Great Ideas of Philosophy

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2. So far as it can coexist with the freedom of all according to a universal law, it is the one sole originalinborn right belonging to all people.V. These lines provide a foundation for one of the most influential works in contemporary philosophy of law, JohnRawls’s A Theory of Justice.A. As with Kant, Rawls’s goal is the preservation of freedom from the compulsory will of another.B. Kant’s categorical imperative supports what Rawls calls the difference principle: Social and economicinequalities should be arranged so that they are to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged before theyimprove the condition of the more advantaged.C. However, Rawls’s A Theory of Justice is incomplete. It is surely not a Kantian maxim that the claim onehas on the general resources is proportioned to the degree of disadvantage.D. There is a small step, actually, from the position that law is no more than a social instrument to the use oflaw to secure social conditions dictated by theories that are presented as if they were protected fromcriticism, rather than outcomes of criticism.E. Philosophy of law is extremely useful at the level of criticism. It makes no promises, however, at the levelof great abiding and true discoveries.Recommended Reading:Dworkin, R. Taking Rights Seriously. Harvard, 1977.Finnis, J. Natural Law and Natural Rights. Oxford, 1980.Hart, H. L. A. The Concept of Law. Oxford, 1961.Questions to Consider:1. How is natural law theory reconciled to the utter diversity of legal precepts in different cultures at differenttimes?2. Is Kant’s philosophy of law in any sense a practical jurisprudence?3. If law is sensitive to such factors as what a judge has for breakfast, what claim does it have on our fidelity?28©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership
Lecture Fifty-EightJustice and Just WarsScope: The ancient political philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero reserve extensive space for the concept ofjustice, treating it chiefly as a virtue to be cultivated in the formation of good character. What we wouldtake to be matters of social justice or political justice are based on the same considerations of moderation,reasonableness, and the control of passions and enthusiasms of one sort or another. There is no principledobjection to class distinctions, nor is the institution of slavery or gender-based discrimination regarded asunjust. The one school of ancient philosophy that includes such notions as universal brotherhood or respectfor the dignity of every person is that of the Cynics. Their commitment to the most natural forms of lifestands as a criticism of all sorts of affectation. It is with certain of the Stoic philosophers, however, thatarguments are developed to the effect that the same rational principles operative in the cosmos must berespected in human affairs and that human rationality itself qualifies human beings for special standing.Only later, however, and under the influence of Christian theology, do these themes find development ofthe concept of natural rights possessed equally by all. Even adversaries in war are to be respected in waysthat acknowledge their humanity.Theories of the “just war,” beginning with St. Augustine and including such later commentators as St.Thomas Aquinas, Francisco de Vittoria, and Francisco Suarez, set forth the principles by which engagingin and conducting war are justified. The ultimate justification for waging war is securing a durable and justpeace. The manner in which the war is waged must be toward this end; actions proportioned to attain thisend must be at minimal cost in pain and suffering and with no further and selfish objectives. But to dogood and avoid evil, as a guide to governance, must also reflect back on the role of the state in relation toits own citizens, who are also subject to evil ends but capable of good and decent lives. Various defenses ofcoercion are considered in this connection.OutlineI. The concept of justice as an issue of rights—of giving one what is due, respecting one’s individual dignity, andso on—is a relatively late addition to questions of justice.A. Neither the ancient Greek nor ancient Roman world devoted much time or papyrus to the matter ofindividual rights.1. To the extent that Socrates, for example, may have had justice as a central concern, the conceptapplied to the criteria by which we judge a person’s character, rather than to the question of whetherthe state has been the source of justice.2. In Plato’s Republic, justice in the state is what leads to harmony and peace, but in the individual, ittakes the form of a selfless and rational commitment to do the morally right thing.3. For Aristotle and Cicero, justice is simply the “virtue of the magistrate” and, more or less, a matter ofconvention and of law.B. There are discussions of certain principles of justice, such as equity and fair distributions of goods. Theemphasis is on reasonableness and moderation. Justice is what we are each obliged to strive for in ourassociation with others and our dealings in the world.C. The ancient concept of justice is established in an intellectual framework that holds that there is a cosmicrational order and that a comparable rational order is the natural state of affairs for human societies.1. Rational beings are to be ruled by law rather than by force, and actions by and toward them carry theburden of justification.2. This line of thought, though foundational for all developed ideas of justice, does not conclude in clearstatements of universal human rights.D. Once we remove this conception of justice as a virtue and turn to conceptions of social justice or the rightsof man, the ancient world has much less to say.1. Aristotle insists that it is right that Hellenes shall rule barbarians.2. Plato’s republic is anti-democratic, committed to eugenic forms of human breeding, and classstructuredon meritocratic grounds.©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership 29
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Daniel N. Robinson, Ph.D.Philosophy
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Lecture OneFrom the Upanishads to H
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E. The Upanishads would merge us wi
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2. Despite their oracles, priests,
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4. Looking at geometry, we are told
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E. The contribution of pre-Socratic
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of the mystery of earth itself impe
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Lecture SixHerodotus and the Lamp o
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Lecture SevenSocrates on the Examin
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Xenophon. Memorabilia. Cornell Univ
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II. A philosopher is engaged in the
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Lecture NineCan Virtue Be Taught?Sc
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Lecture TenPlato’s Republic⎯Man
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Annas, J. “Classical Greek Philos
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III. The dominant school of Greek m
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1. Epistemonikon is a special featu
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Timeline800-600 B.C.E. ............
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1705...............................
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1873...............................
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Functionalism: The view that consci
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Tabula rasa: A blank slate. In the
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progress in one of its most summoni
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John Locke (1632-1704): Physician a
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The Great Ideas ofPhilosophy, 2 nd
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Table of ContentsThe Great Ideas of
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Lecture ThirteenAristotle on Friend
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C. Aristotle is recovering the Home
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III. The problem of conduct is then
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C. The Stoic account relies on the
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Lecture SixteenThe Stoic Bridge to
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Recommended Reading:Bede. A History
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III. Roman law successfully permitt
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Lecture EighteenThe Light Within⎯
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B. Augustine approaches the problem
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B. Very early, the Islamic commitme
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Lecture TwentySecular Knowledge⎯T
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IV. The third great institutional c
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1. Scholasticism was an attempt to
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Lecture Twenty-TwoScholasticism and
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E. Further, to the intellectual vir
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historical volumes tell Florentines
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Lecture Twenty-FourLet Us Burn the
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1. First, the courts required a doc
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650-850 C.E. ......................
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1794...............................
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Apatheia: Freedom from pathos and s
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ut cannot know what it is. Ultimate
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Biographical NotesAeschylus (525-45
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Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771)
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Socrates (c. 469-399 B.C.): Greek p
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Scope:The Great Ideas of Philosophy
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B. This expansion, however, does no
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1. This standard essentially rules
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Lecture Twenty-SevenNewton⎯The Sa
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Lecture Twenty-EightHobbes and the
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Recommended Reading:Hobbes, T. Levi
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B. Other things can be known to be
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Lecture ThirtyNo Matter? The Challe
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Lecture Thirty-OneHume and the Purs
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Lecture Thirty-TwoThomas Reid and t
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efore him were not always faithful
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2. His Letters on the English makes
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Lecture Thirty-FourThe Federalist P
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VI. The Federalist Papers and the g
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III. Kant argues that there is some
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Lecture Thirty-SixMoral Science and
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Questions to Consider:1. A hypothet
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650-850 C.E. ......................
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1794...............................
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Apatheia: Freedom from pathos and s
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ut cannot know what it is. Ultimate
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Biographical NotesAeschylus (525-45
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Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771)
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Socrates (c. 469-399 B.C.): Greek p
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Scope:The Great Ideas of Philosophy
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C. Though his system would be mocke
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1. There is nothing in the physics
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F. To include Hegel within the trad
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Lecture FortyThe Aesthetic Movement
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insisted that our very character is
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III. Nietzsche was an admirer and o
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B. In the final state, we’re all
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Lecture Forty-ThreeDarwin and Natur
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2. There is room for altruism but o
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1. He is a Hegelian who stands Hege
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Lecture Forty-FiveThe Freudian Worl
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B. How can repressed elements be un
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III. What figures in the human imag
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