Teacher Foundational Readings
Pericles’ Funeral Oration, Thucydides:
(ca. 430 BCE) Recounted by Thucydides, this speech, while highly idealized, identifies not only the noble qualities Athenians admired, especially the idea that Athenian citizens would sacrifice all that they had for the good of the state, but also the Athenian dedication to the rule of law.
Apology, Plato:
Plato’s account of Socrates’ trial in which Socrates advocates upholding the law and continues to demonstrate his personal integrity.
The Politics, Book I, III, and IV, Aristotle (4th Century):
Perhaps no thinker, other than Plato, has had such an influence on Western culture as Aristotle. These selections from The Politics address the “social nature of man” (Book I), the forms and purposes of governments (Book III), and the nature of constitutions and the best societies (Book IV). His thoughts in these three books, especially about the rule of law, reason, and the individual and society, serve as a first step in the long liberal tradition that leads to the Enlightenment thinkers’ ideas about law and society.
The Laws, Cicero (1st Century B.C.):
A primer on moral behavior, The Laws describes the relationship and duties of the individual to the state, particularly, the qualities necessary to be a good leader and public official – qualities as timely for today’s public leaders as when he wrote them in the 1st century.
Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas (1265-1274):
The most influential of medieval philosophers and theologians, Aquinas attempts to reconcile Aristotle’s philosophy with Christian theology. In Section II, Aquinas creates the foundation for later Western theorists regarding the relationship between morality and law, the nature of the law, the relationship between the sovereign and the people, and the need for the law to serve the common good. His comments about everyone being bound by the law has become a cornerstone of the modern understanding of the rule of law.
The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli:
Written in 1613, this classic essay on how to gain and maintain power presents one of the most succinct expressions of the political concept that the ends justify the means in creating a peaceful society out of naturally corrupt individuals.
Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes:
Published in 1651, Hobbes argues that society resulted from a social contract in which the individual accepts his responsibility to others and theirs to him in order to maintain a peaceful and prosperous “commonwealth.”
Of Civil Government, John Locke:
(ca. 1690) Locke’s two treatises lay the foundation for constitutional democracy in Eighteenth Century America and France. In the first treatise he attacks the concept of absolute monarchy, and in the second he argues that the basis of all government is the “natural rights” of the individual and the presence of the social contract.
Spirit of the Laws, Book XI, Baron de Montesquieu (1748):
Montesquieu’s major contribution to the development of the rule of law and government appears in Book XI where he makes a strong case for republican government. Many of his ideas would influence the framers of the American Constitution: separation of powers, checks and balances, and an independent judiciary. For Montesquieu, liberty is a life lived under the rule of law.
The Social Contract, Jean Jacques Rousseau:
Rousseau’s 1762 treatise is perhaps one of the clearest expressions of the concept of the social contract as the foundation of government and the rights and responsibilities of citizens. For Rousseau, the individual is the very heart of the society and willingly submits to the state for the good of the whole.
The Communist Manifesto, Chapter 1, Karl Marx and Friederich Engels (1848):
For Marx and Engels, the rule of law in the 19th century had failed the “proletariat” class, thus reducing them to wage slaves living at the mercy of a harsh capitalistic system that gave all the advantages of government and the law to an elite wealthy class. Their stinging and inflammatory work became the spark that ignited the rise of socialism and the Communist state in the 20th century.
“On Liberty,” John Stuart Mill:
Written in 1859, this essay offers one of the most famous defenses of freedom in English and contends that democracy on its own doesn’t necessarily guarantee freedom. Mills writes that the success of a democratic society is found in “the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual.”
(ca. 430 BCE) Recounted by Thucydides, this speech, while highly idealized, identifies not only the noble qualities Athenians admired, especially the idea that Athenian citizens would sacrifice all that they had for the good of the state, but also the Athenian dedication to the rule of law.
Apology, Plato:
Plato’s account of Socrates’ trial in which Socrates advocates upholding the law and continues to demonstrate his personal integrity.
The Politics, Book I, III, and IV, Aristotle (4th Century):
Perhaps no thinker, other than Plato, has had such an influence on Western culture as Aristotle. These selections from The Politics address the “social nature of man” (Book I), the forms and purposes of governments (Book III), and the nature of constitutions and the best societies (Book IV). His thoughts in these three books, especially about the rule of law, reason, and the individual and society, serve as a first step in the long liberal tradition that leads to the Enlightenment thinkers’ ideas about law and society.
The Laws, Cicero (1st Century B.C.):
A primer on moral behavior, The Laws describes the relationship and duties of the individual to the state, particularly, the qualities necessary to be a good leader and public official – qualities as timely for today’s public leaders as when he wrote them in the 1st century.
Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas (1265-1274):
The most influential of medieval philosophers and theologians, Aquinas attempts to reconcile Aristotle’s philosophy with Christian theology. In Section II, Aquinas creates the foundation for later Western theorists regarding the relationship between morality and law, the nature of the law, the relationship between the sovereign and the people, and the need for the law to serve the common good. His comments about everyone being bound by the law has become a cornerstone of the modern understanding of the rule of law.
The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli:
Written in 1613, this classic essay on how to gain and maintain power presents one of the most succinct expressions of the political concept that the ends justify the means in creating a peaceful society out of naturally corrupt individuals.
Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes:
Published in 1651, Hobbes argues that society resulted from a social contract in which the individual accepts his responsibility to others and theirs to him in order to maintain a peaceful and prosperous “commonwealth.”
Of Civil Government, John Locke:
(ca. 1690) Locke’s two treatises lay the foundation for constitutional democracy in Eighteenth Century America and France. In the first treatise he attacks the concept of absolute monarchy, and in the second he argues that the basis of all government is the “natural rights” of the individual and the presence of the social contract.
Spirit of the Laws, Book XI, Baron de Montesquieu (1748):
Montesquieu’s major contribution to the development of the rule of law and government appears in Book XI where he makes a strong case for republican government. Many of his ideas would influence the framers of the American Constitution: separation of powers, checks and balances, and an independent judiciary. For Montesquieu, liberty is a life lived under the rule of law.
The Social Contract, Jean Jacques Rousseau:
Rousseau’s 1762 treatise is perhaps one of the clearest expressions of the concept of the social contract as the foundation of government and the rights and responsibilities of citizens. For Rousseau, the individual is the very heart of the society and willingly submits to the state for the good of the whole.
The Communist Manifesto, Chapter 1, Karl Marx and Friederich Engels (1848):
For Marx and Engels, the rule of law in the 19th century had failed the “proletariat” class, thus reducing them to wage slaves living at the mercy of a harsh capitalistic system that gave all the advantages of government and the law to an elite wealthy class. Their stinging and inflammatory work became the spark that ignited the rise of socialism and the Communist state in the 20th century.
“On Liberty,” John Stuart Mill:
Written in 1859, this essay offers one of the most famous defenses of freedom in English and contends that democracy on its own doesn’t necessarily guarantee freedom. Mills writes that the success of a democratic society is found in “the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual.”