Identification Terms Flashcards
Rawls’s First Principle: Equal Basic Liberties
- The basic liberties are: political liberty to vote and run for office, freedom of speech and assembly, liberty of conscience, freedom of personal property and freedom from arbitrary arrest
- cannot be restricted unless it is to protect others’ basic liberties
- liberties not involved in this principle are: economic liberties (to own means of production, freedom of economic contract, etc; these rights and liberties are regulated by the second principle)
- resembles Mill’s Principle of Liberties in that it protects certain liberties, which are regarded as more important than other liberties.
The Difference Principle (Rawls)
• says that inequalities in income and wealth have to be arranged so that they benefit everyone in society, particularly the least advantaged
- A system is perfectly just when the economic position of least advantaged class is maximized and they are better off than in any other economic system.
• an argument of to what extent inequality is permissible (utilitarians would say there is no limit)
- Inequalities are permissible when they benefit everyone, starting with the least advantaged; thus measures that benefit the more advantaged must benefit the least advantaged more than any other alternative.
• part of Rawls’s second principle of justice
The Invisible Hand (Smith)
• idea that if everyone pursues their own economic interest in the sale and purchase of goods and services and respect the rules of justice, it is beneficial to the society and the public good; appears planned but is actually accomplished without the help of government planning
- as if they are being guided by an invisible hand
- serves as a major defense of capitalism^
• Expanded on in “The Wealth of Nations”
The Impartial Spectator (Smith)
• it is the point of view we try to occupy when we take not only our interest and desires into account but everyone else’s interests and desires as well
• the result is sympathetic identification with others
- helps us judge whether or not the act or event promotes or harms the public good, or “public utility”
• Smith used it as an explanation for how it is possible for us to act for the public good, even against our own interest
• We abstract from our personal point of view and ignore our own interests, then adopt an impartial point of view of an “impartial spectator” where we are able to examine and take into account everyone’s experiences and interests.
• found in Adam Smith’s “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”
The Circumstances of Justice (Hume)
• External vs Internal circumstances
- external = environmental/societal conditions
- internal = human characteristics
• The External Circumstances of Justice
(1) Under conditions of extreme abundance, justice and laws protecting property are “useless”
(2) Under conditions of extreme want and scarcity of all common necessities, justice is not possible. People cannot be expected to respect the laws of justice if it means their families will starve to death. Laws of justice are useless in these conditions
- enforcement of rules of justice in this case would only cause chaos
• The Internal Circumstances of Justice
(3) Under conditions of Extreme Benevolence, where each person “feels no more concern for his own interests than for that of his fellows”, there is no use for rules of justice. “All would lie in common and be used freely, without regard to property”.
- families sometimes act like this
- in such a society there would be no need for separate possessions/rules of property
(4) Under condition of Extreme Malice, a “society of ruffians”, contempt of order and “rapaciousness” would prevail; it is not possible to respect others property; rules of justice are useless
- worse than Hobbes’s state of nature
- in such a state, there would be utter lawlessness; under these circumstances we can’t expect people to respect other people’s possessions.
SUMMARY:
- rules of justice not necessary in conditions of extreme abundance
- rules of justice not possible in conditions of extreme scarcity
- unlimited altruism makes rules of justice unnecessary
- limited altruism makes execution and compliance of rules of justice impossible; people have to have willingness to comply with the law
- need certain conditions to make trade, commerce, etc. possible
Natural vs. Artificial Virtues (Hume)
• natural: charity, kindness to children; stems from our sympathetic identification?
- based on natural feelings
• artificial: artificially in the sense that they are based on certain rules (culture, rules of justice, etc.); main one: virtue of justice (allegiance to the country, feeling patriotic, etc.)
- based on artificial rules
• Hume thinks we sympathetically identify with the pain of others (resonates with us)
Artificial Identification of Interests (Bentham)
• Bentham’s attempt at a utilitarian argument for democracy
• Bentham regarded the principle of utility as a rule to be followed by legislators and other political officials. But given his view of human nature (driven by self interest), this raises the problem of how we can get politicians to promote the general happiness (identify with the interest of their constituents) and their own happiness (interests).
• Bentham’s solution is the “artificial identification of interests.”, an artificially created way in which legislators will act according the the interests of the majority.
• The best strategy to promote the public interest is to have a representative elected democracy
- This way politicians are prompted to “artificially identify” with the interests of a majority of voters who elect them (promoting greater social utility) in order to be re-elected (their own interest)
The General Will (Rousseau)
• Three wills: private will (corresponding to their own selfish interests as natural individuals), the general will and (very problematically), corporate will of a subset of the populace as a whole.
• the general will is the will of the sovereign (all the people together) that aims at the common good—what is best for the state as a whole. Although each individual may have his or her own particular will that expresses what is good for him or her (private will), in a healthy state, where people correctly value the collective good of all over their own personal good, the combination of all particular wills, the “will of all,” is equivalent to the general will
- similar to Smith’s point of view and the Impartial Spectator
• citizens taking the interest of the public and trying to figure out what is the public good for free and equal citizens
• General Will = Will of Justice?
• Rousseau emphasizes that the general will exists to protect individuals against the mass, not to require them to be sacrificed to it; in order for the general will to be truly general it must come from all and apply to all
Higher vs. Lower Pleasures (Mill)
- Ch. 2 of Utilitarianism
- Argues against Bentham’s Hedonism
- lower pleasures = contentment; pleasures we share with other animals; comes from satisfying bodily needs like eating, sleeping, sex, etc.
- higher pleasures = pleasures derived from exercising our higher capacities; exercise of distinctly human capacities of intellect, reasoning, imagination, developed emotions, and moral sentiments.
- part of his account/conception of utility; higher pleasure predominates lower pleasures
- Higher pleasures are qualitatively (not merely quantitatively) different than lower pleasures. Poetry is better than playing games not only because its enjoyment exercises a higher faculty.
- Happiness is associated with higher pleasures, whereas contentment is associated with lower pleasures.
Individuality (Mill)
• Ch. 3 of On Liberty
• ability to freely choose way of life in which the higher pleasure predominates; choose it not because we are accustomed or required to, but because we are free to do it
• For individuality to exist, people must have freedom of thought and expression, freedom to plan and pursue their own way of life to fit their characters, and freedom of association.. That’s why liberty is so important for Mill.
- stark contrast from Hobbes (individuality not possible under a supreme sovereign)
- Mill’s conception of utility, or happiness, is largely based in his ideal of Individuality.
• Individuality has two components.
- First: involves a Greek ideal of “pagan self-assessment”, reflecting upon and examining your own values, and then choosing a way of life that is most appropriate to your character and critically examined values, and exercising your higher faculties and abilities.
- Second, involves a component of “Christian self- denial,”; this requires developing our moral capacities for justice, including a will to respect other peoples’ liberty and rights of self-development. Mill thinks that being a just person is a part of Individuality
• Individuality requires multiple opportunities for people to be exposed to different ways of thinking and be able to choose between different activities and ways of living. Without freedom of thought, speech, and tastes and pursuits, peoples’ higher capacities become deadened, and they have no choice but to live as prescribed by custom and others’ opinions.
• Mill says its bad is to live a life seeking comfort and the satisfaction of animal desires; or a life devoted to material consumption and conformity to the status quo.
Exploitation and Surplus Value (Marx)
• exploitation involves extraction of surplus value;
• what happens to labor value workers create?
- its taken by capitalists (owners of means of production); in a slave economy it is taken by the slave owners, in a feudal society it is taken by the lords, etc. in a communist society there is no exploitation
• surplus value is the value created by labor after you factor in the cost of that labor. In other words, the profits that the employers make from the employees work. The workers make an item and then the capitalist sells it for more than he paid the workers, that difference is surplus value. The fact that the capitalist is making that profit out of the workers and that the workers don’t get too keep the surplus value they created, is exploitation.
Alienation (Marx)
- alienation is not merely a matter of subjective feeling, or confusion; the alienated individual is ‘a plaything of alien forces’
- In a capitalist society, the worker’s alienation from his and her humanity occurs because the worker can only express labour — a fundamental social aspect of personal individuality — through a privately owned system of industrial production in which each worker is an instrument, a thing, not a person
- its just that there is a disconnect between you and a fundamental aspect of your humanity or self. in marx usage he usually refers to labor, which is mechanic, and done soley for the use of others he gets not pleasure pride or satisfaction out of it.
Historical Materialism
- theory that history and societies are driven or evolve because of their material conditions (modes of production, technology) material conditions would determine economic activity and social classes and that would determine everything else including the end of the society. this is contrasted with other theories where ideas drive history things like freedom which is kinda what hegel thought in a weird way. democracy, equality, religion or like weber thought power and charismatic peeps.
- centered around the idea that forms of society rise and fall as they further and then impede the development of human productive power.
- asserts that when an economic structure fails to develop the productive forces — when it ‘fetters’ the productive forces — it will be revolutionized and the epoch will change. So the idea of ‘fettering’ becomes the counterpart to the theory of functional explanation. Essentially fettering is what happens when the economic structure becomes dysfunctional.
