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HOBBES, EDUCATION AND THE LONG RUN STABILITY OF NATIONS:
TOWARD A HOBBESIAN MODEL FOR
CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS THEOCRATIC SOCITIES
by:
Maryam Qudrat
________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(PHILOSOPHY)
August 2008
Copyright 2008 Maryam Qudrat
Object Description
| Title | Hobbes, education and the long run stability of nations: toward a Hobbesian model for contemporary religious theocratic socities |
| Author | Qudrat, Maryam |
| Author email | QUDRAT@USC.EDU |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Philosophy |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-04-25 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Restricted until 6 June 2010. |
| Date published | 2010-06-06 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Lloyd, Sharon |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Dreher, John Damnjanovic, Zlatan Dekmejian, Richard Willard, Dallas |
| Abstract | Hobbes wrote Leviathan in response to the horrifying prospect of a civil war rooted largely in factions ' differing conceptions of religious duty. His proposed absolutist, authoritarian remedy and prophylactic for such disorders seeks to cause subjects through extensive education to internalize a settled, principled commitment to deferring to the judgment of a single sovereign arbitrator on all disputed matters. The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan in the mid 1990s may appear to model Hobbes' recommendation. However, the fall of the Taliban, unseated by the United States government in partnership with several European nations in 2001 reveals a serious fault in Hobbes' recommended strategy for building a stable state. Hobbes insisted that only pervasive and uniform education -- we might rather think of it as indoctrination -- could force the internalization of attitudes of willing deference needed to ensure stability. But mere deference is not a principled commitment, and sheepish followers beaten down by an "educational system " that compels them uncritically to parrot whatever they are told will not have the wherewithall to defend their regime against any threat, whether external or internal. The very sort of charismatic "seducers of the people" that so exercised Hobbes find easy prey in a society of sheepish Hobbesian followers. Hobbes ' educational system proves self-defeating.; This project begins by describing the rise of the Taliban and situating it in Hobbesian terms. The particular content and methods of its educational system are described in detail. I then explain the features of that system that made it vulnerable to such an easy overturning by invading forces. I argue that this vulnerability is an ineliminable defect of the educational model Hobbes proposed, and I conclude by offering a sketch of a more useful educational model that preserves Hobbes's insights about the importance of education in any stable theocracy, while incorporating elements of Mill's "market place of ideas" to enable citizens to forge a principled attachment to the system that sustains social order. |
| Keyword | Islam; Thomas Hobbes; jihad; political theory; philosophy |
| Coverage date | after 1990 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1256 |
| Rights | Qudrat, Maryam |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-Qudrat-20080606 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume26/etd-Qudrat-20080606.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full text | HOBBES, EDUCATION AND THE LONG RUN STABILITY OF NATIONS: TOWARD A HOBBESIAN MODEL FOR CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS THEOCRATIC SOCITIES by: Maryam Qudrat ________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PHILOSOPHY) August 2008 Copyright 2008 Maryam Qudrat |
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