The Political Philosophy of Biological Endowments: Some Considerations

1987 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Moral Significance ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Moral Theories ◽  
Gains And Losses ◽  
Do So

Is a government required or permitted to redistribute the gains and losses that differences in biological endowments generate? In particular, does the fact that individuals possess different biological endowments lead to unfair advantages within a market economy? These are questions on which some people are apt to have strong intuitions and ready arguments. Egalitarians may say yes and argue that as unearned, undeserved advantages and disadvantages, biological endowments are never fair, and that the market simply exacerbates these inequities. Libertarians may say no, holding that the possession of such endowments deprives no one of an entitlement and that any system but a market would deprive agents of the rights to their endowments. Biological endowments may well lead to advantages or disadvantages on their view, but not to unfair ones.I do not have strong intuitions about answers to these questions, in part because I believe that they are questions of great difficulty. To begin, alternative answers rest on substantial assumptions in moral philosophy that seem insufficiently grounded. Moreover, the questions involve several problematical assumptions about the nature of biological endowments. Finally, I find the questions to be academic, in the pejorative sense of this term. For aside from a number of highly debilitating endowments, the overall moral significance of differences between people seems so small, so I interdependent and so hard to measure, that these differences really will 1 not enter into practical redistributive calculations, even if it is theoretically i permissible that they do so.Before turning to a detailed discussion of biological endowments and their moral significance, I sketch my doubts about the fundamental moral theories that dictate either the impermissibility or the obligation to compensate for different biological endowments.

Rethinking Kant as a public intellectual

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-108
Author(s):  
Sofie Møller
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
The Political ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past

In Kant’s Politics in Context, Reidar Maliks offers a compelling account of Kant’s political philosophy as part of a public debate on rights, citizenship, and revolution in the wake of the French Revolution. Maliks argues that Kant’s political thought was developed as a moderate middle ground between radical and conservative political interpretations of his moral philosophy. The book’s central thesis is that the key to understanding Kant’s legal and political thought lies in the public debate among Kant’s followers and that in this debate we find the political challenges which Kant’s political philosophy is designed to solve. Kant’s Politics in Context raises crucial questions about how to understand political thinkers of the past and is proof that our understanding of the past will remain fragmented if we limit our studies to the great men of the established canon.

scholarly journals The Early Zhou Period: Origin of the Idea of Political Legitimacy and the Political Philosophy of Confucianism

Asian Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lun DU
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Chinese Philosophy ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ancient China ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mandate Of Heaven

The Chunqiu and Zhanguo Periods are usually regarded as the birth of Chinese philosophy, especially with regard to practical or moral philosophy. If we think about the concept of political legitimacy in the Early Zhou Period, with ideas like the “Mandate of Heaven”, “respect virtue” and “protect ruled people”, then this Period is not only the origin of this in ancient China, but also of Chinese philosophy, and primarily the political philosophy of Confucianism. The paper will first explain some documents in the “inscriptions on ancient bronze objects” in order to prove that the ideas of the “Mandate of Heaven”, “respect virtue” and “protect ruled people” really originated from this time. Through analysis of several Zhou documents from the Book of the Documents the paper will then demonstrate that these ideas are the three most important innovations in the history of Chinese thinking at that time.

Kant's Rhetoric of Enlightenment

1997 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Rhetorical Strategy ◽  
Government Grants ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Purpose ◽  
The University ◽  
Do So

This article examines Kant'sWhat is Enlightenment?andThe Conflict of the Facultieswith a view to recovering certain neglected aspects of his defense of freedom in the public use of reason. Kant's arguments in the two works are the most tangible expression of the concern with the scope and limits of reason in politics that runs throughout his political philosophy. Yet the political purpose and rhetorical strategy of that defense has received less attention than it deserves. Kant contends the possibility of establishing ends set by reason as critical standards in politics depends on rulers being persuaded that their interests are best served by cooperating with philosophers. The famous distinction inWhat is Enlightenment?between the public and private uses of reason proposes the terms of this cooperation. InThe Conflict of The FacultiesKant makes similar arguments in defense of the university. He presents it as an institution that exists to serve governments but that can also pursue enlightening ends if government grants it the freedom to do so. The article attempts to show Kant's awareness of enduring conflicts between reason and authority in politics, and it argues that his defense of the public use of reason addresses them in a way that is still worthy of our attention.

scholarly journals ¿Qué es la libertad?: un análisis de la modernidad al comunitarismo.

Sincronía ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol XXV (79) ◽  
pp. 150-175
Author(s):  
Ignacio García Solano ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Modern Concept ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
The Third ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Do So

What are the interpretations of the idea of liberty that are presented in the current discussions within political philosophy? This concept, being too vague, tries to delimit itself in the three most relevant proposals within current philosophical and political debates. Two of them are given through modernity, which can be subdivided into universals, which are based on prohibitive laws and, secondly, individual, who are based on the selection of permissive laws. The third contribution is given by the communitarians, who begin to speak about the need for a liberty of plurality. It is not an objective to take any position on these proposals, therefore, defending them is something that will definitely be omitted. The objective really raised is only to present the discussions that exist around these three interpretations on liberty, arguing by thesis that, all of them become an aporia in terms of the advantages and disadvantages that theyself generate, being, therefore, fallible. Also, reconciling all these proposals is difficult, since their objectives start from opposite sides that, in trying to do so, would become counterproductive. The work is presented in three sections. The first part is dedicated to explaining the delimitation of the issue that arises and then moving on to the particular issues. The second part dedicates a space to the analysis of the two main interpretations of the idea of liberty given in modernity. Finally, an alternative to this modern concept of liberty is presented, a plural one given from community thought.

The Theoretical Function of Democracy in Spinoza and Hobbes

2020 ◽  
pp. 307-318
Author(s):  
Alexandre Matheron
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Sovereignty ◽  
Theoretical Function ◽  
Do So

In this chapter, Matheron examines the theoretical role played by an appeal to democracy in the political philosophy of Spinoza and Hobbes. The concern is thus not their respective theories of democracy, but rather who references to democracy undergird the theoretical legitimacy of all forms of political sovereignty. For Hobbes’s part, his thinking evolves from first arguing that other forms of sovereignty derive their absolute character from their being derived from democracy to the position that other forms of sovereignty are not derived from democracy, but nonetheless are constituted and the same way, ensuring they remain absolute. Spinoza, for his part, move from this latter position to the claim that all other forms of sovereignty are derived from democracy and therefore are never absolute. For Spinoza, right is coextensive with power, which in turn means that the ‘transfer’ of power from the multitude to a sovereign is never carried out once and for all, but rather is carried out at each moment, leaving open the possibility that the multitude could overturn the sovereign to the precise extent that they have the power to do so.

Process Philosophy and Political Liberalism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Dombrowski
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Reflective Equilibrium ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Static View ◽  
Process Oriented ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Right

In this work two key theses are defended: political liberalism is a processual (rather than a static) view and process thinkers should be political liberals. Three major figures are considered (Rawls, Whitehead, Hartshorne) in the effort to show the superiority of political liberalism to its illiberal alternatives on the political right and left. Further, a politically liberal stance regarding nonhuman animals and the environment is articulated. It is typical for debates in political philosophy to be adrift regarding the concept of method, but from start to finish this book relies on the processual method of reflective equilibrium or dialectic at its best. This is the first extended effort to argue for both political liberalism as a process-oriented view and process philosophy/theology as a politically liberal view. It is also a timely defense of political liberalism against illiberal tendencies on both the right and the left.

Presentation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agenagn Kebede Dagnew
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Concept

AbstractThis paper focuses on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)’s political philosophy of state and individuals. In this paper , we will see the political concept of state and state’s relation with individuals.

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