POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 315 



The Relation of Political Philosophy to Other Departments of 

 Speculative Inquiry 



From the definition and sphere of political philosophy, we turn now 

 to a consideration of the relations in which it stands to some of the 

 other departments of speculative inquiry. 



Political Philosophy and Metaphysics 



Though, as has been pointed out, political theory cannot be spoken 

 of as a philosophy in its metaphysical sense, there is a very close 

 relation between political philosophy and metaphysics in so far as 

 political philosophy attempts to determine the nature of the state 

 from its final cause, and metaphysics seeks to state teleologically 

 man's nature. Except in so far as the existence of the state is con- 

 ceived to be an end in itself, the definition of political authority in 

 terms of its proper end is, of course, governed by what is conceived 

 to be man's end and destiny. Thus, as a matter of fact, it is found 

 that abstract political speculations have ever been carried on in 

 intimate union with ontological and teleological inquiries. The 

 aim of almost all philosophizing is the discovery not only of the essen- 

 tial nature of things, but the determination of their justification 

 and purpose with reference to an ideal or end. It is, therefore, but 

 to be expected that in all times those minds which, by nature and 

 temperament, have been inclined to seek for the nature of reality in 

 general, should have also searched for the nature, justification, and 

 end of the state, the greatest of all human institutions. Thus it is 

 found that very many of the chief political philosophers have been 

 also conspicuous as philosophers in the general sense. This is as 

 true of Plato and Aristotle in ancient days as it is of Aquinas and 

 Suarez in later times, and of Spinoza, Locke, Hobbes, Mill, Kant, 

 Fichte, Hegel, and Green of still more recent date. 



Inasmuch as there is no logical connection between metaphysical 

 and political speculations, that is to say, no syllogistic dependence 

 of the results of the one study upon the conclusions of the other, 

 philosophers have not attempted to deduce political principles 

 directly from ontological premises. At the same time, however, 

 the general cast of mind, the philosophical Tendenz of writers, has 

 often influenced them in their political inquiries. Thus, to take a 

 single instance, the difference in the views of Plato and Aristotle 

 as to the relation of the individual to the state, and as to the proper 

 sphere of control of the latter over the private life of the former, is 

 explainable by the divergency of the views respectively held by 

 them as to the relation between universals and their particulars. 

 Plato, in his conception of the state, treats it as, in a sense, a universal, 



