exists a need for political philosophy always irrespective of the political conditions.

B. We confront our beliefs only when faced with crises.

C. The need for political philosophy is maximum when political opinions need to be supported by

political truths.

(a) Only A (b) A and B (c) B and C (d) All of the above

46. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

(a) Political philosophers have specialized knowledge.

(b) Our political beliefs draw on the original thoughts of political philosophers although not necessarily

as told to us directly by them.

(c) Political philosophers spread their knowledge directly to the people.

(d) Prisoners in caves believe that the shadows they see are different from real things.

47. Which of the following statements about political philosophers is validated by the passage?

(a) A political theory that provides answers to problems faced by a time may not necessarily be

correct.

(b) The social and political conditions of a time will decide if a political philosophy will survive and

gain momentum.

(c) Political philosophers think in the same way as do common people.

(d) Political philosophers propose shift in thinking that corresponds to political and social change.