Modern Political Thought Final Identifications Flashcards
the Persian letters
one of the influential books written by Montesquieu, it was published anonymously, its about 2 wealthy persian men traveling in Paris sending letters to their homeland about their view of paris from an outside view, important because it promotes view of factual relativism in parsain society and promotes the idea that religious beleif is relative in french religious practices, seeing the criticm of religious practices led to questioning of moral systems within the society, uses these letters as a criticism against Hobbes saying that their is a true moral standard and it should not be changing from one society to the next
Trolley Problem
there is a train and it is going down a track that will hit multiple people tied to the track, you have the power to change the direction of the train by pulling a lever and it will now only hit one person, what do you do? This is used as a way to describe the main concept of utilitariansim, in this thought experiment most people choose to pull the lever because it would save more people, utilitariansim says to always pick the options that will benefit more people so a utilitarian would choose to pull the lever and kill one person instead of multiple
Felicific Calculus
way utility is measured, Bentham says you should be able to precisely calculate the impact of your actions by measuring certain variables, these variables are intensity (the absolute level of utility gained), certainty (the likelihood of the utility being gained), propinquity (the temporal proximity of the utility), fecundity (the chance of reproducibility), purity (the chance of not be followed by the opposite feeling), extent (how many people are affected by an action), even if we dont think we do this people end up making informal calculations based on this principle, we consider them daily, we consider how our decision will affect/benefit ourselves and the people around us
Natural Pity
Rousseau believes in this, says it is in all humans that makes us not want to harm other, whether learned or not natural pity prevent you from harming others, instinctive golden rule, in Rousseuas state of being he says that civil society strips people of their innocence so he creates his own scnerio where people are good with natrual pity, strive for the time where humans possess innocence and act on the pity humans have
Bourgeoisie
the middle class, when Marx was writing the bourgeois was capitalist and industrial, relationship here is usually owners vs workers, Marx believed that the workers are exploited by the owners, ideology of this class is a divide between owners and workers, belief that owners have earned their keep and workers have few skills and should give what they have in the form of labor, workers don’t have the skills to become owners so they earn what wage they can while owners rake in profits, owners set up a liberal state to convince workers they can revolt - it serves as the view, birthed from feudal society, felt stifled by noble limits placed on their economic activities
speculative philosopher
studies the proper end of government, burke does not support this he says it is better to have a philosopher in action since they are actively searching for the best means to an end, look at this idea when looking at Burkes political refrom
societal ideology
Karl Marx came up with a societal ideology for what he thought the structure of society should look like.
There are three main features of his ideology.
One being the depiction of the existing order as natural and beyond human control.
This explains how the existing order will benefit everyone
and depicts the existing order as beneficial in a particular way, which can be referred to as false consciousness. False consciousness is societal level gas lighting. There’s communal ideology (between masters and slaves) and bourgeois ideology (between owners and workers).
teleological morals
means that is something is deemed “good” as in it provides utility then the eight actions in any situation is the one that brings the most good, what is good ends up being determined on a case by case basis, as it doesnt have an inherent meaning, what is right is determined by what is good,
separation of powers
idea that a government should not have one ruler or decison maker Montesquie endorsed this idea, this is one of the main contributions in his classification of government, his classification is a monarchy, depotism, and republic which is divided into aristocracy and democracy, this idea is used in the US government today
Index Librorum Prohibitorum
this was a list of prohibited books, the spirit of laws was placed on this list because of its criticism of religion, this was an influential piece of work but government decided it should not be allowed to be read by the public, freedom of speech was not yet a thing at this point in time
Despotism
part of Montesquieu set up for the separation of power, the main principle is that the unfettered concentration of power is in the hands of the despot, there are no checks on the ruler, his will is the law, and is sustained on the principle of fear
virtual representation
burke advocates for this instead of electoral representation would mean that your MP is not a representative of you, MP is a representative of your interests, it falls in line with modern debates about delegates vs trustees
socialism
this is not the same as communism, it is the transitory state between capitalism and communism, it is necessary step to get to communism when communism is the goal, marx socialism is the means of production should be publicly appropriated (the state should control it)
harm principle
John Stuart Mill introduced this concept, says you can intervene when some is harmed, intrusions of personal liberty should be constrained to when actions harm others, laws prohinitng violence fall under this, he is partcularly harsh on the practice of religious persecution, a persons own good isnt a good justification to infringe on their liberty, forcing conversion for one person causes small pain but it would increase the good feeling/reduce the hostility of a larger group of people, 2 main takeaways on the concept of liberty that supercedes this principle 1. Libert of conscience 2. Liberty of expression 3, liberty to live as one pleases, He pushes the limits of those principles with three circumstances 1. When the opinion society wishes to suppress is correct 2. When the opinion society wishes to suppress is incorrect 3. When the opinion society wishes to suppress is partly correct and partly incorrect
general in object
the collective will is general in two ways, one of these ways is object, this means that the laws must concern all citizens, similar to modern language of “equal protection”
