Equality and Egalitarianism: Framing the Contemporary Debate

1994 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-26
Author(s):  
William B. Griffith
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Moral Reasons ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
Significant Harm ◽  
Historical Tradition ◽  
The Ideal

For really I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he....Col. Rainborough, in the Putney Debates (1647)The ideal of equality is one of the great themes in the culture of American public life…from the earliest colonial beginnings, equality has been a rallying cry, a promise, an article of national faith.K. Karst(1989)…[T]he error of believing that there are powerful moral reasons for caring about equality is far from innocuous. In fact this belief tends to do significant harm.H.Frankfurt (1987)Is equality the name of one coherent program or is it the name of a system of mutually antagonistic claims upon society and government?D. Raeetal. (1981)The purpose of this paper is to attempt to lay out a framework, both analytical and historical, in terms of which deeply conflicting and surprisingly complicated claims about equality and egalitarianism may be discussed. My aim is to help to make more intelligible what is at issue in contemporary disputes, and hence what kinds of arguments and evidence bear on and might illuminate these competing claims. I then exploit this conceptual framework to sketch a way of organizing some of the voluminous literature in the on-going debate about equality, that is, to bring into focus the dimension(s) in which the issues are being joined, and from which historical tradition an argument emerges, in hopes of clarifying these debates.

Redefining Dharma in a Time of Transition: Ānṛśaṃsya in the Mahābhārata as an Alternative End of Human Life

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-161
Author(s):  
Kanad Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Indian Thought ◽  
Gradual Evolution ◽  
Sensual Pleasure ◽  
Historical Tradition ◽  
Alternative Understanding ◽  
The Ideal

Classical Indian thought has often stated that human life has four ends: dharma (social righteousness), artha (material profit), kāma (sensual pleasure) and mokṣa (spiritual liberation). The historical tradition called itihāsa claims itself as a comprehensive commentary on these four. The principal itihāsa text available to us, the Mahābhārata, boasts of containing everything that exists on these. However, the ultimate goal of human life in the Mahābhārata is predominantly dharma. But, the dharma the Mahābhārata speaks of is not necessarily what dharma came to represent in classical Brahmanical orthodoxy: a combination of the institutions of varṇa and āśrama Rather, in the narrative sections of the Mahābhārata, which possibly originated in the context of the Later Vedic Kuru kingdom of c. 1000–800 BCE, there is often a questioning of the traditional hereditary varṇadharma. Through the character of Yudhiṣṭhira, the Mahābhārata unfolds an alternative understanding of dharma, known as ānṛśaṁsya (non-cruelty). Scholars have often considered it as an alternative to the heterodox notion of ahiṁsā (non-violence). This paper shows the gradual evolution of the ideal to show that its fundamental opposition is not with the heterodox ahiṁsā, but with the orthodox varṇadharma, particularly kṣātradharma, the martial heroism expected of the kṣatriya.

scholarly journals Structural systematization - the essential stage in building consistent classification of libraries

2018 ◽  
pp. 20-35
Author(s):  
Elena Poltavskaya
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Intermediate Stage ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Natural Classification ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
Conceptual Schemes ◽  
The Ideal

The need for structural systematization to reveal and compare the conceptual framework for library forms separated into the theoretical type reflected in the ideal construct of “the Stolyarov’s library” is substantiated. The library form structure is determined in a vicarious manner through conceptual schemes. The concepts that correspond to appropriate library forms are represented as logical systems (as if the library is being established in reality) and through the schemes. The groups of the library type four elements reflect the conceptual schemes: libraries as a social institution (corresponds to public libraries) and personal libraries (individually and family used libraries). Using conceptual schemes for systematization enables to divide all the libraries, according to their structure, into two groups that differ significantly in their social mission (serving communities, or the society; and serving individuals, or individual families). Differentiating existent libraries by their conceptual structure would further enable to design a general and consistent hierarchical library classification. Structural systematization is the essential intermediate stage when developing natural classification.

scholarly journals A Conceptual Model of Motivational Factors of Knowledge Transfer for Hospitals

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2313-2319
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Absorptive Capacity ◽  
Motivational Factors ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Educational Organization ◽  
The Ideal

Knowledge transfer is vital for the successful organization. Majority of previous studies focused on business and educational organization. Few in the field dealt with knowledge transfer in hospitals. This study aims to develop a conceptual model for knowledge transfer in hospitals. Based on the literature review, this study proposes a conceptual framework for knowledge transfer motivation in hospitals based on three motivational aspects; (i) the extrinsic motivational factors such as the promotions and appraisals, (ii) the intrinsic motivational factors such as the altruism, and absorptive capacity, and (iii) the ideal distribution of extrinsic and intrinsic based on the quality and quantity of knowledge transfer that conducted by the knowledge sources and recipients. The conceptual model was tested using a data collected for a pilot study.

scholarly journals "We pay no heed to the ideal… We pay heed to trifle and trifle…" The issue of moral and ethical evaluation of Alexander Ostrovsky's works in literary criticism of the second half of the 19th century

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-99
Author(s):  
Yelena N. Belyakova
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Ethical Assessment ◽  
Ethical Evaluation ◽  
Literary Process ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Ideal

In terms of newspaper-magazine reviews of Alexander Ostrovsky's works, published in the 1850s-70s, the problem of artistic text literary-critical evaluation is examined in the article. The author of the article assumes that artistic text evaluation is directly related to ideology and to the main request of time in terms of which, the text receives this assessment. According to Georgiy Fridlender, one of the most important tasks that Russian public life of the second half of the 19th century set for literature was to create an image of a viable and still positive hero. Alexander Ostrovsky in his work was oriented to answers to the most pressing social requests. Nevertheless, his works often did not satisfy his contemporaries, and sometimes insulted their moral feelings. An attempt to trace how the negative moral and ethical assessment of the playwright's creative work was conditioned and the role that newspaper and magazine criticism played in shaping the literary process is undertaken in the article.

scholarly journals The Manifestation of Classism in the Astro Boy Animation

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-92
Author(s):  
Yessi Ratna Sari ◽  
Genta Iverstika Gempita
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
New World ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The World ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Human Kind ◽  
Descriptive Method ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Perfect World

Utopia is an appropriate word to describe about the ideal, worthy, and perfect life depicted in a city called Metro City in the Astro Boy animation. This study examines the animation movie Astro Boy and how the world that is being told in the works could be defined as Utopian world like it is being described through the movie. The purpose of this study is to proof whether the setting successfully conveyed the Utopian world or whether it still has some deficiency as Utopian is known as impossibly perfect world to be created. The corpus of this study is the movie of Astro Boy focuses on the setting and relationship between human kind and robots. This research uses a qualitative descriptive method which describes social phenomena by conducting in-depth understanding and analysis. The aims of this research is to analyze more deeply the picture contained in the animation, which shows how humans and robots are able to create a new world also coexist. Moreover, the conceptual framework that will be use is the theory of Capitalism and Classism in order to examine the setting of Utopian world.

The literary imagination and the explanation of socio-cultural change in modern Britain

1969 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Filmer
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Modern Britain ◽  
Organic Community ◽  
Raymond Williams ◽  
The Ideal

Much of the substance of the contemporary debate on the nature and consequences of ‘mass culture’ in Britain is to be found in the work of four English literary critics: T. S. Eliot, F. R. Leavis, Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams (1). Their work is in the Utopian tradition of social and aesthetic critical thought that has been termed “the English Dream: the ideal of the collective, unalienated folk society, where honest men work together and create together” (2); the ideal of the organic community, in short. Such a society is seen as composed of homogeneous, self-sufficient, stable and tradition-dominated communities, comprising a population which shares a common language and culture, and which is typified—but not exclusively bound—by a mentality attached to the tangible, local and known (3).

scholarly journals Navigating by the North Star: The Role of the ‘Ideal’ in John Stuart Mill's View of ‘Utopian’ Schemes and the Possibilities of Social Transformation

Utilitas ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Individual Property ◽  
Social Reforms ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
Property Relations ◽  
The North ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractThe role of the ‘ideal’ in political philosophy is currently much discussed. These debates cast useful light on Mill's self-designation as ‘under the general designation of Socialist’. Considering Mill's assessment of potential property-relations on the grounds of their desirability, feasibility and ‘accessibility’ (disambiguated as ‘immediate-availability’, ‘eventual-availability’ and ‘conceivable-availability’) shows us not only how desirable and feasible he thought ‘utopian’ socialist schemes were, but which options we should implement. This, coupled with Mill's belief that a socialist ideal should guide social reforms (as the North Star guides mariners), reveals much more clearly the extent of his socialist commitments (even if he thought political economists would be concerned with forms of individual property for some time to come). Moreover, this framework for assessments of ‘ideal’ institutions makes a useful contribution to an ongoing contemporary debate.

The Fiery Chariot

1975 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-509
Author(s):  
James Cornford
Keyword(s):  
Public Life ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
The Ideal

At the end of his entertaining and thoughtful review [this Journal, iv (1974), 345–69, p. 362], Professor Berrington writes ‘if it is lonely at the top it is because it is the lonely who seek to climb’. But this is to miss a point that undermines the significance of Mrs Iremonger's thesis. It is indeed lonely at the top, and men who have already coped with loneliness are peculiarly fitted to bear the burdens of the Prince. Nor is there a contradiction between the public aloofness of prime ministers and their domestic felicity: those who are surrounded by a close and affectionate family and supported by a devoted wife can afford to do without the gratification of friendship in public life. They make good butchers. This suggests that the ideal characteristics required of prime ministers are not those put forward by Mrs Iremonger and apparently accepted by Professor Berrington. I recall, in loose translation, the words of a chronicler on King Stephen: ‘He was a mild man and good and did no justice’. The world has need of its bastards.

scholarly journals Conflicting Authorities. The Byzantine Symphony and the Idea of Christian Empire in Russian Orthodox Thought at the Turn of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-185
Author(s):  
Adalberto Mainardi
Keyword(s):  
Russian Empire ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Political Leader ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
State Relations ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract The ideal of Byzantine symphony is still present in contemporary debate on church-state relations. A worldly notion of power interferes with a theological assessment of authority in the Church: hence the identification of the Christian empire with the kingdom of God, in a kind of a realized eschatology. This paper undertakes the deconstruction of the notion of “byzantine symphony” through its interpretations by some Russian religious thinkers at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when the whole of Russian society faced dramatic changes. The idea of Christian empire, represented by Constantine the Great, emerges as the foundation of the new orthodox Russian Empire (Tjutčev), contrasted to European civilization (Danilevskij, Leont’ev); but Constantine is also an apocalyptic figure (Bukharev), a political leader (Bolotov), a tyrant (Solov’ev) and the symbol of an entire epoch in Christian history that definitely came to an end (Bulgakov, Berdyaev).

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