Hobbes, arguably the father of modern realism, contends that people are motivated to
find ways out of the state of nature not only to preserve their lives but to protect their
property and create an environment in which they can satisfy other appetites.
Marxism
too is anchored in appetite, but the early Marx was equally concerned with the spirit. He
wrote about man’s alienation from his labor, and how socialism would restore workers’
self-esteem by reordering their relationship to what they produced. Marx was a close
reader of the Greeks. He was drawn to their richer understanding of human motives and
corresponding appreciation that human happiness required more than mere satisfaction of
appetites.
The spirit is currently not the basis for any paradigm of politics or international
relations, although, as Hobbes and Rousseau recognized, it has the potential to serve as
the foundation for one.
A spirit-based paradigm would start from the recognition that
people, individually and collectively, seek self-esteem. As Plato and Aristotle
understood, it is achieved by excelling in activities valued by one’s society and thereby
gaining the respect of actors whose opinions matter. Greek tragedians explored the
consequences of the spirit for politics, and Thucydides made it central to his analysis of
the origins and course of the Peloponnesian War. The Greeks, unlike contemporary
scholars, had strong incentives to theorize about the spirit because Homeric and classical
Greece were honor societies, in which standing was distinct from and more important
than wealth, although its attainment was not independent of wealth. Many traditional
societies are similar in this respect. Medieval Europe and pre-modern Japan were also
honor societies in which bravery and prowess in individual combat conferred honor and
standing.
29
Convention