What are Classics?

Classics Represent the Works of Acknowledged Excellence

• Classical tradition of political thought refers to a series of reflections on political problems recorded in various classics of political philosophy.

• Understanding the significance of the classical tradition requires focusing on the nature and utility of classics.

• Human civilization has a long tradition of studying literature, history, philosophy, etc., with some works considered masterpieces and timeless; these are known as classics.

• Some classics specifically deal with political philosophy and are widely used in political studies.

• A classic is a great work whose utility transcends time and space, with enduring importance for all humanity.

• The Oxford English Dictionary defines a classic as a work “of the first rank and of acknowledged excellence.”

• Dante Germino describes classics as treatises noted for depth, insight, conceptual clarity, freshness of vision, and quality of thought.

• Examples of classics include:

  • Plato’s Republic and Laws

  • Aristotle’s Ethics and Politics

  • Augustine’s City of God

  • Aquinas’ Treatise on Law

  • Machiavelli’s Prince and Discourse on Livy

  • Hobbes’ Leviathan

  • Locke’s Second Treatise of Civil Government

  • Rousseau’s Social Contract

  • Hegel’s Philosophy of Right

  • J.S. Mill’s On Liberty

  • Marx’s Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts and Communist Manifesto.

• These works were produced in different times, countries, and conditions, addressing different problems and offering varied solutions to similar issues.

• They primarily deal with perennial problems of human society.

• According to Dante Germino, what unites classics is not their conclusions but the questions they address:
  (a) What is man?
  (b) What is society?
  (c) What is history?

• Classics are read today for their excellent writing style and substantive content.

• We study their views comparatively and critically in light of our own experience, not accepting them as authoritative like holy scriptures but evaluating them with our own wisdom.

• For example, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Locke gave different descriptions of human nature based on their experiences.

• Hobbes and Locke imagined a state of nature before civil society but described it differently.

• Modern psychology and anthropology find these descriptions baseless, yet we value them for their symbolic significance in their historical contexts.

The task of the historian of ideas is to study and interpret a canon of classic texts. The value of writing this kind of history stems from the fact that the classic texts in moral, political, religious and other such modes of thought contain a ‘dateless wisdom’ in the form of ‘universal ideas’. As a result we can hope to learn and benefit directly from investigating these ‘timeless elements’, since they possess a perennial relevance. – Quentin Skinner (Visions of Politics; 2002)

Even the most cursory examination of the masterpieces of political literature such as the discloses the continual reappearance of certain problem-topics, power relationships between ruler and ruled, the nature of authority, the problems posed by social conflict, the status of certain goals or purposes as objectives of political action, and the character of political knowledge … What is important is the continuity of preoccupations, not the unanimity of response. – Sheldon S. Wolin (Politics and Vision; 1960)