The Positive State

2019 ◽  
pp. 129-137
Author(s):  
Judith N. Shklar
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Industrial Capitalism ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Positive Rights ◽  
The Common ◽  
Positive State ◽  
The Way

In this chapter Shklar identifies the problems that arise with the development of industrial capitalism. She traces the emergence of social obligations to fellow citizens and the new concerns this raised, paying particular attention to the way the English idealist T.H. Green addressed these issues. She discusses the thinking behind the new welfare state and the rising popularity of social norms and obligations, often also expressed in terms of “the common good,” “positive rights,” and “the obligation to be just.”

Reconciling Liberalism and Communitarianism

1999 ◽  
pp. 142-168
Author(s):  
Beth J. Singer
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Community Rights ◽  
The Common ◽  
Individual And Community Rights

This chapter explores the debate between liberalism and communitarianism. It shows that placing a high value on individuals and their rights does not entail sacrificing the common good or the good of the community. To begin with, both personal identity and individual rights are inseparably linked to membership in communities. Individuality and community are mutually constitutive, and the generation of social norms by persons in community with one another is the precondition and the source of all the rights that are actually operative in society. Furthermore, being reciprocal—consisting in mutually recognized entitlements and obligations to respect them—rights are not adversarial. They do not divide people from one another, nor do they set them against governments or states. At least in principle, then, individual and community rights are compatible.

Ethics and Reality

1998 ◽  
pp. 150-155
Author(s):  
Alison Roberts Miculan
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Alasdair Macintyre ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
Good For ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

One of the most pervasive problems in theoretical ethics has been the attempt to reconcile the good for the individual with the good for all. It is a problem which appears in contemporary discussions (like those initiated by Alasdair MacIntyre in After Virtue) as a debate between emotivism and rationalism, and in more traditional debates between relativism and absolutism. I believe that a vital cause of this difficulty arises from a failure to ground ethics in metaphysics. It is crucial, it seems to me, to begin with "the way the world is" before we begin to speculate about the way it ought to be. And, the most significant "way the world is" for ethics is that it is individuals in community. This paper attempts to develop an ethical theory based solidly on Whitehead’s metaphysics, and to address precisely the problem of the relation between the good for the individual and the common good, in such a way as to be sympathetic to both.

Defeating Fake News; On Journalism, Knowledge, and Democracy

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Ball
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Knowledge Transmission ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Informational Environment ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe central thesis of this paper is that fake news and related phenomena serve as defeaters for knowledge transmission via journalistic channels. This explains how they pose a threat to democracy; and it points the way to determining how to address this threat. Democracy is both intrinsically and instrumentally good provided the electorate has knowledge (however partial and distributed) of the common good and the means of achieving it. Since journalism provides such knowledge, those who value democracy have a reason to protect it. Hostile agents, however, can undermine both the effectiveness of democratic decision-making and faith in democracy itself, by deliberately promulgating fake news and hyper-partisan views; moreover, these effects can come about unintentionally on social media. I conclude that we may need to change, not just the way we process information online, but also the informational environment in which we operate.

scholarly journals JUSTICE IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF KNOWLEDGE

Episteme ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-146
Author(s):  
Faik Kurtulmus ◽  
Gürol Irzik
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Fundamental Interest ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Influential Theory ◽  
The Way

ABSTRACTIn this article we develop an account of justice in the distribution of knowledge. We first argue that knowledge is a fundamental interest that grounds claims of justice due to its role in individuals’ deliberations about the common good, their personal good and the pursuit thereof. Second, we identify the epistemic basic structure of a society, namely, the institutions that determine individuals’ opportunities for acquiring knowledge and discuss what justice requires of them. Our main contention is that a systematic lack of opportunity to acquire knowledge one needs as an individual and a citizen because of the way the epistemic basic structure of a society is organized is an injustice. Finally, we discuss how our account relates to John Rawls's influential theory of justice.

scholarly journals Existem direitos de solidariedade? A tradição clássica e as propostas liberais

2020 ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
Carlos Ignacio Massini-Correas
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Rational Justification ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Ethical Attitude ◽  
Social Fact ◽  
The Common ◽  
Liberal Thought ◽  
The Way

RESUMONo presente trabalho, o autor começa explicando os vários significados do termo “solidariedade”, em especial no que se refere a fato social ou a uma atitude ou ação ética, fazendo referência somente ao aspecto ético da solidariedade. Após, estuda-se o fundamento da solidariedade ética, que se encontra na noção de bem comum, concebendo-se como uma perfeição em que participam aqueles que integram um todo relacional-prático. Logo se analisa o modo com que o pensamento liberal primeiramente debilitou e depois eliminou a noção de bem comum, centrando-se em bens meramente individuais e impossibilitando a justificação racional da solidariedade ética, seja concretando em direitos, virtudes, normas, deveres ou nas realidades remanescentes dessa índole. Nas conclusões, reivindica-se a vinculação necessária entre a solidariedade ética e a ideia de bem comum.PALAVRAS-CHAVESolidariedade. Ética. Bem comum. Liberalismo.ABSTRACTThe author begins by explaining the various meanings of the concept “solidarity”, especially those referring to a certain social fact or an ethical attitude or activity, taking the ethic expression of the solidarity. Then we proceed to study the foundation of ethical solidarity, if it is found in the notion of the common good, if it is conceived as a perfection of the participants that integrate a relational-practical whole. Then we analyzed the way in which liberal thought first has been weakened and then eliminated the notion of common good, focusing on merely individual goods and making impossible the rational justification of ethical solidarity. It is concretized in the rights, virtues, norms, duties, or the remaining realities of that nature. In conclusion, we will claim the necessary link between ethical solidarity and the idea of the common good.KEYWORDSSolidarity. Ethics. Common good. Liberalism.

scholarly journals Hope in Theology

2020 ◽  
pp. 117-136
Author(s):  
David Elliot
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Powerful Source ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Social Tasks ◽  
The Common ◽  
Theological Virtue ◽  
The Way

Abstract As social, civic, and global anxieties mount, the need to overcome despair has become urgent. This chapter draws on St. Thomas Aquinas and virtue ethics to propose the theological virtue of hope as a powerful source of rejuvenation. It argues for the necessary place of theology in reflection on hope due to the religious origins of hope as a central human aspiration and virtue capable of resilience. The virtue of hope, it is suggested, sustains us from the sloth and despair that threaten amid injustice, tragedy, and death; it provides an ultimate meaning and transcendent purpose to our lives; and it encourages us “on the way” (in via) with the prospect of eternal beatitude. Rather than degrading this life and world, hope ordains earthly goods to our eschatological end, forming us to pursue justice and social tasks with a resilience and vitality that transcend widespread cynicism and disillusionment. While hope ultimately seeks the kingdom of God, it can be concluded that it contributes richly to personal happiness and the common good, even in this life, and that this may be affirmed by those who do not share the theological premises.

Easily, At a Glance: Aristotle's Political Optics

2010 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Janssens
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Common Good ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
General Design ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Political Unity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

AbstractIn book VII of the Politics, Aristotle requires that the best regime be eusunoptos, “easily taken in at a glance.” Throughout the history of political thought, the attendant ideal of the polis as a compact and surveyable society was particularly influential. However, closer scrutiny of the way in which Aristotle uses eusunoptos suggests that it designates a problem rather than a solution, to wit, the problems of defining political unity and of attuning the individual and the common good. Exploring the different contexts in which eusunoptos occurs in Aristotle's works, this paper argues that it has political, rhetorical, and poetical meanings that cannot be entirely distinguished from each other. As such, the notion is shown to be germane to the general design of book VII, which constructs the best regime in order to bring to light the limits of politics.

The Way(s) of Salvation

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Ralston
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Convergence And Divergence ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Way

Joshua Ralston observes that the Christian tendency to place law in an oppositional relationship to love, grace, and/or the gospel has had unfortunate byproducts. It denigrates Judaism and Islam and misconstrues their conceptions of the Compassionate One who gives Torah and/or shari‘a for the sake of human flourishing. Thinking beyond such divisions, this essay explores points of convergence and divergence in the thinking of the Protestant reformer John Calvin and the Islamic jurist, mystic, and reformer al-Ghazali. Al-Ghazali’s understanding of shari‘a as a pathway to the common good that is willed by the Compassionate and Merciful One resonates with Calvin’s third use of the law. Together, these revise the adversarial renderings of law in Calvin’s first and second uses. Christian theology might therefore embrace an understanding of gospel and law—or, better, the way or shari’a of God—that focuses on the path to flourishing.

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