Posts Tagged justice

How Did We Get Here?: Fukuyama on The Origins of Political Order

Posted by Tom McDonald in Reviewage on December 11, 2011

Francis FukuyamaIn his new book The Origins of Political Order,Francis Fukuyama tackles the history of the idea and its reality “from prehuman times to the French Revolution.” Fukuyama works under the contemporary name of political science, but he is really one of the few people we have today intellectually able to go beyond the narrow confines of academic specialization and to give us the sort of philosophically-informed and empirically-informed broad vision comparable to that of the classical modern political philosophers, e.g., the grand ambitions we find in Adam Smith‘s Wealth of Nations, David Hume‘s 6-volume History of England (“From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688″), and Hegel’s History of Philosophy.

Watch a video interview where Fukuyama summarizes his book.

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Episode 40: Plato’s Republic: What Is Justice?

Posted by Mark Linsenmayer in Podcast Episodes on July 11, 2011

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:36:59 — 88.9MB)

Discussing The Republic by Plato, primarily books 1 and 2.

What is justice? What is the ideal type of government? In the dialogue, Socrates argues that justice is real (not just a fiction the strong make up) and that it’s not relative to who you are (in the sense that it would always be just to help your friends and hurt your enemies). Justice ends up being a matter of balancing your soul so the rational part is in control over the rest of you.

The Republic is Plato’s utopia, described by analogy with justice in the individual: In the ideal state, the rational people will be in charge, and these leaders should go through rigorous conditioning and live communally (spouse sharing!) in order for them to serve the state effectively.

You’ll hear Wes and Dylan Casey talk about their St. John’s experiences (the “Johnny” discussion-only format provides a chief model for P.E.L.’s). Plus, Gay Girl from Damascus, which music degrades your character, and does suffering make people morally worse?

Buy the book

End song: “Manager,” from the 2011 New People album, Impossible Things (song written in 1997).

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Topic for #40: Plato’s Republic

Posted by Mark Linsenmayer in General Announcements on June 5, 2011

What is justice? What is the ideal type of government? These are the two questions we’ll be focusing on in our discussion of the most famous book of philosophy ever.

Look, we realize that if you’ve ever taken a philosophy class, you’ve likely already been introduced to this work, and there are many many other places on the Web to find out about it, including some great university lectures and podcasts. By all means, feel free to make use of some of these resources; listen to the book itself, if you’d like.

We’ll do our best to add to the pool, with not one but two guest participants personally trained by Plato himself. We’ll be focusing our discussion primarily on books 1, 2, and 4, but will delve into other portions of the work as needed in pursuit of an adequate definition of justice and details about Plato’s very weird ideal city wherein philosophers rule, everyone stays in his or her little proper career path for life, wives and children are shared in common, and musicians shall not play those damned plaintive minor chords! None of that!

Purchase the translation of the text to be read by 2 out of the 4 participants in the discussion

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Episode 9: Utilitarian Ethics: What Should We Do?

Posted by Mark Linsenmayer in Podcast Episodes on September 18, 2009

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:59:04 — 109.1MB)

Discussing Jeremy Bentham’s An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation chapters 1-5, John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism, and modern utilitarian Peter Singer’s “Famine, Affluence, and Morality.”)

Going full tilt on the Greatest Happiness principle, with talk of gladiators, consensual cannibalism, and illegal downloads. How many Pleetons were in your last orgasm? Should animals count in the utilitarian calculus? What is Bentham’s skull up to nowadays? This extra long episode (patched together from two recording sessions, as Seth’s audio track got toasted for most of the first one) is disgustingly thorough and only occasionally internally redundant.

Read the Bentham online. Here’s the Mill online, or you could buy it.Here’s the Singer essay (Also, for some more information on Singer’s view of animal liberation, look here.)

End song: “So Whaddaya Think?” by Mark Lint and the Fake (2000). Listen to the whole album online.

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