ETHICS POLITICAL AND PRAGMATISM
ON DEMOCRACY ACCORDING DAVID HUME
ENENG HUMAEROH
PHILOSOPY CLASS
SMT 2
ISLAMIC COLLEGE JAKARTA
2011
DAVID HUME
(1711-1776)
Biografi david hume
Life
David Hume, originally David Home, son of Joseph Home of Chirnside, advocate, and Katherine Falconer, was born on 26 April 1711 (Old Style) in a tenement on the north side of the Lawnmarket in Edinburgh. He changed his name in 1734 because the English had difficulty pronouncing 'Home' in the Scottish manner. Throughout his life Hume, who never married, spent time occasionally at his family home at Ninewells by Chirnside, Berwickshire. Education
Hume attended the
University of Edinburgh at the unusually early age of twelve (possibly as young as ten) at a time when fourteen was normal. At first he considered a career in law, but came to have, in his words, "an insurmountable aversion to everything but the pursuits of Philosophy and general Learning; and while [my family] fanceyed I was poring over Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the Authors which I was secretly devouring". He had little respect for the professors of his time, telling a friend in 1735, "there is nothing to be learnt from a Professor, which is not to be met with in Books".Hume made a philosophical discovery that opened up to him "...a new Scene of Thought," which inspired him "...to throw up every other Pleasure or Business to apply entirely to it." He did not recount what this "Scene" was, and commentators have offered a variety of speculations. Due to this inspiration, Hume set out to spend a minimum of ten years reading and writing. He came to the verge of
nervous breakdown, after which he decided to have a more active life to better continue his learning.Career
As Hume's options lay between a traveling tutorship and a stool in a merchant's office, he chose the latter. In 1734, after a few months occupied with commerce in Bristol, he went to La Flèche in Anjou, France. There he had frequent discourse with the Jesuits of the College of La Flèche. As he had spent most of his savings during his four years there while writing A Treatise of Human Nature, he resolved "to make a very rigid frugality supply my deficiency of fortune, to maintain unimpaired my independency, and to regard every object as contemptible except the improvements of my talents in literature". He completed the Treatise at the age of 26.
After the publication of
Essays Moral and Political in 1744, Hume applied for the Chair of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. However, the position was given to William Cleghorn, after Edinburgh ministers petitioned the town council not to appoint Hume because he was seen as an atheist. During the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, Hume tutored the Marquis of Annandale (1720–92), who was officially described as a "lunatic". This engagement ended in disarray after about a year. But it was then that Hume started his great historical work
The History of England, which took fifteen years and ran over a million words, to be published in six volumes in the period between 1754 and 1762, while also involved with the Canongate Theatre. In this context, he associated with Lord Monboddo and other Scottish Enlightenment luminaries in Edinburgh. From 1746, Hume served for three years as Secretary to Lieutenant-General St Clair, and wrote Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, later published as An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. The
Enquiry proved little more successful than the
Treatise.
In the history of modem philosophy he was taken to be a sceptic and as a sceptic he has been influential in rousing Kant from his dogmatic slumber
However, British and American empiricists think that though Lockean empiricism with its inadequate analysis of knowledge may lead to scepticism, yet “empiricism itself” need not be skeptical
Political Discourses, 1752
Hume's contribution to economics is fragmentary, and consists of approximately 100 pages of essays in his Political Discourses (1752). The essays are distinguished for their lucid and even sparkling style, a style that shone in comparison to his learned but plodding contemporaries.
Hume achieved great literary fame as a historian. His enormous
The History of England, tracing events from the
Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688, was a best-seller in its day. In it, Hume presented political man as a creature of habit, with a disposition to submit quietly to established government unless confronted by uncertain circumstances. In his view, only religious difference could deflect men from their everyday lives to think about political matters.
However, Hume's volume of
Political Discourses (published by Kincaid &
Donaldson, 1752) was the only work he considered successful on first publication. It is difficult to categorize Hume's political affiliations. His thought contains elements that are, in modern terms, both conservative and liberal, as well as ones that are both contractarian and utilitarian, though these terms are all anachronistic. Thomas Jefferson banned Hume's History from the University of Virginia, fearing that it "has spread universal toryism over the land". Yet, Samuel Johnson thought Hume "a Tory by chance... for he has no principle. If he is anything, he is a
Hobbist". His
central concern is to show the importance of the rule of law, and stresses throughout his political
Essays the importance of moderation in politics. This outlook needs to be seen within the historical context of eighteenth century Scotland, where the legacy of religious civil war, combined with the relatively recent memory of the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite risings, fostered in a historian such as Hume a distaste for enthusiasm and factionalism that appeared to threaten the fragile and nascent political and social stability of a country that was deeply politically and religiously divided. He thinks that society is best governed by a general and impartial system of laws, based principally on the "artifice" of contract; he is less concerned about the form of government that administers these laws, so long as it does so fairly (though he thought that republics were more likely to do so than monarchies).
Hume expressed suspicion of attempts to reform society in ways that departed from long-established custom, and he counselled peoples not to resist their governments except in cases of the most egregious
tyranny. However, he resisted aligning himself with either of Britain's two political parties, the Whigs and the Tories. Hume writesMy views of things are more conformable to Whig principles; my representations of persons to Tory prejudices.
McArthur says that Hume believed that we should try to balance our demands for liberty with the need for strong authority, without sacrificing either. McArthur characterizes Hume as a 'precautionary conservative': whose actions would have been "determined by prudential concerns about the consequences of change, which often demand we ignore our own principles about what is ideal or even legitimate", He supported
liberty of the press, and was sympathetic to democracy, when suitably constrained. Douglass Adair has argued that Hume was a major inspiration for James Madison's writings, and the Federalist No. 10 in particular. Hume was also, in general, an optimist about social progress, believing that, thanks to the economic development that comes with the expansion of trade, societies progress from a state of "barbarism" to one of "civilisation". Civilised societies are open, peaceful and sociable, and their
citizens are as a result much happier. It is therefore not fair to characterise him, as Leslie Stephen did, as favouring "...that stagnation which is the natural ideal of a skeptic." Though it has been suggested Hume had no positive vision of the best society, he in fact produced an essay titled Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth, which lays out what he thought was the best form of government. His pragmatism shone through, however, in his caveat that we should only seek to implement such a system should an opportunity present itself, which would not upset established structures. He defended a strict separation of powers, decentralisation, extending the franchise to anyone who held property of value and limiting the power of the clergy. The Swiss militia system was proposed as the best form of protection. Elections were to take place on an annual basis and representatives were to be unpaid. It is also important to note that the ideal commonwealth laid out by Hume was held to be ideal only for the British Isles in the 18th century. Hume was a relativist, and realized that such a form of government would not be ideal for all cultures, nor would it necessarily be permanent as historical conditions change.
hough it has been suggested Hume had no positive vision of the best society, he in fact produced an essay titled Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth, which lays out what he thought was the best form of government. His pragmatism shone through, however, in his caveat that we should only seek to implement such a system should an opportunity present itself, which would not upset established structures. He defended a strict separation of powers, decentralisation, extending the franchise to anyone who held property of value and limiting the power of the clergy. The Swiss militia system was proposed as the best form of protection. Elections were to take place on an annual basis and representatives were to be unpaid. It is also important to note that the ideal commonwealth laid out by Hume was held to be ideal only for the British Isles in the 18th century. Hume was a relativist, and realized that such a form of government would not be ideal for all cultures, nor would it necessarily be permanent as historical conditions change
Background problems
Democracy in a country needed to build a nation, the relevance of pragmatic thinking with political realities in contemporary democratic state of the freedom, freedom of unity, freedom of expression and free assembly in accordance with the constitution 1945. one form of democracy is a form of political activity that is as a human endeavor in the community to form a social society, political actions using the real political ethics that must be met by political actors as individuals who can use it in achieving its objectives.
The power of politics in Indonesia is used for community master on public position or office that is the country's leaders from the regents, the governor up to the highest authority of the president, after all achieved by political action in the elections
fundamental human activity can not be separated from work, work and political action, human beings have only met the demands of life by working (animal laborans), the existence of man on this level focuses on the body and biological nature, the human need for work, ie, man as beings who have the potential to produce objects and master nature and to free themselves (Homo Faber). humans create tools to be used as a means to achieve a goal. work is a combination of skills and professional calls (a plurality)
Political Ideals
Politik Etichs
Political ethics is related to the political culture that presupposes the normative aspects of moral and ethical, cultural norms that is fair and equitable, regardless of the development and realization of values and ideals. presupposes the normative aspects of political ethics in the practice of state governance, while political ideals is the broader scope of freedom danterciptanya fair institutions, this freedom in the sense of freedom that show the socio-political conditions of physical, social and political liberty necessary for the implementation of concrete .
political ethics can not be separated from the conditions of reception conditions for receiving a plurality of differences of opinion, assembly and freedom of unity, this condition can not be achieved in case the conditions of oppression, and violence in a totalitarian regime, because the condition is characterized by a plurality of political humans conditions. ethics-based politicians who pay attention to the social memory of the victims, in this perspective the political side with the weak and the victims, but from the perspective of culture is not have been possible if not mendaptkan life support skills and behaviors in order to achieve this will require the procedures and principles fair.
rules constitutes acceptance of cultural plurality, procedural justice, and solidarity subdiaritas principle, it is thus fair institutions would be created based on the formulation of legal change. fair institutions in particular fields and disciplines to make a harmonious relationship in the power of the state within the framework of power relations and subjects, this relationship is of course the result of political ethics is summed up in co ideal political communication.
Civility in politics is a beautiful art that involves the human relationship with other human beings as subjects of political space is public, thus also political action. political action can not separated from the concept of public space, public space consists of spaces of political freedom and equality, and the world together with the shape and scope of institutions that provide context for the activities of the state permanently, Hannah Arendt said: "Political action is the only activity that connects directly without any intermediaries between humans and material objects
facts on the ground; corruption, justified the means based on the interests of a group of people, the fulfillment of individual needs, as a means to achieve political power without regard to social society
Pragmatism fact that developed amongst the people is very detrimental to people and the nation, people experiencing social impact of the crisis devastating social, cultural childbirth Pragmatism advantage of the situation and condition of society in order to achieve and maintain the ethics of powers without regard to political ideal, as all actions are considered legitimate and lawful if it is felt there are benefits of the act, an act of corruption if it requires he do it for the public interest and benefit substantially even if the action was contrary to the mandate of the struggle does not become an important issue, but a momentary effect obtained from such action.
politics into the land looking for easy money for a group of people or individuals with political parties mobilitation, with political fulfillment laborans animal needs can be met with excessive and easily through the power, it is adopted as ideas of Hume, that there is a tradition embraced by society, because there is benefit for individuals, politics generated by Pragmatism to be issues that arise later dike days later, a corrupt government that is more mengedeapankan values regardless of the benefits arising as a result
criticism of the thought and significance to politics; Can Pragmatism apply now? what is the relevance to the progress of a nation in a country that is still evolving? political education is indispensable in building a paradigm of an ideal society
empirical political philosophy in view of different interpretations on the nature of the political philosophy that is based on a hypothetical definition of political philosophy and political ethics is considered an ideal, far from violence, in the realm of political philosophy that emphasizes the form of normative ethics and culture that attact to behavior of political actors. This discourse is a separates dreams and ideals with political realities in society, politics is in fact used as a tool to achieve absolute power, in the form of a hard fight serata justifies any means
Power achieved in finally getting the legal legitimacy but the legitimacy of such an effect to life, opening up opportunities that a prolonged conflict, the political actors out of the political ideology which was originally the basis for departure, change the view to later become an increasingly growing paradigm into new problems within the institution.
conclusions; Pragmatism may be enforced in a democratic system where people are low in quality, yet the thought tarap future interests, but still thinking about the economy an issue, use values and interests of individual
Pragmatism in politics is still needed in the democratic process in Indonesia in the short term, but long-term expectations on pragmatic political paradigm create chaos system, duping the people as victims, the policy does not favor the interests of public, private and group interests and power becomes the primary goal.
This issue in the long run will be a frightening specter for groups of people oppressed because of social inequality is high, as if the paradigm is still used in the political system with no ethics, then how is the legitimacy of the future of the country? paradigm thinking will develop in the realm of quality not only of interest for a moment and just purely material? what about the materialistic and individualistic view of the primary compared to the moral and ethical?
the fact that material interests and power based on pragmatic political conditions still part of the democratic process, philosophy and still not touch on the practical level, and still more theory and political ideals
