SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.

A. Anarchism.

Introduction.

a. Literally “no rule”.

b. Anarchism: the existence of governments is completely unjustified.

c. Three features of theories of anarchy.

i. An explanation of why governments are illegitimate.

ii. A description of what a truly anarchical society would be like.

iii. An explanation of how to achieve anarchy.

1. Governments Contrary to the Way of Nature: Chuang-Tzu.

a. Thesis: we should reject political systems that require structure and conformity, and instead let people act naturally.

b. The first horse tamer, potter, and carpenter imposed order on their subject, but distorted nature in the process.

c. People lived in accord with nature before society’s teachers and philosophers imposed rules and structures, and thereby thwarted natural harmony.

2. An Argument for Anarchy: Errico Malatesta.

a. Thesis: in the name of preserving peace, governments viciously subjugate us and reduce society’s production; social order is better achieved individually or through voluntary associations.

b. Government authority is based on a metaphysical illusion: we arrive at an abstract concept of government, and then assume that this abstract thing has real properties.

c. Main justification for government: people are naturally antagonistic to each other, and we need governments to mediate our private conflicts.

d. Problems with government: they oppress people and they decrease society’s production by restricting initiative to a few people.

e. Alternative to government: cooperation is best motivated by the love of humanity, the desire for knowledge, and the passion for amusement.

3. The Conflict between Authority and Autonomy: Robert Paul Wolff.

a. Thesis: human autonomy is vital to our human identity, but governments limit our autonomy.

b. Kant: autonomy is central to human identity.

i. Moral responsibility arises from both our capacity to make free choices and our ability to reason.

c. All governmental authority is fundamentally in conflict with human autonomy.

d. Eradicating governments is impossible, but the anarchist would still hold that governmental authority is illegitimate.

e. We should not have a sense of bonding with our home government.

B. Limits of Political Coercion.

Introduction.

a. Six common justifications for political coercion.

i. Harm principle: preventing us from harming other citizens.

ii. Offense principle: preventing us from offending other people.

iii. Legal paternalism: preventing people from harming themselves.

iv. Legal moralism: preventing sinful or immoral conduct.

v. Extreme paternalism: having us act in ways that benefit each of us ourselves.

vi. Welfare principle: having us act in ways that benefit others.

1. Offense to Others: Joel Feinberg.

a. Thesis: governments can justifiably restrict seriously offensive behavior, but not trivially offensive behavior.

b. Examples of Offensive Conduct.

i. Thought experiment about riding in a bus in which passengers engage in a range of offensive behavior.

ii. The conduct (a) affronts the senses, (b) disgusts and repulses, (c) shocks moral, religious and patriotic sensibilities, (d) causes shame, embarrassment and anxiety, (e) causes annoyance, boredom and frustration, (f) causes fear, resentment, humiliation, anger.

c. Factors that distinguish between offensive nuisances and profound offense.

i. The magnitude of the offense, which is a function of its intensity, duration, and extent.

ii. The standard of reasonable avoidability: the more difficult for the offended person to avoid, the more serious the offense.

iii. The Volenti maxim: something cannot be an offence if it was voluntarily incurred.

iv. The discounting of abnormal susceptibilities: offense is less serious if a person is abnormally susceptible to it.

d. Five features of offensive nuisances.

i. The offense is relatively trivial or shallow.

ii. It is caused only by the perceptual experience itself, not reports of it.

iii. It usually derives from an affront to the senses.

iv. It is thought wrong because it offends (rather than offends because it is wrong).

v. The offense is entirely personal for the perceiver, not for humanity at large.

e. Five features of profound offences.

i. The offense is serious (as opposed to trivial).

ii. We can be offended at the idea of the conduct without experiencing it.

iii. It is not merely an affront to our senses, and so we cannot avert it by simply turning away.

iv. It offends because it is wrong (rather than thought wrong because it offends).

v. The offense is impersonal, and offends humanity at large (e.g., corpse mutilation).

f. Profound offense should remain impersonal.

i. Offended parties weaken their case when attempting to make it simply an issue of how they personally are offended.

C. Civil Obedience, Disobedience, and Revolution.

Introduction.

a. Types of resistance to governments.

i. Civil disobedience: violating the law in a non-violent manner for the purpose of changing some law.

ii. Coup de etat: forcible change of a regime or political system initiated by some organized group within a society.

iii. Rebellion: opposition to one element of a political system.

iv. Revolution: complete transformation of a political system.

1. Obedience to the State: Plato.

a. Thesis: we are morally obligated to obey the rules of society.

b. Crito’s arguments for Socrates to escape (not included in book).

i. He will lose a friend.

ii. People will think bad of Crito for not having helped Socrates.

iii. Socrates is playing into the hands of his enemies.

iv. He would be deserting his children.

c. Socrates’ response.

i. Don't worry about what the many think, which underlie Crito’s concerns.

ii. General rule: only the opinions of the experts count (e.g., the physician, trainer).

iii. We should therefore not listen to the opinions of the many regarding justice, but only the one who has true understanding (perhaps only the laws themselves).

iv. Crito's arguments (money, loss of character, duty to educate children) are only opinions of the many, and should not be taken seriously.

v. The real issue is whether it is right for him to escape.

vi. One should not render evil for evil; even though the jury’s decision was evil, it would be a further injury for Socrates to go against them.

d. Discussion with the Laws (or constitution of Athens).

i. Debt of Gratitude argument: there is a strong analogy between the obligation that we owe our parents and the obligation that we owe our government since both have raised us.

ii. Social contract argument: if we choose to reside in a particular area, then we thereby agree to follow the laws of the area.

e. Additional arguments for why Socrates should obey the jury.

i. His assisting friends will be exiled.

ii. He will be viewed with suspicion if he goes to good cities.

iii. He might have to live in less ordered cities.

iv. He would have to live shamefully as a flatterer.

v. He would have to take his children with him and deprive them of their citizenship.

2. Civil Disobedience: Martin Luther King.

a. Thesis: nonviolent civil disobedience is justified when lawful attempts at ending unjust policies have failed.

b. King’s letter is a response to eight clergymen who criticized King’s tactics.

c. Protest and tension.

i. Nonviolent protest creates tension within an oppressive community and forces change.

ii. Socrates’ life activity is a model for tension-producing civil disobedience.

e. Just and unjust laws.

i. Augustine: an unjust law is no law at all.

ii. Aquinas: an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law.

f. Undermining authority.

i. Problem: undermines the authority of political institutions and risks throwing a society into chaos.

ii. King’s solution: protestor should retain a sense of respect for the law even during demonstrations, and accept civil penalties for breaking the law.

D. Virtuous Leadership.

Introduction.

1. Virtuous Leaders at the Root of Good Government: Confucianism.

a. Thesis: political rulers are models that impact the moral conduct of the entire country.

b. Rulers begin by obtaining knowledge of the world and cultivating their own lives. They then pass virtuous character onto their families and then to the whole country.

1. Political Survival: Nicolo Machiavelli.

a. Thesis: rulers should use any means of retaining power, including conduct traditionally thought to be vicious.

b. Alleged qualities of a good monarch.

i. Typical virtues of a monarch: generous, compassionate, honest, bold, friendly chaste, sincere, easy, lighthearted, religious.

ii. Human nature does not allow us to always be virtuous.

iii. Some virtues will lead to a ruler’s destruction, some vices allow him to survive.

c. It is better to be stingy than generous.

i. If generosity is done in secret, no one will know about it and the ruler will be thought to be greedy.

ii. If it is done openly, a ruler risks going broke to maintain his reputation.

iii. Generosity should only be shown to soldiers with goods taken from a pillaged enemy city.

d. It is better to be severe when punishing people than to be merciful.

i. Severity through death sentences affects only a few, but it deters crimes that affect many.

e. It is better to be feared than loved, but avoid being hated.

i. Hannibal was severe yet militarily successful; Scipio was humane, but a failure militarily.

f. Honesty: know how to be deceitful when it suits your purpose.

i. Reason is unique to humans, but often insufficient; force is in common with humans and animals.

ii. Rule with both force and reason; when forceful, be both like the fox (clever, detects traps) and the lion (powerful, frightens large predators).

g. Appearance of virtue.

i. Leaders should appear to be merciful, honest, humane, religious, upright.

iii. It is easy to appear religious since people judge our outer appearances, and not our inner thoughts.

h. Avoid being hated.

i. Don’t confiscate property, and don’t appear greedy or indecisive.

ii. The best way to avoid being overthrown is to not be hated.