Journal Assignment 8 – PHILOSOPHY Here and Now
Read the assigned reading from the chapter. Then choose ONE of the questions below to answer. Answer the question you chose in a response that is a minimum of 1-2 paragraphs.
Be sure to explain your answers and give reasons for your views. Do NOT use any sources besides the textbook.
Explain Plato’s Utopianvision for a just society. In your view, what would be some of the beneficial or harmful effects of a society based solely on merit, as Plato proposed?
To determine citizens’ aptitudes and talents, Plato favored testing them while they are young. Is it possible to discover the best career for someone this way? What about people who discover or develop their true talents later in life? Is Plato too optimisticabout the ease of discovering a person’s true calling?
Don’t we reward athletes, doctors, lawyers, and business executives according to their merit and not by democratic vote? Should our leaders be chosen the same way, as Plato suggests? Why or why not?
Respond to thePhilosophyNowexercise questions on page363 concerning”Merit or Equality:Who Gets to Live?”
Hobbes believes that there is no such thing as justice until the Leviathan is established. This means that justice does not exist independently of an authority to define and enforce it. Explain why you agree or disagree with this view.
Note: Journal entries must be submitted from a computer (not a mobile device) as an attachment (in Microsoft Word format) in order to generate a SafeAssign report. Your journal cannot be graded until there is a SafeAssign originality report.
Chapter 8: The Just Society
Political philosophy The study of political societies using the methods of philosophy
Justice The idea that people should get what is fair or what is their due
Distributive justice (or social justice) The fair distribution of societys benefits and burdens (e.g., jobs, income, property, liberties, rights, welfare aid, taxes, and public service)
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
Distributive Justice
Distribution according to:
Utility
Merit (desert)
Equality
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
Platos Theory
The just society is a meritocracy.
Democracy is rule by the mob.
Those who are moved by reason are the political leaders (or philosopher-kings); they wield all the political power by virtue of their greater talents and intelligence.
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
Social Contract Theory
What legitimizes the existence of government?
Social Contract Theory: the view that justice is secured, and the state is made legitimate, through an agreement among citizens of the state or between the citizens and the rulers of the state.
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
Hobbes’s View
Hobbes argues that people are all egoists who always act in their own self-interest, to obtain gratification and avoid harm.
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
Hobbes’s View
We cannot obtain any of the basic goods because of the inherent fear of harm and death in the unregulated state of nature.
In the state of nature, life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.
The prudent person concludes that it is in all our self-interest to make a contract to keep to a minimal morality of respecting human life, keeping covenants made, and obeying the laws of the society.
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
John Locke: The Democratic Answer
Locke sees the state of nature as an inferior state caused by lack of adequate cooperation and common laws, but still one in which our natural rights are enjoyed.
Locke thought that we have moral rights that are prior to our legal rights.
Humans are not all as egoistic or innately cruel as Thomas Hobbes would make out.
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Classical liberalism is the view that the state should protect personal freedoms as well as the right to pursue ones own social and economic well-being in a free market without interference from others.
Libertarianism (political) is the view that government should be small and limited to night-watchman functions.
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John Rawls: The Contemporary Liberal Answer
Rawls sets forth a contract theory in which the hypothetical bargainers go behind a veil of ignorance in order to devise a set of fundamental agreements that will govern society.
No one knows his or her place in society, class position or social status, fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, or even intelligence. Rawls calls this situation the original position.
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
John Rawls: The Contemporary Liberal Answer
In the original position, each rational personthat is, one who is normally self-interested but who doesnt know his or her place in societycan judge impartially.
By denying individuals knowledge of their natural assets and social position, Rawls prevents them from exploiting their advantages, thus transforming a decision under risk (where probabilities of outcomes are known) to a decision under uncertainty (where probabilities are not known).
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
John Rawls: The Contemporary Liberal Answer
Rawlss Principles of Justice:
When are inequalities justified?
Inequalities are arbitrary unless it is reasonable to expect that they will work out for everyones advantage, and provided the positions and offices to which they attach, or from which they may be gained, are open to all.
Luck Egalitarianism: inequalities due to one’s natural circumstances are unjust. Inequalities due to one’s choices are just.
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
Theories
Socialism is the doctrine that the means of production (property, factories, businesses) should be owned or controlled by the people, either communally or through the state.
Communism usually implies state-controlled socialism within a totalitarian system (a centralized and dictatorial government).
Capitalism is a political economic system that lets the means of production accrue to fewer people through the workings of a free market. In such a system, wealth goes to anyone who can acquire it in the marketplace.
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
Socialist Theories
The guiding principle of the socialist view is equality: the wealth of society should be shared by all.
The ideal distribution of goods usually follows Marxs classic formula: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. People should do work that fits their abilities, and they should reap rewards that match their needs.
Cohens camping trip
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
Socialist Theories
Socialism does not entail that the government must be in control of the economy. It also does not entail that individuals wont have rights and freedoms like:
The right to free speech
The right to own a firearm
The right to own property
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
Socialist Theories
Socialist thinkers have emphasized that economic production is primarily oriented to profit rather than to the satisfaction of human needs. As a result workers get dominated, alienated, and exploited by the capitalist class, under whose direction they must toil.
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Socialism in Action
Contemporary socialist congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for instance, has argued that it would be better if corporations like Amazon were worker cooperatives, organizations where the workers themselves make decisions about what they will be paid, how their workplace will function, and so on.
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
Socialist Theories
Criticisms of Socialism:
Distribution of goods according to needs and abilities would require coercion by the state. (Is this actually true?)
Socialist systems provide no incentive for people to excel at their jobs. Under socialism, people are rewarded according to their needs, not by how well or how hard they work. (Is this actually true?)
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Chapter 8: The Just Society
Capitalist Theories
Criticisms of Capitalism:
All of the means of production end up in the hands of a few people.
Workers are exploited and have no real bargaining power.
Capitalism is at odds with democracy.
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