Philosopher Review

Who Believes…

• Humans are by nature social beings

• Your moral virtues control your character

• Hint: Plato’s student

Aristotle

• Also, founder of the science of logic

Who believes…

• Harm Principle (can you define?)

• Utilitarianism (can you define?)

Mill

• Harm Principle: The only reason liberty may be interfered with is in order to prevent harm to others. The government should not forcibly interfere with people who commit crimes that don’t harm others (victimless crimes)

• Utilitarianism: the idea that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its utility to provide happiness or pleasure. He promoted freedom of expression and freedom of action, but recognized achieving these is only possible if people are living securely in communities.– Provides ‘guidelines’ for a distinguished right and wrong (your

morals

Who believes…

• Theory of Justice (can you define?)

• Veil of Ignorance (can you define?)

Rawls

• Theory of justice—natural sense of justice. Each person has a basic claim to rights and liberties; all people are free and equal. Society must assure each citizen an equal claim to basic rights and liberties. Self-interested rational persons are not ignorant of (1) the general types of possible situations in which humans can find themselves; (2) general facts about human psychology and “human nature”. If a person has moral conflict, they’ll adjust their morals to benefit themselves.

• Veil of Ignorance—to create a morally fair system, one must pretend to be behind a veil of ignorance to prevent prejudices from guiding decisions.

Who believes…

• Authoritarian social contract theory.

• Humans are selfish, impulsive, and ignorant

Hobbes

• Social contract theory: men in a state without civil government are in a war of all against all in which life is hardly worth living (chaos). The only way out is to make a social contract and establish the state to keep peace and order.

Who believes…

Society is split into three parts: philosopher king, guardian, ordinary citizen.

“forms”

Plato

• Three classes: the philosopher kings who govern, the guardian soldiers who keep order and defend the society, and then the ordinary citizens, farmers, merchants, and craft workers who provide the society’s material needs.

• Forms—an unseen “alternate universe” or “unseen world” where there existed the perfect and constant models of all things on Earth.

Who believes…

• Categorical Imperative

• Maxims

Kant

• Categorical Imperative: Your behavior is not based on what you personally want or desire but on what the society as a whole needs and desires. People act for the universal.

• Maxim: Rules that you live your life by. One should live his life so that his maxim, or rules, is universal and everyone follows the same maxims.

Who believes…

• Communism

Marx

Communism: We all work for each other’s benefit in simple terms meaning that money earned will be divided amongst everyone in the country thus destroying the line between the rich and poor.

Who believes…

• People are basically good

• Ren

• Analects

• Golden Rule

Confucius

• Ren means “benevolence,” “humanness,” and “goodness”.

• Ren has two aspects: loyalty & reciprocity.

Who believes…

• Tabula Rasa

• Two Treatises on Government—social contract

• Philosophy inspired Declaration of Independence

This person argues for religious freedom and the separation of the church and the state.

Locke

The mind is a “Tabula Rasa” or a blank slate at birth and that the experiences we face during out lifetime shape our thinking.

Social Contract—individuals retain certain rights even though they submit some to the government. He believed individuals retain the right of revolution to abolish faulty governments and institute new ones.