Chapter Eight Social and Political Philosophy

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Chapter Eight: Social and Political Philosophy

Chapter eight of the book, “Philosophy: A Text with Reading” by Manuel Velasquez discusses social and political philosophy. The chapter opens by trying to elaborate on the relationship between an individual and society as well as the problems to do with justice. The subject of social and political philosophy tends to analyze the substantial role of a government towards its citizen, what it should do for the underprivileged, how an individual relates to the society as well as discussing on the issue of justice, for example, the justification of state authority. All these issues center on social and political philosophy. Social philosophy is defined as a philosophical study of problems that are affecting the society and the application of moral values for countering those issues, for instance, human rights and freedom.

On the other hand, political philosophy is a branch of social philosophy, and it discusses the role of the government or state in society. The government or state is the supreme authority, and hence it has the power to define the interests of the public and impose its rule on the public. By doing this, it tends to answer the question of justification of the state and its authorities. For example, the state implements this through the income tax method. That is, it sets its primacies by defining the programs that it feels are according to the public interest and afterward, it implements those programs by taxing the citizens. For example, the American government taxes its citizens according to their incomes.

Moreover, the issue of justification of the state and its authorities are well analyzed through the contract theory which is based on the philosophies of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. John Rawls rejuvenated the theory during the twentieth century. Rawls contends that social contract is a fictional means for establishing what a fair society is and what the government in this society looks like. However, this theory has faced some criticism for example by communitarians who claim that the theory disregards the social l beings of individuals. Also, the feminists argue that the theory undertakes a nonconsensual division whereby women tend to be downgraded to the contentious issues in the society like in economics as well as politics where men dominate.

The issue of justice in society is also well discussed in this chapter. According to Velasquez, justice comprises retributive justice and distributive justice. Retributive justice analyzes how impartial punishments exist while distributive justice examines how the impartial society distributes benefits and burdens to society. Due to the different views of philosophers concerning the issue of justice, it exists in many forms, for example, justice as social utility, justice as strict equality and justice as moderate egalitarianism among other significant types. Plato and Aristotle link justice with merit. Their sentiments are according to the conventional Greek view of Justice. The egalitarians on their side claims for strict equality or evenhandedness of political rights as well as in economic opportunities. Their claim tends to be supported by society liberals; for example, Rawls who contends that justice entails financial support for the deprived. There are other liberals like Robert Nozick who also argues that individuals’ free choices need to be respected in all dimensions, particularly in economic matters.

The chapter closes with discussing the limits of the state towards the society. Although the section has different authors with diverse views concerning the issue of justice, it is evident that they all agree that it is the responsibility of the state to promote justice. For example, Aquinas maintains there is a great need for the laws of the state to be consistent with natural law. Moreover, these laws need to be compatible with the right to freedom. The right of freedom is entailed in the Bill of Rights, and it protects the citizens against interference by the state. In this chapter, the subject of human rights is also well analyzed by classifying it into positive and negative rights. This is according to how different individuals regard and view the issue of human rights. Even though every individual approves that it is necessary for changing the state laws when they seem to be conflicting with human rights, there are others who argue that there is a need for the state to enforce only the individual’s negative rights. On the other hand, others maintain that the government must obey and afford individuals positive rights.

The last end of the chapter is about the morality of war. Under the morality of war, political realism, pacifism as well as just war theory are discussed by the author. According to Velasquez, political realism maintains that morality is not effective to war while pacifism arguers on the immorality of war to the society at large. There is also the description of just war theory which discusses on the evil nature of war. For the just war to be justified, it has to achieve the following conditions according to this theory: it has to be I regard to the legitimate authority, it should have the right intention, it is real, and it has a just cause and finally if it is the last and only option. Moreover, just war tends to condemn some evil vices in society like terrorism.