Social & Political Ideas

Answer : Equality means right to equal treatment. Every person must be treated equally. But without fraternity and liberty it has no value. Fraternity means feeling of brotherhood and aiming towards betterment of each other. Without fraternity equality will remain hollow, because without feeling of brotherhood equality cannot be achieved or enforced. For example, a society divided on caste basis is less likely to enjoy equality in letter and spirit. Because caste divided societal structure may encourage ....

Answer : Ambedkar in his book Buddha or Karl Marx has made this statement. Here he emphasizes on dual aspects of well being of the humans i.e. material and spiritual. He is of the opinion that men should acquire wealth to live a happy and a prosperous life. The necessary conditions for acquiring wealth is a free society with lesser interference of state in individuals life, private ownership of wealth, removal of inequity of distribution of economic ....

Answer : This quote expresses Aristotle’s view on justice and its relation to equality. According to Aristotle, justice requires inequality for people who are unequal. It holds that those contributing maximum for the good of society are entitled to receive larger share of benefits and resources. Whereas, those contributing lesser to the societal progress and development, owing to their lesser capacity both physical or mental, should receive lesser in terms of benefits and resources. Such a kind ....

Answer : Man is a rational animal, and out of that sense of rationality, comes a notion of justice. But the idea of justice varies from man to man, due to the non-identical rational capacity of each human being. The difference in the idea of justice has always been a reason for conflict, not only between the philosophers but all humans alike. In the present day democratic countries, the main objective of the state and law is ....

Answer : According to Sen, the dominant approach, which he refers to as ‘transcendental institutionalism’, is beleaguered by two central problems: the problem of feasibility and the problem of redundancy.

The first is a result of the practical difficulty, even impossibility, of arriving at a single set of principles that can help us to select just institutions through a process of impartial reasoning. In Rawls’ theory of justice, for instance, his two lexically ordered principles of justice are, ....

Answer : Aristotle provides a particularly well developed definition of justice, one that goes well beyond Plato’s rudimentary efforts. For Plato, justice essentially boils down to each person in society holding their appropriate position. In other words, platonic justice is all about being in one’s caste.Aristotle divides the world into exact (natural) and inexact (human) sciences. According to Aristotle, politics is imprecise.

Thus its elements at times belong to tekhne (art, including the art of politics) where opinion ....

Answer : Socialism is often called the society of the free and equal, and democracy is defined as the rule of the people. Both have very similar political meaning. In this way both can lead towards a more equitable society. But when it comes to economic structure of a society ,it raises some pretty complex questions like, whether the economic structure explained by socialism is more compatible with democratic principles or not ?.And, in history some experiments ....

Answer : Rawls argues in support of Justice as fairness and that justice would be chosen by parties in the original position.This is a thought experiment in which the parties select principles that will determine the basic structure of the society they will live in.

This choice is made from behind a veil of ignorance.which would deprive participants of information about their particular characteristics: his or her ethnicity, social status, gender and, crucially, their conception of The Good. ....

Answer : In the socio-political philosophy many forms of government are described. Among these theocracy, democracy and monarchy are most important. In the contemporary world, democracy has established itself as a popular form of government at the global level.

Democracy as a form of government means inclusion of consensus and responsibility in decision making. This is made possible by constitution. But in practical life its transgression can be seen at many places. Primary requrements of democracy as a ....

Answer : Justice is primarily a problem of moral philosophy. But when it gets associated with the caste discrimination concept, and since it has to be implemented by a political order, it also becomes a problem of political philosophy.

Some of the principle of justice, which can help in addressing the issues related to caste discrimination are firstly, justice as harmony. According to Plato, the concept of justice focussed on the ‘Just man’. It was primarily concerned with ....

Answer : Gender discrimination refers to the practise of granting or denying rights or privileges to a person based on their gender. In some socities, this practise is longstanding and acceptable to both the genders. Certain religious groups embrace gender discrimination as part of their dogma. However in most modern countries, it is illegal or generally considered inappropriate.

The term ‘justice’ implies the quality of being ‘just right’ or reasonable justice in the broadest sense is fairness. Justice ....

Answer : Plato in his philosophy gives very important place to the idea of justice. He used the greek word “Dikaiosyne” for justice which comes very near to the word ‘morality’ or ‘righteousness’. it properly includes within it the whole duty of man. It also covers the whole field of individual’s conduct in so far as it affects others.

According to most contemporary theories of justice, John Rawls claims that “justice is the first virtue of social institutions, ....

Answer : It is commonly argued that the problem of the relationship between liberty and equality is crucial to an adequate understanding of democracy. As posited, the argument implies to some thinkers, such as de Tocqueville, that a maximization of equality necessarily leads to a maximization of uniformity and therefore, by definitional inference, to a minimization of liberty. In this case, the argument continues, the door is left wide open for totalitarianism to be established, for individual ....

Answer : ‘Equality’ is a contested concept: “People who praise it or disparage it disagree about what they are praising or disparaging”. The term “equality”, “equal,” and “equally” signify a qualitative relationship. ‘Equality’ (or ‘equal’) signifies correspondence between groups of different objects, persons, processes or circumstances that have the same qualities in at least one respect, but not all respects, i.e., regarding one specific feature, with differences in other features.

‘Equality’ needs to thus be distinguished from ‘identity’, ....

Answer : Ancient India’s foremost political theorist was Chanakya (also known as Kautiliya). He was a Brahmin minister and political advisor of Chandragupta Mauriya, the founder of Mauriya Dynasty in India and helped gain him power. Chankiya was from northern India. His masterpiece was the political treatise, Arthashastra that means “the science of material gain or polity”. This was written in 4th century B.C. Old Indian rulers adopted his governance and statecraft theories.

According to Kautilya theory of ....

Answer : The concept of negative liberty refers to freedom from interference by other people. According to Thomas Hobbes, “a free man is he that in those things which bsy his strength and wit he is able to do is not hindered to do what he hath the will to do.” The distinction between negative and positive liberty was drawn by Isaiah Berlin in his lecture “Two Concepts of Liberty.” According to Berlin, the distinction is deeply ....

Answer : Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system. In political theory, democracy describes a small number of related forms of government and also a political philosophy. Even though there is no universally accepted definition of ‘democracy’, there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes. The first principle is that all members of the society have equal access to power ....

Answer : The terms “equality”, “equal,” and “equally” signify a qualitative relationship. ‘Equality’ (or ‘equal’) signifies correspondence between groups of different objects, persons, processes or circumstances that have the same qualities in at least one respect, but not all respects, i.e., regarding one specific feature, with differences in other features. If one does not enjoy equality in socio-political field, the term looses its meaning for him. Actually these are the spheres of life where one should have ....

Answer : Many authors prefer to talk of positive and negative freedom. ‘Freedom from’ signifies freedom from whereas ‘freedom to’ signifies positive freedom In a famous essay first published in 1958, Isaiah Berlin called these two concepts of liberty or freedom negative and positive respectively. The reason for using these labels is that in the first case freedom seems to be a mere absence of something (i.e. of obstacles, barriers, constraints or interference from others), whereas in ....

Answer : Justice is the concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, fairness and equity. A conception of justice is one of the key features of society. Theories of justice vary greatly, but there is evidence that everyday views of justice can be reconciled with patterned moral preferences. Justice concerns the proper ordering of things and persons within a society. As a concept it has been subject to philosophical, legal, and theological reflection ....

Answer : Equality’ is a contested concept: People who praise it or disparage it disagree about what they are praising or disparaging. Our first task is therefore to provide a clear definition of equality in the face of widespread misconceptions about its meaning as a political idea. The terms “equality”, “equal,” and “equally” signify a qualitative relationship. ‘Equality’ (or ‘equal’) signifies correspondence between groups of different objects, persons, processes or circumstances that have the same qualities in ....

Answer : Positive freedom refers to the opportunity and ability to act to fulfill one’s own potential, as opposed to negative freedom, which refers to freedom from restraint. Inherent to positive liberty is the idea that liberty is the ability of citizens to participate in their government. As Isaiah Berlin noted, positive liberty is interested in action by citizens in the government. This is why he called it positive freedom, for pro-action. Berlin distinguished between two forms ....

Answer : One of the definitions of justice is “giving to each what he or she is due.” The problem is how to know what is “due”. Functionally, “justice” is a set of universal principles which guide people in judging what is right and what is wrong, no matter what culture and society they live in. Justice is one of the four “cardinal virtues” of classical moral philosophy, along with courage, temperance (self-control) and prudence (efficiency). (Faith, ....

Answer : Mill’s in his book ‘On Liberty’ addresses the nature and limits of the power that can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual. One argument that Mill develops further than any previous philosopher is the harm principle. The harm principle holds that each individual has the right to act as he wants, so long as these actions do not harm others. If the action is self-regarding, that is, if it only directly affects the ....

Answer : The notion of justice is very much associated with liberty and equality and the way it is available to a person in a society. The basic liberties of citizens are, roughly speaking, political liberty (i.e., to vote and run for office); freedom of speech and assembly, liberty of conscience and freedom of thought, freedom of property; and freedom from arbitrary arrest. It is a matter of some debate whether freedom of contract can be inferred ....

Answer : Liberty is the freedom to act or believe without being stopped by unnecessary force. In modern time, is generally considered a concept of political philosophy and identifies the condition in which an individual has the ability to act according to his or her own will. Opinions on what constitute liberty can vary widely, but can be generally classified as positive liberty and negative liberty. Negative liberty is the absence of obstacles, barriers or constraints. One ....

Answer : Constitutionalism is the idea, often associated with the political theories of John Locke and the “founders” of the American republic, that government can and should be legally limited in its powers, and that its authority depends on its observing these limitations. This idea brings with it a host of vexing questions of interest not only to legal scholars, but to anyone keen to explore the legal and philosophical foundations of the state. How can a ....