Philosophy And Ethics Year 12 ATAR Test 2

Needs-Based Justice

People are not born equal, so society's resources should be redistributed to minimise these discrepancies. People's needs being met is the first priority.

Equality of Opportunity

People should have equal potential to amass resources via hard work

Social Contract

An implied agreement between the state and populus wherein we, the people, relinquish our freedoms in exchange for protection, security, and the ability to participate in society

Hobbes's State of Nature

"Nasty, brutish and short"

Pre-society was lawless and people, without the order and structure provided by society, acted on their terrible natural urges

Locke's Pre-Society

Defined by an absence of mutual obligation. [Most] People were born with inalienable rights to

"life, liberty and property"

Rousseau's Pre-Society

Idyllic and free, people existed in small familial units without knowledge of the "other". Society is the source of mankind's suffering, thus

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains"

Aristotle on Human Nature

Humans are reasonable, social and procedural animals, and therefore need society to live.

Hobbes's Social Contract

Governance is needed to prevent the state of nature or absolute war. It's in an individual's rational self-interest to voluntarily subjugate themselves to the government, which should hold absolute authority.

Government's power > individual rights

Leviathan

Hobbes's absolute governing authority

Locke's Social Contract

Only legitimate to the degree that it met general interest - if not, revolution was needed.

Rights come from accepting the responsibilities society places upon you

No. 1 priority is maintaining rights to “life, liberty, and property“

Tacit Consent

The implied agreement one makes with the state

if you benefit from society, you implicitly agree to its terms for participation

Rousseau's Social Contract

People need to set aside egoism and create a collective will that acts for the general good.

We are capable of acting on behalf of the collective and setting our own desires aside.

Hobbes on the State's Legitimacy

Leviathan should have absolute power. Stable government is more important than individual rights

Bentham on the State's Legitimacy

The government should have authority, as it is easier to maximise utility through a single body

Locke on the State's Legitimacy

The social contract is only legitimate so long as it meets general interest and doesn't impose on our natural rights to life, liberty and property

Rousseau on the State's Legitimacy

We have lost our idyllic pre-society, so now we must form a collective will to ensure general well-being

Hume on the State's Legitimacy

Tacit consent is not legitimate, as consent cannot occur through coercion. The government is built on violence and conquest, so agreeing to abide by it is a necessity

Aquinas on Civil Disobedience

We have no duty to obey unjust laws, especially it they contradict God's law [or, in today's context, our own morals]

Rawls on Civil Disobedience

Justified under three conditions

1. Responding to clear injustice

2. No legal solution is available

3. It is public

It must be proportionate.

Being punished allows for the maintenance of the overall rule of law

It should also lead to an overall decrease in harm

Societal Ideals

Justice, fairness, liberty, equality, rights, tolerance

Distributive Justice

The branch of applied ethics covering the allocation of resources in society

Merit-Based Justice

Everyone gets what they deserve. Redistribution should be minimised, and society should reward certain actions and statuses that people can hold

Equality of Outcome

People should end up with similar levels of material wealth and do what they can with their abilities

Marx's Justice

"Give to each according to his needs and take from each according to his ability"

A response to the deficiencies of capitalism

Nozik's Justice

Justice is Entitlement

Protecting people's rights to property means minimising taxation, which is theft.

Redistribution should be minimal

So long as there is justice in acquisition and transfer, the result is justified

Rawls's Justice

Justice is "fairness"

Argued that people should have equal access to basic liberties.

The Original Position

Rawl's thought experiment that he used to create the Two Principles of Justice.

If people under the veil of ignorance made rules for a society, they would come up with two principals

These are the Principle of Equal Liberties, which takes priority over the second, the Difference Principle

Principle of Equal Liberties

Each person is to have an equal right for the most extensive system of liberties, compatible with equal liberties for all (i.e. equal freedom for all)

This took first priority

Difference Principal

Socioeconomic inequalities can only be permitted if they are of benefit to the least advantaged attached to offices and positions under conditions of fair and equal opportunity (i.e. unfairness can be placed systematically if it benefits the disadvantaged)

This was second to the Principle of Equal Liberties

Liberty

Relates to the freedoms we enjoy in society

Isaiah Berlin

The guy who distinguished between negative and positive liberties

Negative Freedoms

Freedom to do things (e.g. speech, bare arms, assembly)

Positive Freedoms

Freedoms to live to one's fullest potential (e.g. education, healthcare, shelter)

John Stuart Mill

The guy who made the harm principle. Believed that the marketplace of ideas would allow only the best ideas to come to the forefront (oh, how wrong you were).

Mill's Harm Principle

The only justification for the state impeding on our liberties is to prevent harm to others.

For Mill this was mostly physical or social, not psychological (man of his time)

Economic Liberty

Freedom to do what you want with your assets

Social Liberty

The ability to behave and express yourself as you wish

Political Liberty

Freedom to express political beliefs or ideas and share them with others

Equality

The degree to which all people in a society have equal rights, liberties, and responsibilities

Pluralism

Different ideas and moral beliefs can coexist and participate in the same society and political process

Secularism

The separation of spiritual beliefs [''church"] and governance and political decision-making ["state"]

Egalitarianism

Prioritises Equality.

Holds that people should be treated equally from birth under the law, which is done by removing inequalities via redistribution.

Libertarianism

Priorities Liberty

Minimal government. Ownership of property should not be interfered with by the state. Redistribution should be done through private charity and personal responsibility

Yay!

You've begun learning these terms. Keep up the good work!