Abstract
Arbuthnot of course, had read his Plato, his Aristotle and could tell his syllogism from his enthymeme, while all the time he is constructing a dilemma around us. We take it for granted that we live in political systems, but to understand our habitat requires first that we have concepts of the political and of a system. These are neither self-evident nor invariant. But precisely because we do take living in a political system as a given, we may well overlook a substantial dimension of The Art of Political Lying. The’Pseudologia’ purports to be a systematic theory and a disclosure of a political system. It is a system of an unusual sort.
D. Diego. Since worthy Persons, who are as much concern’d for your Safety as I am, have employ’d me as their Orator, I desire to know whither you will have it by way of Syllogism, Enthymem, Dilemma or Sorites.
John now began to be diverted with their Extravagance.
Though John Bull has not read your Aristotles, Platos and Machiavels, he can see as far into a Milstone as another: With that John began to chuckle and laugh, til he was like to burst his Sides.
Arbuthnot, Lewis Baboon Turned Honest, ch. 3 & ch. 5.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Aristotle, Rhetoric, trans. H. Freese, (Camb.Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1926 and 1959).
T. C. Burgess, Epideictic Literature, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1902), pp. 90ff.
Quentin Skinner, Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes, (Cambridge: University Press, 1996), p. 74.
Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, (1690), bk. 3, 10, 34.
Lester M. Beattie, John Arbuthnot, Mathematician and Satirist, (Camb. Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935, and New York: Russell & Russell, 1967), p. 90.
Henry Neville, A Game of Picquet, (1660).
7 Andrew Marvell, An Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government,’Amsterdam’ (1677).
Dryden, Of Heroic Plays (1672) in Of Dramatic Poesy, ed, S. Watson, (London: Dent, 1962), vol. 2, p. 81.
James Bramston, The Art of Politicks in imitation of Horace’s Poetry, (1729), p. 18, 36.
Machiavelli, Discorsi, (Milan: Feltrinelti, 1973), 1.9-14.
Kathleen Williams, Jonathan Swift and the Age of Compromise, (Lawence: University of Kansas Press, 1959), p. 72
Conal Condren,’Rhetoric, Historiography and Political Theory: Some Aspects of the Poverty Controversy Reconsidered’, The Journal of Religious History, 11 (1982), pp. 15–34.
Brian Tierney, Religion, Law and the Growth of Constitutional Thought, 1150–1650 (Cambridge: University Press, 1982), ch. 2.
Plato, The Republic, trans. Paul Shorey, (Camb. Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970 edn.) bk. 1–2.
15 Lucretius, De rerum naturae, trans. L. Johnson, (London: Centeur, 1963) s.926
16 Machiavelli The Prince, ed. & trans. Russell Price and Quentin Skinner, (Cambridge: University Press, 1988) chs. 15–17.
An Enquiry into the Origins of Honour, and the Usefulness of Christianity in War, (1732) Introduction M. M. Goldsmith, (London: Frank Cass, 1971); see Hundert, The Fable’s Englightenment, p. 23.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1997 Conal Condren
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Condren, C. (1997). A System of Politics. In: Satire, Lies and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230377844_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230377844_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-40240-3
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-37784-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)