Society & Welfare
Western Thinkers
Western Thinkers — Quick Revision
One-page CGPSC quick revision for Western Thinkers: Socrates to Marx, every work, date, quotation and key idea in tables for Mains GS-IV.
Ten Western thinkers (plus Machiavelli, Montesquieu and Rawls) on one page: dates, works, quotations, ideas and governance links. For explanations, go back to the chapter.
How to use this sheet
Scan it top to bottom the week before Mains. Bold entries are the facts that short answers and comparisons return to most often.
Timeline
timeline
title Western thinkers in order
5th–4th c. BCE : Socrates (d. 399 BCE) : Plato (Academy) : Aristotle (Lyceum 335 BCE)
16th c. : Machiavelli, The Prince (1513/1532)
17th c. : Hobbes, Leviathan (1651) : Locke, Two Treatises (1689/1690)
18th c. : Montesquieu (1748) : Rousseau, Social Contract (1762) : Kant, Groundwork (1785) : Bentham, Principles (1789)
19th c. : Marx and Engels, Manifesto (1848) : Mill, On Liberty (1859) : Marx, Kapital I (1867)
20th c. : Rawls, A Theory of Justice (1971)Thinker by Thinker
| Thinker | Key facts | Core ideas |
|---|---|---|
| Socrates | c. 470–399 BCE; wrote nothing; tried 399 BCE (impiety, corrupting youth); hemlock | Elenchus; virtue is knowledge; no one does wrong willingly; “the unexamined life is not worth living” (Apology) |
| Plato | Academy (c. 387 BCE); Republic, Statesman, Laws | Forms; Allegory of the Cave; justice = each class does its own work; philosopher-king; communism of property and family for guardians only |
| Aristotle | 384–322 BCE; Stagira; tutor of Alexander; Lyceum 335 BCE; father of political science | Eudaimonia; virtue by habit; golden mean; “political animal”; six forms; polity best practicable; rule of law; distributive and corrective justice |
| Machiavelli | 1469–1527; The Prince (written 1513, published 1532) | Politics separate from morality; feared rather than loved; virtù and fortuna |
| Hobbes | 1588–1679; Leviathan (1651); English Civil War | State of nature = war of all against all, life “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”; absolute sovereign; no right to revolt |
| Locke | 1632–1704; Two Treatises (1689/1690); Glorious Revolution | Natural rights to life, liberty, property; consent; government as trust; right to resist; tabula rasa; legislative, executive, federative powers |
| Montesquieu | 1689–1755; The Spirit of the Laws (1748) | Separation of powers with checks and balances |
| Rousseau | 1712–1778; Geneva; Discourse on Inequality (1755); Social Contract and Emile (1762) | “Man is born free …”; general will vs will of all; inalienable popular sovereignty; direct democracy |
| Kant | 1724–1804; Königsberg; Pure Reason 1781; Groundwork 1785; Practical Reason 1788; Perpetual Peace 1795 | Good will; duty for duty’s sake; categorical imperative (universal law, humanity as end, kingdom of ends); autonomy; dignity |
| Bentham | 1748–1832; Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (printed 1780, published 1789) | Pain and pleasure; greatest happiness of the greatest number; quantitative; 7-dimension hedonic calculus; natural rights “nonsense upon stilts”; Panopticon |
| J.S. Mill | 1806–1873; East India Company 1823–1858; MP 1865–68; On Liberty 1859; Representative Government 1861; Utilitarianism 1861/1863; Subjection of Women 1869 | Qualitative utilitarianism (“Socrates dissatisfied”); harm principle; free speech; tyranny of the majority; proportional representation |
| Marx | 1818–1883; Trier to London; with Engels; Manuscripts 1844; Manifesto 1848; Kapital I 1867; Gotha Critique 1875 | Historical materialism; base and superstructure; class struggle; surplus value; alienation; dictatorship of the proletariat; State “withers away” (Engels) |
| Rawls | 1921–2002; A Theory of Justice (1971) | Justice as fairness; veil of ignorance; difference principle |
Famous Lines
| Line | Thinker and source |
|---|---|
| “The unexamined life is not worth living” | Socrates, in Plato’s Apology |
| “Man is by nature a political animal” | Aristotle, Politics |
| “Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” | Hobbes, Leviathan |
| “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains” | Rousseau, The Social Contract |
| “Nature has placed mankind under … pain and pleasure” | Bentham, Introduction to the Principles |
| “Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied” | Mill, Utilitarianism |
| “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” | Marx and Engels, Manifesto |
| “The philosophers have only interpreted the world … the point is to change it” | Marx, Theses on Feuerbach |
Ethics Frameworks
| Framework | Thinker | Judges an act by | Governance use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtue ethics | Aristotle | Character of the agent | Training, role models |
| Deontology | Kant | Duty and principle | Codes of conduct, rights |
| Utilitarianism | Bentham, Mill | Consequences | Cost–benefit, targeting |
Don’t Confuse
| This | vs | That |
|---|---|---|
| Academy (Plato) | vs | Lyceum (Aristotle) |
| Aristotle’s polity (good rule of many) | vs | Aristotle’s democracy (perverted rule of many) |
| Locke: legislative, executive, federative | vs | Montesquieu: legislative, executive, judicial |
| General will (common good) | vs | Will of all (sum of private interests) |
| Bentham: quantity of pleasure | vs | Mill: quality of pleasure |
| Hypothetical imperative (if … then) | vs | Categorical imperative (unconditional) |
| Plato’s communism (guardians only) | vs | Marx’s communism (whole society) |
| Socialism: to each according to work | vs | Communism: to each according to needs |
Favourite traps
- Separation of powers is Montesquieu’s theory, not Locke’s.
- Aristotle did not favour democracy; his best practicable form was polity.
- The Communist Manifesto is by Marx and Engels; only Volume I of Das Kapital appeared in Marx’s lifetime.
- Mill’s harm principle does not allow interference with a competent adult for his own good.
- “Socialist” entered the Preamble by the 42nd Amendment (1976).
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