Overview
Law, philosophy of
Law has been a significant topic for philosophical discussion since its beginnings. Attempts to discover the principles of cosmic order, and to discover or secure the principles of ...
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Overview
Political philosophy
Political philosophy can be defined as philosophical reflection on how best to arrange our collective life - our political institutions and our social practices, such as our economic ...
Overview
Russian philosophy
Russian thought is best approached without fixed preconceptions about the nature and proper boundaries of philosophy. Conditions of extreme political oppression and economic backwardness are not conducive to ...
Playlist
Global Justice
For introductions to the current debate on global justice, the obvious entries to start with are Simon Caney’s Global Justice, recent work on and Charles Beitz’s International Relations, ...
Thematic
Absolutism
The term ‘absolutism’ describes a form of government in which the authority of the ruler is subject to no theoretical or legal constraints. In the language of Roman ...
Thematic
Affirmative action
The term ‘affirmative action’ originated in the USA under President Kennedy. Originally it was designed to ensure that employees and applicants for jobs with government contractors did not ...
Thematic
Alienation
‘Alienation’ is a prominent term in twentieth-century social theory and social criticism, referring to any of various social or psychological evils which are characterized by a harmful separation, ...
Thematic
Anarchism
Anarchism is the view that a society without the state, or government, is both possible and desirable. Although there have been intimations of the anarchist outlook throughout history, ...
Thematic
Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism is a form of racism which sees Jews as a dangerous and despicable group in society. It has solid philosophical sources in the work of German Idealism ...
Thematic
Authority
The notion of authority has two main senses: expertise and the right to rule. To have authority in matters of belief (to be ’an authority’) is to have ...
Thematic
Autonomy, ethical
The core idea of autonomy is that of sovereignty over oneself, self-governance or self-determination: an agent or political entity is autonomous if it is self-governing or self-determining. The ...
Thematic
Black nationalism
The philosophical underpinnings of black nationalism date back to the mid-nineteenth century, prior to the abolition of chattel slavery in the United States. Its key ideas are that ...
Thematic
Buddhist political theory
Buddhist political theory is normative thinking about politics from a Buddhist perspective. In other words, it is Buddhist ideas about what government should do and why [see Political ...
Thematic
Citizenship
Within political philosophy, citizenship refers not only to a legal status, but also to a normative ideal – the governed should be full and equal participants in the ...
Thematic
Civil disobedience
According to common definitions, civil disobedience involves a public and nonviolent breach of law that is committed in order to change a law or policy, and in order ...
Thematic
Civil society
In modern social and political philosophy civil society has come to refer to a sphere of human activity and a set of institutions outside state or government. ...
Thematic
Communicative rationality
The concept of ‘communicative rationality’ is primarily associated with the work of the philosopher and social theorist Jürgen Habermas. According to Habermas, communication through language necessarily involves the ...
Thematic
Communism
Communism is the belief that society should be organized without private property, all productive property being held communally, publicly or in common. A communist system is one based ...
Thematic
Community and communitarianism
Reflections on the nature and significance of community have figured prominently in the history of Western ethics and political philosophy, both secular and religious. In ethics and political ...
Thematic
Conservatism
Conservatism is an approach to human affairs which mistrusts both a priori reasoning and revolution, preferring to put its trust in experience and in the gradual improvement of ...
Thematic
Constitutionalism
Constitutionalism comprises a set of ideas, principles and rules, all of which deal with the question of how to develop a political system which excludes as far as ...
Thematic
Contractarianism
The idea that political relations originate in contract or agreement has been applied in several ways. In Plato’s Republic Glaucon suggests that justice is but a pact among ...
Thematic
Corruption
Corruption denotes decay or perversion. The term implies that there is a natural or normal standard of functioning or conduct from which the corrupt state of affairs or ...
Thematic
Crime and punishment
An account of how state punishment can be justified requires an account of the state, as having the authority to punish, and of crime, as that which is ...
Thematic
Cultural identity
If cultural identity means that a person achieves the fullest humanity within an accepted context of traditional symbols, judgments, values, behaviour and relationships with specific others who self-consciously ...