Tractatus Humanico-Politicus

Tractatus Humanico-Politicus is the first systematic treatise of Eleutherian Humanism, composed by Nicodemus mainly between Carpis of the 129th and Atis of the 135th year of Sehnay. Although Nicodemus personally enjoyed the style of Aphorisms, he realized that its fragmentary nature might hinder its popularity. Additionally, despite its critique of the conditions of human life in Rathnir, Aphorisms lacked a clear normative ethical theory. Accordingly, Nicodemus decided to create a new work which re-organized Aphorisms into a more systematic treatise. In addition to articulating a theory of virtue ethics, Tractatus includes brief entries concerning friendship and free will, and a concluding section to serve as an ethical statement for membership in the Eleutherian school.
== Main Theses ==
While Nicodemus abhors the idea that true philosophy can be easily boiled down into a list of simple theses, his reorganization of Aphorisms into Tractatus lends itself more easily to the idea that his philosophy does in fact have core tenets. The core theses of Tractatus are as follows:
#What makes humans human is our moral, intellectual, existential, and spiritual nature.
#Liberty, or freedom, is the ultimate political ideal of humankind.
#Virtues are excellences of character which contribute to, or are constituent of, living well.
#Virtues are within our power to cultivate.
#Avarice, cruelty, and dogmatism make Rathnir a hostile place for humanity.
#Political power is the ability to influence others’ behavior.
#The total power of an entity can be modeled by the formula TP = \eta \cdot \sum_i (P_i \cdot D_i).
#Authority is the legitimate exercise of power by sovereign states.
#Democracy, monarchy, and oligarchy each have merits as well as flaws.
#Eleutherians advance the cause of human liberty and its preconditions.
Whether all of these theses will stand the test of time within the Eleutherian Humanist school is unclear. Nonetheless, Theses 1, 2, and 10—and their interpretations—seem to be of particular importance with regard to what thinkers will choose to identify with the school.
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Category:Traveler's Era