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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Essentialism as Philosophical Substrate of Realpolitik? [closed]
I was reading a political science paper, in a foreign language so there is no point in sharing, which described realpolitik as having a philosophical substrate of essentialism. The statement was ...
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How shall I understand Wittgenstein's comment on Russell's work?
Ludwig Wittgenstein said
Russell’s books should be bound in two colours…those dealing with mathematical logic in red – and all students of philosophy should read them; those dealing with ethics and ...
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Kant's disjunctive judgement and neoliberalism
Using the definition of neoliberalism (will not paste here), and Kan't third category being of relation, primarily his disjunctive judgement, hence community, and its application to the notion of ...
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Are there philosophically serious moral arguments against eugenics?
First, I'm sure there are, but I have yet to read much in this area. It seems that most moral arguments are or quickly become historical arguments about violent or judicial racism, which may then ...
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Why can community benefit if its individuals be free to act selfishly?
I never studied philosophy. Can someone kindly explain like I'm 5 the emboldened sentences below? What does "the defendant may benefit from considerations such as the effect on the community if ...
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Questions about Marx's second, third, and fourth thesis in ''Theses on Feuerbach''
The question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question.
a. What does Marx mean here by ”objective truth,” what is he alluding ...
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Is political equality meaningfully achievable as a political goal? [closed]
In a recently closed post Is equality as a political goal meaningless?, the OP posed this question [as edited by me]: Is the concept of political equality, itself, meaningless, without referencing ...
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Question about Marx´s book (German Ideology)
In 'The German Ideology' Marx claims that in his materialist conception of history 'ascends from earth to heaven', unlike the German philosophy of the time that 'descends from heaven to earth'. What ...
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Under what conditions is work alienated?
Why, for Marx, is alienation a condition of work under capitalism? I´ve been reading Marx's texts and I don't understand why.
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Looking for references to political/moral philosophy literature on communal child-rearing and the institution of the family
[Note: this question was previously closed under the reason "needs to be more focused". I subsequently edited the question to make it more focused and then hoped it would be reopened, but no ...
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Dialectics and Machiavelli
What is the relation between Marxist dialectics and Machiavelli's philosophy? I have read Lefort, and he seems good, but I was unsure if he was an academic playing games.
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Are social crises good for the bourgeoisie, according to Marx?
Are social crises good for the bourgeoisie, according to Marx?
Clearly social crises can be bad for the working class. For example, the world wars were bad and count as 'social crises', but they may ...
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Is there any second-hand, open-source literature on Georges Bataille's essay “The Psychological Structure of Fascism”?
A while ago, I read Bataille's essay “The Psychological Structure of Fascism”, translated into English by Carl Lovitt. As I haven't followed any philosophy courses at a university (I'm mostly a self-...
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Who does 'men of letters' refer to?
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his discourse on the origin of inequality and discourse on the arts and sciences, mentioned the 'men of letters', men he associated with negative connotations. However, who ...
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Paradox: if people are too immoral to be left free in their choice, then why is democracy the solution?
I am asking if there are noted philosophers that have thought about the following paradox before, or something resembling it.
Democracy is seen here as a system in which a nation is governed by a ...
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Why does Hayek refer to French 'individualism' as the "Cartesian" school?
I am reading Frederick Hayek right now and saw that he refers to the French liberal tradition, what he calls French "individualism (vs the English liberal tradition of Smith, Ferguson, Burke, etc.) ...
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Is political correctness a result of a more rational society?
Yes, I am aware of the insanity in the question. However, that is precisely why I am asking. The insanity stems from the popular idea, especially amongst academics or the type of people you might find ...
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Is anarcho-socialism an oxymoron?
I have regularly heard debate between anarcho-socialists and anarcho-capitalists about which one is the true oxymoron.
If we take anarcho-socialism to mean no government and economic equality (+ ...
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Is it possible that Israel - despite being a self-named Jewish state is not a Jewish state at all? [closed]
An aunt of mine, when she arrived in Britain, once jeered at me, calling me a Christian, mostly because she thought of Britain as being Christian. These were the only categories of thought she had.
I,...
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Current academics exponents of (classical) liberalism
First of all, I don't want to cause polemic with the question. I know it's a delicate issue and I don't want to touch personal susceptibilities. My question is more on ignorance since I am from ...
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Should we place our own good before our nation's good? [closed]
I'm currently writing a screenplay, and one of the philosophical themes arises out of a very specific conflict, with I call:
INDIVIDUAL BENEFIT vs STATE BENEFIT.
One of the characters sacrifices ...
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What does it mean for someone to "found a state/government"? And why can they do it? [closed]
What does it mean for someone to "found a state/government"? And why can they do it?
E.g.
George Washington is referred to as the "founder" of American republic.
Intuitively it's ...
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Who writes the natural laws of a constitution?
If we say that the natural law of a constitution in a democratic government has to protect the minority from the majority, by whom is it written?
If the majority writes it, it might not protect the ...
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Are state secrets compatible with Democracy?
In some western countries some government agencies and intelligence services withdraw information from the general public on the pretext of "national security" or "public safety".
eg. 1: The American ...
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How do Burkean conservatives respond to the accusation of cultural relativism?
I sincerely hope that this is the right StackExchange to ask this question. Politics deals with pragmatics and History seldom deals with more abstract questions.
As far as I can gather, Burkean ...
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Why does Arendt say that the 'absence of continuity' is an outstanding characteristic of the totalitarian mind?
Hannah Arendt writes in her book The Origins of Totalitarianism:
Stalin's successors attempted to do without concessions to
the name of their predecessor, even though Stalin had thirty years' ...
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Who was the first philosopher of property?
I assume that the idea of property already existed in ancient Greece, else there would be no slaves -- at least no privately owned slaves. Yes, I know that litte about the Greeks.
Who was the first ...
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Is the term 'Quantum Supremacy' symptomatic of the sick state of quantum physics today?
I overheard the following dialogue recently:
Letitia: Quantum what?
Josef: Quantum supremacy!
Letitia: Is that a game quantum theorists play to show who is supreme in quantum mechanics?
Josef: No, ...
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What causes the binary (left/right) division in politics?
In many places we can see that people cluster into specifically two groups, politically. Of dozens of prominent unresolved societal issues, we can predict one's stance on many issues by knowing their ...
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Continuing Political Philosophy Study
A little over a year ago, I took a political philosophy course, and am currently reviewing some notes and the texts. Keeping in mind that I have no other background in philosophy, I wondered if anyone ...
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Who said, "a parliament with no opposition should be dissolved"?
I've found a reference in a Jewish text from the mid-19th century to a "gentile sage" (an expression usually referring to a Greek philosopher, but it could be any non-Jewish person really) who said ...
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Maximizing freedom in a society
A friend and I were trying to come up with the most basic rule that, if followed, would lead to a functional (and preferably good) society.
He said: "People should be free to do whatever they want, ...
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I'm being drafted to the military but I have the option to refuse (legally), would it be immoral for me to serve? [closed]
I’m set to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces but I have the option to exempt from the military if I wish to. So I’m in a big moral dilemma on whether I should serve or not, I’m currently leaning ...
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In the philosophy of Josiah Royce, is there a tension between the individual and society?
I'm reading through Josiah Royce's view on the self and this is what I think he believes the tension to be between the individual and society:
"The tension between the individual and society is ...
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Is freedom from discrimination a positive or a negative right?
Because of the recent controversy regarding pronouns on Meta, I started thinking about this question. In general, is freedom from discrimination as protected in most modern liberal states a positive ...
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Is fascism intrinsically violent?
Has every group or nation that is generally considered to be fascist, descended from the nationalist ideology of Mussolini (I don't mean 'fascism' in the sense of just any right wing demagogy), ...
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Was Bertrand Russell correct in characterising the United States as 'a Nazi State'? [closed]
In his book, War Crimes in Vietnam, published in 1967 Russell several times calls the United States a Nazi State:
The United States government is conducting a war of annihilation in the Vietnam. ...
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Difference between the ensemble of organizations in an anarchy and a state?
Even an anarchy needs organizations to provide security, legal judgment, roads, etc. and to prepare large-scale plans and arrangements. Probably, for the sake of efficiency and harmony, there should ...
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Philosophers on alternatives to capitalism and communism
Philosopher Karl Marx envisioned an economic system called communism to fight the abuses suffered by working class people during the industrial era. The exploitation of man by man
and the excessive ...
user22051
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Was Robin Hood's point of view ethically sound?
The story of Robin Hood was a favourite of mine as a child.
But as an adult, I am beginning to change my mind for a couple of reasons.
The first being that if we assume a free market exists, ...
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How to argue that some inequality is justifiable in order to maximize the well-being of the worst off in Rawls's theory of justice?
In context, I have to describe what we think is a just society by Rawls theory of justice. I want to try and use Scandinavia, for example, the Nordic Model as a representation as a just society. ...
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Is illiteracy something you could claim as freedom in the Libertarian world view?
Libertarians seek to maximize political freedom and autonomy,
emphasizing freedom of choice. (Wiki)
Is it consequent or illogical to argument that a Libertarian world view allows for illiteracy as ...
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Authors on the Credibility and Corruption of Modern Science
During the Renaissance and Industrial eras science was a way to remove superstition, religious misconception, and irrational fears. The scientific method was proved to be valid and available to ...
user22051
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What is to be understood by the phrase "Israel's right to exist"? [closed]
As someone who is interested in the Israeli-Palestinian question one phrase that comes up in the pro-Israeli position is the insistence that the Palestinians recognise '"Israel's right to exist". (In ...
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In Hegelian Dialectic is an antithesis ever a shift in the status quo, or only an opposition to the status quo?
I am trying to understand how the Hegelian dialectic evolves over time. I will use tn (where n is a constant integer) informally, such that tn+2 - tn+1 is not necessarily the same duration as tn+1 - ...
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What is structural power in Miranda Fricker's Epistemic Injustice?
I'm reading Epistemic Injustice by Miranda Fricker (looking at pages 10 and 11 here) and she starts out by defining power. One of the things she says is
[...] power can operate purely structurally.
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Is participating in democracy ethical?
I have been pondering this question for the past few days and have come up with this short argument to support the ethical value of abstinence from participation in a democratic system.
If we are all ...
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What did Ivan Illich think of Helmut Schoeck?
Is there any record of Ivan Illich commenting on the writings, viewpoints or life of Helmut Schoeck?
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Utilitarianism revisited
I assume utilitarianism to be the doctrine that one should act to maximize the overall amount of "happiness".
Next to the fact that it's not quite clear
what happiness is supposed to be and how it ...
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How many academic Philosophers in Australia are still influenced by John Anderson “Andersonians”
John Anderson was a well known Philosopher in at Sydney University whom influenced many involved in the Sydney push and the those involved in the sexual revolution of the 1960’s. Are any of his ideas ...
