political philosophy
Justice
Contemporary society
Plato
Rousseau
Rousseau believes culture is corrupted. Whereas 'Nature' is natural and non-corrupted. The 'natural man' is modest and fair, they live in nature with animals and people in harmony.
Kant
Kant distinguished civilisation and culture.
Practising morality is a necessary condition for happiness.
Different definitions of culture (There are hundreds of definitions.)
Culture; Shared knowledge, further transmitted to a community or on a broader scale.
Terms within culture
Acculturation; adoption of another culture peacefully. Implying elements of your culture to another culture peacefully.
Cultural dynamism; Global shifts in culture that affect people and their identity
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Karl Popper
identity
During the cold war, the bipolar world (one power) order enabled countries to identify themselves as either aligned or non-aligned
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Core States; the states that hold the most power, are the most influential. Both in culture, economy, military ect.
Culture; Everything that humans have created
Edward Taylor; "Includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom and any capabilities and habits acquired by a man as a member of society."
Belief, art, law, morals, custom ect.
In the post-Cold War world order, countries are no longer able to easily categorise themselves and have entered into an identity crisi. To cope with their crisis countries looked to countries with similar history, beliefs and culture. -Samuel P. Huntington
"We need a new map" To restructure the world after the cold war. Splitting the world into eight parts. The map is titled "civilisation paradigm"
Liberalism; Political doctrine that takes protecting and enhancing the freedom of the individual to be the central problem of politics. (every man for himself)
Socialism; a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the workers. (protecting the working class)
Totalitarianism; a system of government that is centralised and dictatorial and requires complete subservience of the state.
"Culture of reason through objects such as might afford materials for the necessary concepts."
Open society:
Huntington established a new paradigm called a clash of civilisation. The argument for this can be seen in the splitting of the world into eight parts seen above. That people will hold on to and fight for their individual ideas.
Before 1500 AD, civilisations were separated geographically and the spread of ideas and technologies. People didn't feel as if they needed God in the same way.
Hindu, Latin American, Sinic (China, Southeast Asia, Korea, Vietnam), Japanese, Orthodox, Western, African, Islamic
Huntington believed that the West will fade. 1) decline of power does not occur in a straight line; it may reverse, speed up or pause. 2) The power of a state is controlled and influence by the behaviour and decisions of those holding power.
People "need new sources of identity, new forms of stable community and new sets of moral precepts to provide them will a sense of meaning and purpose." -Could this be religion? Huntington believed religions around the world would receives surges in commitment.
Charles Taylor
Identity comes from our relationship with others and our interactions.
It is informed by our choices in how we interact with others
Links to social determinism, our identity is constructed by society.
Beef: If our identity is informed by our interactions and our choices, how do we ever form our identity if we need a little bit of it to make choices in the first place.
We will interact without identity, as babies. This allows us to build a base in which we can then form opinions of and make choices.
Beef: How will being only able to perceive the world and not interact with it effect identity?
Distributive justice:
Justice as equality; Everyone should get the same kind and the same amount of stuff.
Need-based justice; Everyone shouldn't get the same, because our needs aren't the same.
Merit-based justice; Giving unequally based on what each person deserves.
John Rawls
Justice is fairness; Any inequalities in a social system should favour the least well off, because this levels the playing field of society.
Retributive justice; The only way for justice to be satisfied is for a wrong doer to suffer in proportion to the way he's made others suffer.
Welfare maximisation; There is no good to be found in vindictively causing pain to wrongdoers. However, some form of punishment is still in order.
Rehabilitation; giving wrongdoers help, so they can learn to get along in society and follow its rules.
Deterrence; punishment can be used as a way to send a message to other people not to commit the same crime.
Restorative justice; Instead of making the wrong doer suffer, the focus is on making amends.