Political & Social Philosophy Political philosophy: is the legitimacy of government The proper organization of human beings governed by law or instinct.

Political & Social Philosophy

Political philosophy: is the legitimacy of government The proper organization of human beings governed by law or instinctLegitimate & illegitimate power

Social Philosophy: is the problem of justicePresupposes a state of authorityWhat role does that authority have in the distribution of goods and services to the citizens?

Political Philosophy

Jean Jacques Rousseau“Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains”We are NOT born with natural mastersOn civilized society, rules govern every aspect of our behaviorThese rules are enforced by implied threats of violence or loss of property, freedom, or even life

PLATO

We are naturally social beings

As individuals, we are not self-sufficient

Deduces a natural division of labor along class lines

Refers back to the City/State metaphor

Upper classes will produce children according to eugenic principles

Plato (cont.)

Prescribes an absolute communism but only for the upper classes

Greed permeates the lower classes

Greed is allowed to motivate the workers and artisans, but is always controlled by the philosopher/rulers and the military caste

Plato saw society as natural but capable of being undermined by greed if not structured in such a way as to contain it

The ideal society may through its totalitarian practices be immune to the dangers of greed, BUT it could still be corrupted by Envy

The Noble Lie

A lie about why they must accept the order of things

P.332-333

gold in the ones fit to rule

silver in their assistants (military)

iron & brass in the workers

You beget your likes

Part of the job of the Republic was to destroy the authority of the myth in the Greek world and replace it with Reason, yet here Plato is required to create a myth to keep the city cohesive

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan (1651)

This book’s main goal is the resolution of the problem of politics

Presupposes psychological egoism and is more sound in political theory than ethical theory

Hobbes (cont.)

Assumes that all people are created equal

Asserted the thesis of equality as a purely physical fact

We, humans are more or less all the same

Fact: Human nature is selfish, power-mongering and equally distributed

Hobbes tried to imagine what human beings would be like in a “State of Nature”

I.e., prior to any civil state or any rule by law

Therefore, from this equality of ability, rises the equality of hope in attaining OUR ends

Continual fear and danger of violent death

The life of man would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short

Hobbes view:Concepts like right /wrong; justice/injustice and “mine and thine”(property) are concepts generated by law, therefore dependent upon lawFurther, the concept of law is dependent upon the POWERLEGAL POSITIVISM: justice is whatever legality calls just, and what is legal has been established as legal by the powers that be and for as long as they are able to enforce the law

Legal Positivism

The passionate part of our self desperately desires to survive.There is a natural right to attempt to do soHobbes Right of Nature: the preservation of his own natureFor Hobbes there is only ONE natural right

Hobbes assumes that in a state of nature there will be a general scarcity of goods

Based on our passions alone we would not survive long enough to enjoy the goal; of the natural right

Now REASON comes into playNATURAL LAW : is a precept or general rule, by reason, by which we are forbidden to do that which is destructive of our lifeWe would not survive if we only pursued our natural right, we must also appeal to reason and natural law

Therefore, the idea of natural right is the foundation of Hobbes’ Social Contract.We agree to transfer our right to violence and our right to sovereignty over ourselves to a mutually agreed upon sovereign.That sovereign will have political authority over us

This sovereign agrees to pass laws that create a state of peaceRetrains and punishes those who breaks the contractNo guarantees that the sovereign won’t abuse such absolute powerAlmost certain they wouldEVEN ABUSED AUTHORITY IS BETTER THAN NO AUTHORITY ACCORDING TO HOBBES

In Hobbes’ system revolt is never legitimate unless it succeeds because only power succeeds for Hobbes

For Hobbes the state is an artifice, (a monster, a “Leviathan”)

But a NECESSARY one

Any state is better than no state

John Locke

Moral state into which all of us are born by virtue of being God’s creatures

Grounded his theory in religious belief

God created humans, gave the basic rights

Right to “Life, health, liberty, and possessions.”

Locke (cont.)

Each born into a moral “state of nature” in which these rights are ours

“Law of nature” with certain moral obligations

Law of nature is law of reason (like Hobbes)

Hobbes

No such thing as natural property

Property created only be laws

In a state of nature there are no laws

Locke

God’s law creates natural property

God created the earth and provided it with natural resources

Natural piece of property is our own body

Extended to our labors

Locke (cont.)

One may accumulate as much “natural property” as one can use without its spoiling as long as one leaves enough for everyone else

Hobbes:

Political philosophy presupposes a condition of scarcity

Locke

Political philosophy presupposes a condition of abundance

Locke’s concept of “natural property”

One can accumulate even hoard money and pass it along to family

Convenient for Locke’s and his well to do friends

Problems with Locke’s theory

Contradicts his view that the land belongs to whomever tills it

Failed to recognize that the excessive accumulation of wealth is a form of power that can be used to undermine the state of equality

If any person violates the rights of others, that person alienates himself from the state of nature and and forfeits his own natural rights

He has “earned” a punishment and the punishment must fit the crime

Locke’s theory of justice is retribution and preventative

Distributive justice for Locke is a meritocracy.

The sovereign has been given the authority to create law by the social contract.

For Locke the function of the political state is to guarantee the moral stateThe political state is potentially superior to the state of nature because the state of nature lacks:Impartial judgesPrecise lawsSufficient power to uphold moral law

For Locke the Justification of the state is the consent of the citizens

The citizens are bound by the contract as long as the government upholds its end of the contract

Revolution could be justified

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Believed all humans are born free and that only LEGITIMATE government is one that preserves and maximizes that conditionLegitimacy can only come about through consent to a social contractHowever, Rousseau, like Locke & Hobbes begins with the “state of nature”

Self- love is a natural virtue and natural good

Moral development depends on it

Traditional societies pervert the virtue of self love

And invert the second (pity)

Self love becomes pridePity is transformed in to its opposite- delight another's miseryAcc’d to Rousseau, pride and envy are encouraged everywhere by traditional social organizationsThey prevent one from developing into a full person

Therefore, a child (born free) should be reared as far as possible from society's corrupting influences

Reared in a “state of nature” the child will then be allowed develop its own virtues

If one remained at the state of natural virtues,one would fail to develop fully one’s humanity

Rousseau (cont.)

The state of natural virtues must be developed into a moral state, and morality and politics go hand in hand

By filling out social side of our nature can we find our fullest freedom

The natural and just society will be constituted by the social contract

Problems with Rousseau

He completely rejects the notion of representative democracy

A true democracy is a participatory one where ALL citizens vote on every issue

The legitimate political body must be limited in size in order to convene all its members

More problems with Rousseau

Contradiction between his claim that only in the political body does one find one’s true freedom and what he calls the “General Will”

“General Will” = the constant will of all members of the state

I.e., by consenting to live in a state, one is consenting to abide by the will of the people, but one is also recognizing that that will is the state!

John Stuart Mill

Opposite of Rousseau

His goal was to distinguish between the public and the private

There was a realm that was the concern of society

And a realm that was the concern of the individual

And in the latter, politics had no business

“The Principle of Liberty”

The political authority can legitimately restrain members of society ONLY if these actions harm other members of societyHe rules out “victimless crimes”The state has no right to criminalize behavior that is harmful to only me and no one else

Problems with Mill

Historical perspective: it supports a middle class Victorian dream- “A man’s home is his castle”

The social world has become much more complicated since Mill’s time

Solutions to Mill’s problems

Courts of law must determine exactly what constitutes harm

Democracy becomes the best form of government

Still difficult to reconcile public and private interests

Laissez-faire

This doctrine of “hand off” means literally “leave alone”

There are certain realms where the government has no business

Associated with economic policy of conservatism

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

The problem of Justice is the key issueFairness and deservedness in meeting the claims of citizens and in the distribution of goods and servicesThree views:CommunistsMinimal stateLiberalism

Liberalism

Page 374

The “liberal state”

John Rawls book Theory of Justice

Exists today in Western democracies

Free enterprise

Natural resources

Any theory of justice has to balance claims between legitimate & illegitimate claims

John Rawls

“Justice of Fairness”

All citizens will get a reasonable share of the social goods

This doctrine establishes what people may do to each other in pursuit of these goods

Two principles of Rawls

Equal liberties principle Equal and maximum

liberty in all political, education, religious etc is available to each person consistent with the equal liberty for others

Difference Principle Wealth & power to

be distributed equally except where inequities would work to the advantage of all. Those unable to care for themselves are care for by those who can

Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance

Like Plato’s “Noble Lie”The “Veil of Ignorance” the facts we know about ourselves are set asideSome equalities in a naturally evolving society are unjust because they are undeservedSociety can only be just if it partially redistributes wealth for the benefit of the most disadvantaged

Criticisms of Rawls

Ignores our gambling nature

No contract is legally binding if the signers of it are kept in ignorance of their own real interestYet ALL signers of Rawls social contract

are ignorant of even their personal identity

Conclusions

Legitimacy of the StateWe enter into a social contractBetter than anarchy, or totalitarianismWe should not settle for ANY form of governmentOne of the primary features of a political theory must be the development of a theory of consent

Consent leads us to Justice, which is the key to social philosophy

Rawls is convincing when he holds that a just society cannot be based on entitlement alone

Claims of entitlement must be balanced with claims of need or social victimization

Society has a moral obligation to provide opportunities to the disadvantage