Questions tagged [political-philosophy]
Describing questions about the philosophy of politics and society which investigate concerns like liberty, justice and equality.
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Can the affirmation “All taxes are theft” be considered an a priori truth?
Hans Hermann Hoppe is a popular Economist from the Austrian School whose central ideas seem fundamentally right. However, I see him as having very poor argumentation skills and more than once I read ...
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2answers
53 views
Privacy in the modern context [closed]
In Roman times, 'privacy' had more to do with one’s “private” domain where one is the master of one’s own house rather than the sense we have today where the emphasis is more on one’s private thoughts,...
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0answers
32 views
What are Popper's views on employment and unemployment?
I recently read an interview where Popper ranked his interest in employment above education. Unfortunately, the interview was quite brief and didn't go further into Popper's thinking on this.
Q. What ...
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2answers
136 views
What exactly is the philosophical genealogy of racism, in particular Locke and Hume?
Afua Hirsch in her book, Brit(ish) writes:
I was in my thirties when I learned that both Locke and Hume were also important proponents of racism, pouring that same intellect they used to such great ...
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1answer
55 views
Is “class culture” an artificial construct or does it have “natural” motivation?
Is "class culture" an artificial construct or does it have "natural" motivation?
A lof of things, at least judging by internet, are associated or measured relative to socio-economic class. However, ...
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1answer
43 views
Does Egalitarianism also mean having Equal Opportunity?
Egalitarianism proposes that everyone should have same access to political and civil rights, but does that mean include equal opportunity?
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2answers
93 views
What is “State” for Rousseau?
I guess this simple question has a simple answer, but I have not found it.
I am reading "The Social Contract" and am really loving it. I understand Rousseau's distinction of sovereign and government....
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47 views
Classical liberalism and libertarianism
What is the distinction between classical liberalism and libertarianism?
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2answers
112 views
Authors who think war and violence are part of the American culture and economy
The United States Military budget exceeds the next 9 countries on the list combined ref. here. A great deal of Hollywood movies portrait the glory of war and present violence as something entertaining ...
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1answer
14 views
Ernesto Laclau: 'Any repetition that is governed by a structural law of successions is space'
There is a debate going on about Ernesto Laclau's argument that
any repetition that is governed by a structural law of successions is space
But what does he actually mean by that?
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2answers
71 views
What are the key points Thomas Nagel makes in his article “Moral Conflict and Political Legitimacy”?
Particularly, what is his view on liberalism? And what is the significance of the example he gives regarding Catholics?
The article can be found here:
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1answer
52 views
What grounds did Spinoza give for the legitimacy of government?
How exactly does Spinoza ground the legitimacy of the government in the theologo-political treatise? More specifically in Chapter 16, what is the legitimacy of the government grounded in?
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2answers
204 views
What is the difference between 'socialism' and 'communism'?
I frequently hear about these two different concepts. What is the fundamental difference between them?
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33 views
What was the scholastic position on Monarchy?
I'm trying to look into the history of medieval political thought, and I am struggling with the scholastics, especially Scotus and Albert. Does anyone know what their views were on Monarchy ...
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1answer
76 views
Natural sociality in Rousseau and Aristotle
Are we social or solitary by Rousseau's reckoning? How do his arguments stand in relation to Aristotle's idea of humans as essentially social or political?
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1answer
43 views
Was Jan Smuts the father of Holism?
With reference:
Jan C. Smuts, Holism and Evolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Smuts
With what I've found so far it seems he has had an enormous impact on the world that we have, so:
Is ...
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1answer
38 views
Which philosophers were the strongest supporters of individual privacy?
Philosophers differ on their opinions of privacy. Who were the strongest supporters of individual privacy?
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300 views
Does philosophy shed any light on how parties can fruitfully debate without an agreed source of truth?
A hallmark of recent political developments is extreme partisanship, where each side has near total distrust of the other. To exacerbate this situation there has been a breakdown in agreement over ...
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1answer
87 views
What is John Locke's basic idea of individuality?
Are we social or solitary by Locke's reckoning?
How can we use his argument to oppose Aristotle's idea of humans essentially being social or political?
I have read the chapter 2 'Of the state of ...
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1answer
99 views
How does Aristotle argue for his claim that all humans are essentially social/political?
In relation to Aristotle's books Politics 1 and 2, how can you argue that all humans are social or political beings and what can you argue against that? What kind of arguments can be brought up ...
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1answer
77 views
Gun control and classical liberalism
Is gun control consistent with classical liberalism? Can a classical liberal case be made for restricting this liberty?
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1answer
35 views
Whose ideas are most influential for European Convention on Human Rights?
The European Convention on Human Rights is based on the idea of civil liberties, 18 articles in total. What philosophy is the foundation for these liberties? Specifically the right to privacy/private ...
2
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1answer
67 views
How do Marxists account for depreciating value of commodities
If Marxists claim that useful labor is the source of a commodities value then would a commodity that has an expiration date, strawberries for example have as much value when they turn rotten as when ...
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4answers
114 views
Is there a name for a position that governments could be replaced with voluntary organizations?
The problem I see with governments is that you have "duties" (from the position of legislators) even despite the fact you didn't choose to be born in any particular state. Therefore, probably it would ...
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14answers
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Why are legal and moral responsibilities said to be different?
It seems in most cases which laws are adopted depends on what ethical views legislators hold. There might be counterexamples when a lawmaker does not adopt laws reflecting own moral views. But I do ...
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0answers
50 views
What does 'semantic blindness' mean here?
A public talk to be given by Philosopher Michael Patrick Lynch at Oxford is to address:
Fake news spread online is a clear danger to democratic politics. One aspect of that danger is obvious: it ...
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1answer
49 views
What does Focault mean by “space”?
I’m reading “Of other spaces”, but it’s hard to follow for me because I don’t know what Focault means by “space”. So, what does Focault mean by space? What would be the definition?
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1answer
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Philosophical approaches for a response to rape
I wasn't sure whether to post this here, or on law, or on politics. But I eventually landed here since this SE seemed like the most middle of the road option.
My question concerns rape and how we ...
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0answers
22 views
How do marxists account for the value of land?
Under the labor theory of value, land should on its own have no value if no useful labor has been put into it yet its exchange value on the market extremely high. How is this contradiction addressed? ...
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2answers
49 views
What is use-value according to Marx and why is it what is valuable in a commodity?
According to Marx, labor is what gives a commodity its value, specifically useful labor(das mudpie). My question here is what exactly is useful labor and why is labor itself what provides value and ...
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2answers
104 views
How can laissez-faire capitalism not turn to corporatocracy?
An idea of corporatocracy (pretty dystopian) exists in some movies and videogames. Typically huge corporations ar epresented as having own armies and those armies can force citizens do their work. We ...
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0answers
47 views
Is there some way to distinguish between “better” and “worse” political ideologies on some general level?
Is there some way to distinguish between "better" and "worse" political ideologies on some general level?
It's clear that there are some subjective beliefs/preferences such as being in favor of ...
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4answers
153 views
Can a ban on certain words be justified rationally?
In our world there is a notion of political correctness. There are some words which can be considered rude or abusive in themselves, regardless of the thought behind them. However, this seems awkward ...
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4answers
174 views
Do anarchists want to eliminate all the power or only juridical one?
I often see as a criticism of anarchism that power has a natural occurrence. It's impossible to eliminate power. There will always be an authority.
However, I always thought that the total ...
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2answers
581 views
Does utilitarianism justify racism in some circumstances?
Utilitarianism says that we should maximize aggregate utility. Greatest happiness for the greatest number is the usual catchphrase.
Suppose there is a wealthy country A with lots of extra resources, ...
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2answers
182 views
What was Plato's purpose behind Atlantis?
I've heard that Atlantis is simply a story about hubris. But since Plato was interested in political philosophy I would be surprised if there weren't anything along those lines to Atlantis.
So my ...
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2answers
272 views
What is meant by: “Human rights were discovered (not invented!)”?
I recently encountered the claim that "Human rights were discovered (not invented!) during the French Revolution" by a person who appears to be quite a Hegel fan (this might make the question easier ...
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1answer
143 views
Burke on the social contract
What did Burke say about the social contract in Reflections on the Revolution in France or elsewhere, and how much did he develop his idea of a 'social contract for the ages'? How does this fit within ...
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3answers
56 views
Thoughts Regarding a Hypothetical Ethics Dilemma [closed]
I'm not a philosopher, so I apologize if this is a generally stupid question, but I was curious to hear what people thought.
Scenario: Consider a "Star Trek" like future, with a technological ...
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4answers
106 views
In order for politics to be “scientific”, what does it require? Are there existing scientific political ideologues (measurement et al)?
In order for politics to be "scientific", what does it require? Are there existing scientific political ideologues (measurement et al)?
Particularly, because I still feel that a lot around politics ...
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1answer
75 views
The social aspect of epistemology
Though not an issue in the debates surrounding rigorous, theoretical epistemology, in practice culture and trust in authorities plays an enormous role for most of our beliefs outside of our expertise.
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1answer
113 views
Russell on freedom of realm of thought from public control
In Political Ideals (1917), Bertrand Russell wrote
The whole realm of thought and opinion is utterly unsuited to public control; it ought to be as free, and as spontaneous as is possible to those ...
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4answers
363 views
How can land and natural resources become “private property”?
I’ve been trying to understand how an anarchic society would be initiated, but the two main ideas- anarcho-communism and anarcho-capitalism- not only contradict each other, but seem to be riddled with ...
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2answers
178 views
How journalism's rationale to tell facts feasible? How objectivity may be achieved if at all by journalists?
On background of some recent events - that regarding Jerusalem's status (the US step of moving their embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem) and the clash between IDF and Hamas and Palestinians in the ...
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2answers
154 views
How can we stop power abuse without anarchy? [closed]
One of my arguments for anarchy is that power abuse can only be eliminated by eliminating power "on paper" itself.
But maybe I am wrong and there exist other ways to prevent power abuse without ...
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4answers
264 views
Pendulum Theory / Cyclical Theory in Philosophy?
In political science, the Cyclical Theory states that societal attitudes (Liberal-Conservative spectrum) move like a pendulum moving from one extreme to the other.
Are there any philosophers who ...
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0answers
167 views
What does Hannah Arendt mean by 'Alienation from the World?'
In the introduction to Arendts book the Human Condition is the following:
In a development Arendt traces to "alienation from the world," modern, automated societies engrossed by ever more efficient ...
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1answer
120 views
What branch of philosophy studies 'clouds' of concepts that spread as intellectual templates?
I am currently reading Andreas Wimmer's Waves of War, he makes an argument that I found interesting and I was wondering if anyone knew of what Philosophical Theory that style of reasoning would be ...
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1answer
146 views
Why didn't Kant end up in anarchy?
Let us assume the proposition: one might take leader role. Then we apply universalization: if everyone takes leader role, no one is the leader. Thus, we proved that taking leader role is useless ...
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301 views
For a political ruler is it better to be loved or feared?
Let's suppose the title question applies especially (but not exclusively) in the context of a leadership role (where the goal is to sustain power) and for simplicity let's say the choice is strictly ...
