Genesis and Development of the Concept “Security” in the Political and Legal Doctrines of the Ancient East and Antiquity

About the authors:

Andrey N. Glebov, Cand. Sci. (Jur.), Cand. Sci. (Hist.), Associate Professor, Department of State and Criminal Law, Kurgan State University; gleban78@mail.ru

Alexey Ya. Neverov, Cand. Sci. (Jur.), Head of the Department of State Law, Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (Kurgan Branch); neverov45@mail.ru

Abstract:

At the modern stage of the development of civilization, humanity faces new serious threats. That is why the value of security increases. On the theoretical and the practical sides, it is required to establish the content and the meaning of the concept “security”. The study of the ideas of thinkers of the past will allow to determine the content of the concept “security” more fully and accurately at the modern stage of development of science.

This article aims to investigate the origin and formation of ideas about the security of society, state, personality in ancient and ancient Eastern political doctrines. The authors use a functional analysis of the doctrines of thinkers of the past to search and analyze the constructions in these political and legal concepts. The function of these constructions is to ensure the security of the state, society, and personality from external and internal threats. The article also presents an analysis of the political and legal views of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Epicurus, and Confucius.

The authors make the following conclusions: 1) there are no integral, complex concepts of security at an early stage of development of political and legal thought; 2) the ideas about the security of the state, society, and personality are contained in broader theoretical models.

The value of “security” is realized in all of the analyzed doctrines. It is considered as a terminal value, which serves as a criterion for the effectiveness of the state. Many thinkers of antiquity construct specific institutions and security mechanisms. In some doctrines, the security is associated with a broad political and social context. Aristotle speaks about the middle class and Confucius speaks about following the middle way. The analysis of the concepts in the regional context allows concluding the dominance of statist ideas in the doctrines of the Ancient East. In the ancient theories, there is a place for the interests of society and the personality. In general, the thinkers of antiquity actualized the problem of security and outlined the lines of its further analysis in subsequent eras.

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