Political Power and State: Forms, Theories, and Legitimacy
I. Political Power and the State
Power can be defined as the ability of a person or social group to impose its will on others. Power is determined by a relationship in which one element is controlled and determined by the other component of the relationship. When power relations mainly affect social functioning, there is talk of political power; that is, power is organized within the polis, in the broadest sense. Political power can be defined as the power exercised in the management, control, and
Nature vs. Culture: Understanding Human Evolution
Nature and Culture
Cultural anthropology distinguishes between natural behaviors, those in which the information has been transmitted genetically, and cultural behaviors acquired by social learning. Biology differentiates between genotype (combinations of genes on chromosomes) that is innate, and the phenotype (interaction of genes on chromosomes), acquired throughout life. All individuals are the result of the interaction of two poles: their biological nature and the environment in which nature
Read MoreRatio-Vitalism and Perspectivism: Ortega y Gasset’s Philosophy
Ratio-Vitalism: Ortega’s Philosophy
The basic concept of ratio-vitalism is the contribution of Ortega y Gasset. This stage is a development and concretization of the previous perspectivism. It establishes the need to overcome the false dichotomy between reason and life:
- Reason has been regarded as the foundation of true knowledge.
- Life, by contrast, represents the particular, the mutable.
These two poles are inseparable. Ratio-vitalism is intended to be a middle ground between vitalism and rationalism:
Read MorePre-Socratic Philosophers: From Thales to the Atomists
The Ionian School
The first school of philosophy is the Ionian school, named because it originated in the region of Ionia. The capital was Miletus. The Ionians were the first philosophers of ancient Greece.
Thales of Miletus
Thales of Miletus was a great sage known for Thales’ theorem. The Ionian school sought the Arkhe, which means “beginning”—the root of words like “archaic” and “archeology.” They understood it as the foundation of physis, meaning “nature.” They sought the foundation or principle
Read MoreHuman Nature: Unveiling Our Complexities and Origins
**Intelligent Human Being: A Human?**
Can you escape the confines of your environment and rise up to contemplate and comprehend? The fact that animals do not talk does not indicate a lack of reason, that they cannot think, or that they have a rational mind like ours. It follows that being rational and thinking about how you think does not require a voice. It is thought that animals speak. Animal communication systems can be compared to human language. This is a system of signs, open, articulate,
Read MoreEthics: A Study of Morality and Right Action
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that encompasses the study of morality, virtue, duty, happiness, and good living.[1]
The word ethics comes from the Latin Ethicus and from the Greek ??????. Etymologically, the words ethics and morality have the same meaning, with moral deriving from the Latin (mos) and ethics from the Greek (ethos). Accordingly, ethics is sometimes called moral philosophy. Today, however, it is said that morality is one of the objects of study of ethics.
Ethics examines what is moral,
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