PLS2607 ASSIGNMENT 2 COMPLETE ANSWERS STUDY GUIDE
2025/2026 VERIFIED SOLUTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS || 100%
GUARANTEED PASS <LATEST VERSION>
Verified Solutions and Correct Answers || 100% Guaranteed Pass <Latest
Version>
Section 1: Foundational Concepts & Key Thinkers
1. What is the central subject of political theory?
A: The central subject of political theory is the systematic study of concepts
like justice, power, rights, liberty, and the state, and the normative questions about
how society should be organized.
2. Who is considered the father of modern political philosophy and why?
A: Thomas Hobbes is often considered a foundational figure, but Niccolò
Machiavelli is credited with founding modern political science due to his
empirical, realistic analysis of power in "The Prince."
3. Which concept is Thomas Hobbes most famously associated with?
A: The concept of the "Social Contract" and the "State of Nature" as a
condition of "war of all against all."
,4. According to Hobbes, what is the primary purpose of the sovereign?
A: To provide security, order, and prevent a return to the violent state of nature.
5. John Locke's view of the state of nature differed from Hobbes'. What was
it?
A: Locke viewed the state of nature as a state of liberty governed by the Law
of Nature, where men are free, equal, and have natural rights, though it was
"inconvenient."
6. What are the three natural rights John Locke argued for?
A: Life, Liberty, and Property.
7. For Locke, what is the primary purpose of government?
A: To protect the natural rights of life, liberty, and property.
8. Who proposed the concept of the "general will"?
A: Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
9. What did Rousseau mean by the "general will"?
A: The collective will of the citizenry aimed at the common good, which is
distinct from the sum of individual private wills ("the will of all").
, 10. Which philosopher is closely associated with the concept of the "separation
of powers"?
A: Montesquieu.
11. Into what three branches did Montesquieu propose separating government
power?
A: The legislative, the executive, and the judiciary.
12. What is utilitarianism?
A: A moral and political theory that argues the best action is the one that
maximizes utility, usually defined as that which produces the greatest well-being
for the greatest number of people.
13. Who are the two primary classical utilitarian thinkers?
A: Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.
14. How did John Stuart Mill's version of utilitarianism differ from
Bentham's?
A: Mill introduced qualitative distinctions between pleasures, arguing that
intellectual and moral pleasures (higher pleasures) are superior to mere physical
ones (lower pleasures).
2025/2026 VERIFIED SOLUTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS || 100%
GUARANTEED PASS <LATEST VERSION>
Verified Solutions and Correct Answers || 100% Guaranteed Pass <Latest
Version>
Section 1: Foundational Concepts & Key Thinkers
1. What is the central subject of political theory?
A: The central subject of political theory is the systematic study of concepts
like justice, power, rights, liberty, and the state, and the normative questions about
how society should be organized.
2. Who is considered the father of modern political philosophy and why?
A: Thomas Hobbes is often considered a foundational figure, but Niccolò
Machiavelli is credited with founding modern political science due to his
empirical, realistic analysis of power in "The Prince."
3. Which concept is Thomas Hobbes most famously associated with?
A: The concept of the "Social Contract" and the "State of Nature" as a
condition of "war of all against all."
,4. According to Hobbes, what is the primary purpose of the sovereign?
A: To provide security, order, and prevent a return to the violent state of nature.
5. John Locke's view of the state of nature differed from Hobbes'. What was
it?
A: Locke viewed the state of nature as a state of liberty governed by the Law
of Nature, where men are free, equal, and have natural rights, though it was
"inconvenient."
6. What are the three natural rights John Locke argued for?
A: Life, Liberty, and Property.
7. For Locke, what is the primary purpose of government?
A: To protect the natural rights of life, liberty, and property.
8. Who proposed the concept of the "general will"?
A: Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
9. What did Rousseau mean by the "general will"?
A: The collective will of the citizenry aimed at the common good, which is
distinct from the sum of individual private wills ("the will of all").
, 10. Which philosopher is closely associated with the concept of the "separation
of powers"?
A: Montesquieu.
11. Into what three branches did Montesquieu propose separating government
power?
A: The legislative, the executive, and the judiciary.
12. What is utilitarianism?
A: A moral and political theory that argues the best action is the one that
maximizes utility, usually defined as that which produces the greatest well-being
for the greatest number of people.
13. Who are the two primary classical utilitarian thinkers?
A: Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.
14. How did John Stuart Mill's version of utilitarianism differ from
Bentham's?
A: Mill introduced qualitative distinctions between pleasures, arguing that
intellectual and moral pleasures (higher pleasures) are superior to mere physical
ones (lower pleasures).
