Aristotle

Addendum: Locke & Natural Law

Published Monday, October 25, 2010 A.D. | By The TAC Editors

Some questions have been raised in the discussion on my posts on Locke & Catholic political thought about the extent to which Locke’s political theory conforms to or detracts from natural law. This follow-up post, which will be relatively brief, should serve to answer such questions at least in part.

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Science and Technology in World History

Published Monday, July 5, 2010 A.D. | By Tito Edwards

Technological history is a unique point of view that always caught my eye. David Deming of the American Thinker gives us a brief synopsis of his latest contribution in this genre. Keep in mind how integral Christianity was to the recovery of Europe after the barbarian invasions and the safekeeping of knowledge by the monastic system that allowed Europe to recover and blossom into what we now call Western Civilization:

Both Greece and Rome made significant contributions to Western Civilization. Greek knowledge was ascendant in philosophy, physics, chemistry, medicine, and mathematics for nearly two thousand years. The Romans did not have the Greek temperament for philosophy and science, but they had a genius for law and civil administration. The Romans were also great engineers and builders. They invented concrete, perfected the arch, and constructed roads and bridges that remain in use today. But neither the Greeks nor the Romans had much appreciation for technology. As documented in my book, Science and Technology in World History, Vol. 2, the technological society that transformed the world was conceived by Europeans during the Middle Ages.

Greeks and Romans were notorious in their disdain for technology. Aristotle noted that to be engaged in the mechanical arts was “illiberal and irksome.” Seneca infamously characterized invention as something fit only for “the meanest slaves.” The Roman Emperor Vespasian rejected technological innovation for fear it would lead to unemployment.

Greek and Roman economies were built on slavery. Strabo described the slave market at Delos as capable of handling the sale of 10,000 slaves a day. With an abundant supply of manual labor, the Romans had little incentive to develop artificial or mechanical power sources. Technical occupations such as blacksmithing came to be associated with the lower classes.

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Social Sin

Published Tuesday, April 6, 2010 A.D. | By The TAC Editors

Justice exalteth a nation: but sin maketh nations miserable. – Proverbs 13:34

Is there such a thing as a “social sin”? It is out of a respect for my friend Brendan/Darwin that I want to examine and critique his rejection of the idea of social sin, with which I partially agree, but which I believe also leaves out some crucial facts. This is not a point against Brendan/Darwin, since I don’t believe he intended his post to be a treatise on the issue. It is rather a point in his favor, since his general considerations give us the opportunity to explore the question in greater detail.

It must be said at the outset that there are obviously different things that one might mean by “social sin.” Brendan/Darwin begins his argument with the observation that there are those who become “frustrated” with the emphasis many Christians place on individual failings to the neglect of “social or political sin.” There is a significant difference, however, between social and political behavior. My intention is not to split-hairs in order to undermine a valid point (which it is), but rather to highlight the extent to which society and the body politic have become indistinguishable from one another. In my recent essay on the social effects of abortion, I make a distinction between organic and artificial social bonds; the former are those that necessarily follow from man’s social nature, while the latter are those created through politics, i.e. laws. Because we are imperfect and often malicious beings, some artificial authority will always be required for men to attain “the highest good.” But human laws are not foundational – they are supplemental to natural and divine laws, or at least they were in most places in the Western world until the 19th century.

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Beyond Capitalism and Socialism

Published Thursday, October 22, 2009 A.D. | By The TAC Editors

I tend to think I am doing something right if people from both ends of the political spectrum are rabidly attacking me. The notion that one ideological camp has a monopoly on truth and justice is repugnant to me, even if I lean one way or another at times. At the same time, I never enjoy seeing civil discussion degenerate into uncharitable attacks.

Attachment to labels is part of the problem I encounter when putting forth alternative economic ideas. People on the political right are as agitated by the mere word “socialism” as people on the left are by the word “capitalism”. It doesn’t help that both sides hold radically different definitions of each word.

I’ll start with the right. On the right, “socialism” (or these days, “fascism” as well) is what happens whenever government gets involved in the economy in almost any way, shape or form. But how it is applied is usually very selective – I doubt the average “tea party” protester would call Benjamin Franklin a “socialist” for establishing the post office. Meanwhile, “capitalism” is merely the freedom to own private property, start a business and participate in the free market.

Next, on the left, “capitalism” is the root of all evil, and is what happens whenever a person makes money for themselves somehow. It is by definition exploitative and must be either violently overthrown or withered away through government intervention. How it is applied is again very selective; if a business is “green” or “socially conscious”, enough leftists may look the other way for it to be acceptable among their numbers. Meanwhile “socialism” is what happens when ordinary people, instead of fat cats and tycoons, have control of the economic system.

I realize of course that I simplify positions here a great deal, and that not everyone identifying themselves as left or right would necessarily agree – my apologies, but not every possible permutation can be explored in a small blog post. There are people on both sides who understand that political realities, not to mention political history and political theory, are far more complex than the rhetoric that emerges from popular movements, magazines, news shows, etc.

The point here is that the two sides have more in common than they realize. How the right typically understands capitalism, and how the left typically understands socialism, consist of two ideas that are not that radically opposed to one another. So it may be time to take a cue from my favorite political theorist, Aristotle. In the Politics, Aristotle presents us with the “true” forms and the false forms of each system of government. For Aristotle the possibilities are rule by a single man, rule by the few, or rule by the many (self-government). Each of these types has a true form and a false form (which today, I suppose, we would substitute for a good form and a bad form): the true form of rule by a single man is monarchy, while the false is tyranny; the true form of rule by the few is aristocracy while the false is oligarchy; the true form of rule by the people is constitutional government, while the false is democracy. How Aristotle used these words and how we use them might vary to some degree.

Might I suggest, in keeping with Aristotle’s approach, that there are true forms and false forms of both capitalism and socialism? I think most of us already understand what they would be, but here is how I would set them forth: the true form of capitalism is “free enterprise”, defined by the freedom to own private property, start one’s own business, and engage in trade, while the false form is “plutocracy”, defined by rigid economic stratification, the subordination of all social interests to the profit motive, and the disproportionate power of wealthy corporations. On the other hand, the true form of socialism is “economic democracy”, whereby the people have varying yet substantial degrees of ownership and control of economic processes, while the false form is “command economy”, whereby the state has the lion’s share of ownership and control.

If we can at least temporarily agree to this understanding of terms, we might then take our next cues from a group of political theorists that looked to classical theorists such as Aristotle, among others, as they set out to apply their ideas to the real world: the American founding fathers. As students of their political thought may already know, the founders were interested in combining each of the true forms of government into a single system in order to get the best of each – monarchy, aristocracy, and what we would today call democracy each had a representative in the structure of the new American government. A system of checks and balances were to hold each element in its proper place, and prevent them from degenerating into their false forms.

Can the same be done with economic ideas? I believe it can, and I believe we find the answers in Catholic social thought, and particularly Distributist thought. Here the true forms of both capitalism and socialism are combined in a way originally envisioned by Aristotle himself, while the false forms are rejected and held in check. What I defined as “free enterprise” and “economic democracy” above are entirely compatible, provided only that society – be it through a national or, better yet, local government – have as its practical aim the gradual elimination of the unskilled or semi-skilled labor market by providing as many positive incentives as possible for the establishment of Employee Owned and Controlled Companies (EOCCs).

Why the labor market? Because it is here that human beings are ultimately reduced to the amount of profit they can provide an employer. Within Catholic social thought, labor always has primacy over capital – the human rights and dignity of the worker always take a great moral precedence over profit. When a worker is reduced to a cog in a profit-making machine, to be granted the necessities of life while it is convenient and yet denied them when it is not, it is a violation of human rights. And yet the elimination of the market in unskilled labor would not deny anyone’s right to private property, their own business, or trade in material goods. It simply means that a person who wishes to profit for himself by such means must now be a person in search of partners instead of a buyer in search of a “means of production” in human beings.

To those who might complain that this would result in less effective or efficient businesses, I would point to research that clearly shows that there is a positive relationship between ownership and productivity. When people are treated like people with dignity – even if not as equals in every respect – they do their jobs better, and everyone benefits. The reason for this should not be surprising to Christians; it is God who made it such that we should live in society with one another, and God who commands us to love our neighbor as ourself. God would not command that which was detrimental to ourselves. The moral law is not only good, but results in good.

To achieve these ends it is absolutely necessary that we change the way we think and speak. We must begin to agree upon the meaning of words and phrases so that petty disputes are finally put to rest. Leftists and rightists alike must embrace the true forms of the economic systems they criticize, and more loudly condemn the false forms. They must seek points of contact and agreement, and I think this can be done by finding ways to marry free enterprise to economic democracy while holding plutocracy and command economy at bay. In spite of our differences on other moral issues, particularly sexual ethics, modern technology offers us ways in which both freedom and equality, the rallying points of right and left respectively, can be effectively and efficiently combined. Overarching both of these important conceptions must be the Christian conception of the human person, for in the final instance, and in spite of the pretensions of secularism, Pope Benedict is right: the only foundation for human rights is Christian humanism.

This essay is also on my blog, and I hope it will spark some constructive and respectful discussion.

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Aristotle & Distributism: Part II

Published Tuesday, September 8, 2009 A.D. | By The TAC Editors

(Part I may be read here. Some of the discussion may be followed on my blog. Note: the presentation of this essay on this blog may differ somewhat from the outline I set forth in the introduction in Part I. The critique of communism/welfare-statism will be published tomorrow.)

In an academic culture that is often characterized by historicist and relativist viewpoints, the notion that Aristotle may have had anything relevant to say about modern economic systems seems a little strange to us. While it must be admitted that we cannot expect the ancient versions of capitalism and communism to be identical to their modern counterparts, we can nonetheless differentiate the historically-shaped form from what is arguably the timeless content. Moreover, by way of critique of the two dominant economic paradigms (for in the final instance, welfare-statism/Social Democracy incorporates the worst features of both), we can arrive at a more clear vision of the Distributist alternative.

Though it ought to become obvious through the critique of communism, it bears stating up front that the Aristotelian critique of capitalism is not an attack on private property. Difficult as it may be for some readers, the notion that the essence of capitalism is the possession and use of private property is a fallacy bequeathed to us not only by certain capitalist ideologists, but by many (though not all) communists and assorted “anti-capitalists” as well.

A definition of capitalism that accords well with Aristotle’s critique is an economy in which production for exchange is predominant, as opposed to production for immediate use/consumption. Though it is modern technology since the Industrial Revolution that actually allows such an economy to come into being, the pre-industrial tendencies towards this type of economy have been in existence since the dawn of civilization, and reached a pinnacle in the great civilizations of antiquity, including the ancient Greece in which Aristotle lived and wrote.

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Aristotle & Distributism: Part I

Published Tuesday, September 8, 2009 A.D. | By The TAC Editors

(Upon request, I am presenting my essay, which I will develop in five parts over the course of this week, here at TAC as well as my blog, Non Nobis)

Distributism is a current of Catholic social thought which holds that a greater distribution of private property, used in accordance with higher moral values and within the context of duties to community and society, is the best economic arrangement. It stands in contrast to both nationalized industry (socialism) as well as the permanent existence of a propertyless class (a feature of modern capitalism). For this, it has sometimes been wrongfully criticized as a reactionary anti-technology theory, a political program that would take society back to the technical level of the Middle Ages.

These accusations are groundless, for Distributism does not depend exclusively upon a particular mode of production; a business wherein shares of ownership were distributed among the employees would qualify as a Distributist enterprise. Thus whether we look to businesses such as the Spanish Mondragon, or to the ten-thousand plus Employee Stock Ownership Programs in the United States, Distributist ideas are not only alive and well, but are growing in appeal.

Although Distributism is most often associated with the modern social teaching of the Church, it is arguable that the first Distributist was in fact Aristotle. This should not be surprising, for insofar as Aristotle’s political and ethical philosophy stressed the importance of discovering and implementing the mean, that is, the middle between two extremes, it is only natural that he would arrive at a Distributist philosophy.

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Aristotle & Distributism: Part I (Non Nobis)

Published Monday, September 7, 2009 A.D. | By The TAC Editors

Rather than drown my readers with a lot of words, as I sometimes do, I’m going to write and post this essay in several parts over this following week. I hope that by the end of it at least some will have a somewhat greater understanding/appreciation of Distributism, an idea that Catholics such as myself hope will gain more ground and exposure in the coming years, though I absolutely do not claim to be anywhere near the final word on it (some will say other things, some will say the same things better). I look forward to discussion on this topic.

Read Part I here.

To read this on the American Catholic click here.

The Class Analysis

Published Thursday, July 16, 2009 A.D. | By The TAC Editors

At the request of my friend and fellow contributor to The American Catholic, Darwin Catholic, I will elaborate more on some of the general points I introduced to the discussion over his latest post about economic morality. For those who did not follow the exchange (of me versus everyone, understandable on this somewhat more conservative blog), I questioned the accuracy of any scientific theory of economics that did not take into account class conflict (or, as some insist on saying, “class struggle”). Darwin and others responded by questioning the validity of the very category of class. Hence, we have a great deal of ground to cover – I hope you will bear with me, and that we all end up learning something.

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Worker Ownership – The Untold Stories

Published Thursday, June 25, 2009 A.D. | By The TAC Editors

A typical question, as a previous post here at American Catholic, with regard to worker’s cooperatives has been: if these firms are so great, why aren’t there more of them?

The short answer to that question is that there are more of them, in several countries, than there ever has been before. The trend towards worker ownership of businesses is on the increase, in the United States and elsewhere, and has been for sometime. Gar Aplerovitz, in America Beyond Capitalism, gives us an overview of cooperatives in the United States:

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Catholic Social Teaching and the Welfare State

Published Monday, March 23, 2009 A.D. | By The TAC Editors

(Originally published at InsideCatholic.com)

It might surprise some to learn that the basic idea behind the “welfare state” did not originate with either Marxist revolutionaries or bleeding-heart liberals, but rather with a head of state usually identified with conservatism: Otto von Bismarck. Faced with a growing threat from the German socialist movement, in the 1880s Bismarck established four programs that were essentially the minimum of the socialist program: health insurance, accident insurance (or workmen’s compensation), disability insurance, and a retirement fund for the elderly. By implementing these programs, the German leader hoped to steal some of the thunder from the socialists and prevent a revolutionary uprising.

In the United States, a similar motivation guided the architects of the New Deal, Social Security, and other programs now grouped under the broad heading “welfare state.” One might never know, based on today’s heated political rhetoric, that the idea behind the welfare state was to prevent, not bring about, socialism. Yet since the 2008 campaign, welfare, along with regulation and redistribution, have become synonymous with “socialism” in America.

Catholics have been as divided over these issues as the nation at large, with nearly everyone interested in the political debate combing the social doctrines of the Church to support one theory at the expense of another. So where precisely does the Church stand on the issue of welfare?

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