Citizenship, Culture, and Freedom: A Philosophical Exploration
Nativism vs. Environmentalism
Innateness
The doctrine that some knowledge is innate, i.e., not acquired by experience but present from birth.
Environmentalism
The view that human beings are determined by environmental factors. In this way, human beings would be a product of their environment’s circumstances, and, as a result, would develop in a certain direction.
Meanings of Culture
The term “culture” can be defined from different perspectives:
- Culture as individual training: The amount of knowledge someone has and learning throughout life.
- Culture to refer to other companies: The provenance of one.
- Culture as behavior: Forms of greeting, dance, play.
- Culture as religion: Religion practiced in a country.
Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
These are two different ways to study cultures.
Ethnocentrism
Judging foreign cultures with one’s own cultural criteria. The only criterion that exists is our own ideas and customs to assess and judge others. Because customs vary from one era to another and from one place to another, we should not think that one is superior. In some cases, ethnocentrism can hide racist attitudes when cultural differences are related to biological differences and serve to justify a fact.
Cultural Relativism
The view that we have to accept any custom or practice if it is part of an established tradition. Tolerance is a fundamental principle. It has limits that reside in the dignity of human beings. It is inadmissible if it violates the dignity of a person or justifies some fact.
Interculturalism and Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
The coexistence of people of different cultures and languages in a common area. Cultural enrichment can be conducive to the origin of the fibula or may cause friction due to different customs.
The coexistence of different cultures can only be achieved with a strong rule of law, which guarantees the freedoms of all citizens.
Interculturalism
The interaction between cultures in a respectful way, promoting integration and coexistence between cultures. A relationship based on respect for diversity and mutual enrichment. Interculturalism is subject to variables and diversity.
Original Meaning of Liberty
Freedom means the ability that human beings possess to act according to their own will, throughout their life, for which they are accountable.
Comes from the Latin LIBERTAS, libertatis.
The Concept of Freedom Understood as Power and its Connection with Theology
Freedom understood as a type of power is determinism, namely that freedom does not exist. It is an illusion that one is not free because things happen because they have to be so, not because of choice.
It considers that the most powerful are the freest. There is no freedom, and there is no human being who is all-powerful and who can do everything.
From the point of view of theology, God is almighty and is the freest person who has the capacity to choose what He wants. He also knows what will happen because things will happen as He wants because, if not, He would have avoided them.
Physical Determinism
Determinism is a philosophical doctrine that holds that all physical events, including thought and human actions, are causally determined by an unbreakable chain of cause and consequence. There are different formulations of determinism, which differ in the details of their claims. To distinguish the different forms of determinism, they should be classified according to the degree of determinism they postulate:
- Strong determinism: States that there are no truly random events and, in general, the future is potentially predictable from the present.
- Weak determinism: Holds that probability is determined by present facts or that there is a strong correlation between the present state and future states, while recognizing the influence of essentially random and unpredictable events.
Arguments Against Physical Determinism
Differences Between Vagueness and Uncertainty
Genetic Determinism
The idea that genes determine the physical and behavioral phenotype of each individual. The term applies to the relationship of a single gene with a genotype or that all phenotypes are determined by genes. This is demonstrated in hereditary diseases.
The definition of various genetic determinism: considered the hypothesis that all physical and behavioral phenotypes are determined solely by genes.
The Case Against Genetic Determinism
Differences Between Theological Fatalism and Determinism
Fatalism
Fatum comes from Latin, meaning “destiny.”
Fatalism is one of the oldest mythic-religious conceptions whereby the world is predetermined. Fatalism defends a destiny from which there is no escape. The only possible way in which people can act is as we do, and the choice was already made beforehand. Everything that happens has been established from the beginning of time. Without an authentic choice, freedom is an illusion.
The notion of freedom is contrary to fatalism since it contemplates the possibility that many potential futures exist.
Theological Determinism
It was found that physical objects are deterministic laws that allow us to predict exactly what will happen.
Freedom and determinism are enemies and opposites. To the question “How could freedom emerge in a deterministic world?” raises several responses:
- Freedom does not exist; it is an illusion created by a set of automation.
- The physical world is deterministic, but there is also the spiritual world, the realm of freedom. A dualistic conception of reality.
- Determinism is false, and the proof of its falsehood is that human beings are free.
What Does the Company Mean in the Borges Story of The Lottery in Babylon?
Concept of Citizenship
Citizenship is the title that makes a citizen and especially all the rights that you enjoy and that you are responsible for. The first duty is to obey the law, and the first right is to participate in its development. If you possess citizenship:
- Join a community of equals in terms of rights and duties.
- Decisions that affect everyone; this possibility exists only if it occurs in democratic political systems.
- Participation in living according to an ideal of civic conduct.
- Awareness of living, in spite of our differences, in a shared world.
Citizenship is a reality that has evolved around certain rights and duties assigned to a set of individuals, which can be found in a constitution.
Citizenship is only possible when there is an idea of the state, an order to which the individual expresses loyalty.
It is said that the welfare state exists when the State guarantees citizens social protection.
Differences Between the Ethical Perspective and Political Perspective
Why Do We Tend to Confuse Education for Citizenship with Moral/Ethical Education Today?
The Origins of Citizenship (Notes Page 1, 2)
The word “citizenship” comes from the word “city.” Ancient Greek > polis comes from Politikos
Polis = city
Politikos = citizen
Means the same. Polis is an independent city referring to the state. The city was behind the city encontrara.
Citizen > Member status of the political state citizenship. / Citizen subject of politics.
Citizenship: transmitting universal ethical values. Democracy and citizenship are talked about in the abstract; there are differentiations between states with different laws, so you need to go deeper.
We live in a time in which the term “citizen” is confused.
Categories:
- Men > Anthropology
- Person > Legal
- Homo sapiens > Biological
- Citizen > Political
Cosmopolitanism, its Origins and its Current Meaning
As a consequence, the order of the Greek polis was left behind. Greeks and Romans formed a whole, which they did not know > Hellenistic empire, hence from “Cosmos” citizen of the world. The Stoics were considered citizens of a universal world of their own > COSMOPOLITAN.
Nowadays, people, wanting or not wanting to know where you are from, say “Citizens of the world” (of all places but none).
Another type of cosmopolitan are those with a “feeling” sense of human brotherhood. They want to be cosmopolitan but are not.
But cosmopolitan city: it refers to the city because it refers to an individual. A city is a cosmopolis because there are a variety of peoples, cultures, races, etc.
At present, the birth of a new cosmopolitanism is required due to globalization > the world is a global village.
GLOBALIZATION > Cosmopolitan > CITIZENS OF THE COSMOS.
Concept of Equality
This value has several meanings: equality before the law, equal opportunity, equal respect for social services, etc. All these meanings are based on a superior concept, human dignity. People are equally worthy and therefore deserve to be treated as equals.
Equality is against freedom.
By promoting the freedom of the individual, inequality occurs. If a man has the freedom to become rich, there is another that is poor > inequality.
Freedom is the ability to own private capacity, work the hours you want, and encourages inequality.
EQUAL STATUS > NO FREEDOM
FREEDOM OF STATE > NOT EQUAL
EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY (grants individuals the same opportunities) vs. Egalitarianism (which makes individuals the same)
There are several types of inequalities, such as:
- Switching: Swap elements.
- Distribution: Each gets what they deserve.
Equality is no less intuitive > all belong to the same class; we are all equal.
Equality is related to theology and says that we are all equal before an Almighty God (think of the Almighty God makes no difference). We all have the same opportunities and are not evaluated in the same way.
Which overlap in the world of men of God sometimes accumulate more evil before God than if you are unhappy.
Plato was concerned with the joint assessment. He said that under a free world, there was inequality.
Concept of Tolerance
Tolerance can be confused with indifference or lack of interest. For that reason, we use the concept of respect since it implies that there is a concern for other projects and beliefs. Respect is a value needed to build a society together.
Tolerance is a religious issue: RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE > one that can stop something and does not avoid it.
TOLERATE = FORGIVE
PEER NO TOLERANCE > also encouraged, and there is always a top over a lower.
DEVELOP THE COURAGE TO BE.
Concept of Solidarity
- Group solidarity: Arises when participating in a common project that depends on the efforts of a group of people and on which the survival of its members may depend. HAS NO MORAL VALUE.
- Universal solidarity: Implies a willingness to selflessly help another. Universalized values are met. Have a moral and civic education.
The concept of solidarity > is to show mercy to anyone > share feelings of fraternity.
Solidarity comes from SOLUS, SOLI.
Is to make a pineapple under other terms, such as Charity.
CHARITY is one that joins with another to fight a third.
Citizenship in Greece
Citizenship in Greece is limited citizenship, explaining how it was the aristocrats who threatened the middle classes > Democracy.
At the time of Pericles, the people were minorities privileged by the aristocracy and needed to contain the majority classes that had no rights, establishing a democracy that was a ploy to retain certain rights.
PARTIAL DEMOCRACY: Demo comes from ou, which was the middle class.
To understand the concept of citizenship, we have to go down in history, where people had the title of citizen and non-citizen and earned profits by this title. This has led to confusion between man and citizen.
In the eighteenth century, the influence of Rousseau, Locke, in the modern age comes the concept of citizenship.
The American and French Revolutions and the Concept of Citizenship
French Revolution
In the French Revolution, it is a joke to talk about citizens and that they were those who belonged to the bourgeois class. In the French Revolution, there was a king, and the others were the subjects. At this stage, the removal of royal titles and privileges of all citizens is carried out.
The French revolutionaries tried to carry out civic virtues ideal to Robespierre; the only way to be virtuous citizens was through terror. – It holds the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen in 1789 – MAN > DIGNITY, inviolable rights.
LAW:
- Voting rights: Citizen participation in decision-making community.
- Civil rights: Protections that a person has by virtue of citizenship. Equality before the law or freedom of expression.
American Revolution
Locke’s ideas > U.S. Constitution in 1789 after the uprising in the UK. With this constitution, the idea of citizenship in the United States.