Individualism, Nation, and State in the Era of Revolution
Unit 10: Old Regime and Revolution: Change and Persistence
10.1. On the Bourgeois Revolution
In the context of the French Revolution, the goal was to build a new individual and new ways of organizing society. The English Revolution sought to recover old English forms. In contrast, during the second half of the eighteenth century, popular discourse focused on ruptures linked to the American Revolution. Revolution emerged as an abrupt and disorderly change in public affairs. Both traditional and novel
Read MoreSocial Inclusion and the Welfare State: An Ethical Perspective
Ethical and Social Inclusion in the Welfare State
Altruistic cooperation forms the ethical basis of social work, establishing the dignity of all people. Humans, as rational beings, shape their world and transform their environment. The welfare state is the context within which social inclusion and exclusion processes operate in our time. It represents a societal project founded on individual dignity, requiring both material and relational fulfillment.
The Human Project and the Creation of Values
According
Read MorePlato’s Philosophy: Knowledge, Ethics, and Politics
Plato’s Philosophy
Knowledge
Plato aimed to refute the skepticism and relativism of the Sophists. He believed that true knowledge is universal and unchanging, exemplified by mathematical knowledge. This knowledge is essential for achieving virtue and a fulfilling life.
Plato presented two paths to knowledge:
- Knowing is Remembering (Reminiscence): Plato’s dualism of the immortal soul and the mortal body suggests that the soul possesses innate knowledge from the ideal world. Learning is a process of
Justice: Classical & Contemporary Theories
Justice: A Deep Dive into Legal and Moral Legitimacy
Classical Theories of Justice System Legitimacy
Iusnaturalism
The legitimacy of justice lies in human nature, originating with Aristotle’s concept of man as a political animal.
Scholastic Iusnaturalism
This theory justifies using violence to change a community’s legal order when deemed unfair. Bartolomé de las Casas and Suarez advocated for the universality of laws, applying to all inhabitants of the Spanish Empire, including Native Americans.
Aristotle’
Read MoreHuman Acts and Morality
Defining Human Acts
Human actions are categorized into two groups:
- Those performed with knowledge and freedom (human acts).
- Those lacking these attributes (acts of man).
Human activity involves the capacity to choose or refrain from specific actions, such as avoiding slander and respecting life. These choices are deemed moral acts.
Key Ethical Questions
Ethics seeks to answer fundamental questions about human behavior:
- What constitutes good or bad?
- What governs human behavior?
- How should individuals relate
Knowledge Theory of St. Thomas Aquinas
The Theory of Knowledge of St. Thomas Aquinas
1. Realism and Idealism
Philosophical realism, also called objectivism and sometimes materialism, posits that the subjective (psychological, logical, theoretical, etc.) is subordinate to objective reality, which exists externally to the subject. Idealism, conversely, suggests that reality is a configuration of the subject, who becomes the “formarum dator” of experience.
Realism prioritizes the object over the subject, while idealism reverses this order.
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