Politics, Poverty & Patriotism Exam 1

What is Huemer’s thesis?

Irrationality is humanities worst problem.

What are the three features of political disagreement?

1. Widespread - between many people

2. Strong - strongly convinced

3. Persistent - hard to resolve

What are 4 explanations of political disagreement?

Miscalculations - making mistakes

Ignorance

Divergent Values - fundamentally different moral beliefs

Irrationality - biases, fail to change beliefs

What is Huemer’s argument against miscalculation and ignorance?

Easiness- cognitive problems are easy to solve, politics is not

Non-Cognitive correlation- people hold political beliefs according to irrelevant social affiliations (race, class, gender)

What is Huemer’s argument against divergent values?

Objective- morality is objective

Clustering- political beliefs cluster weirdly

Non-moral- political disputes are often about empirical facts

Two assumptions of irrationality explanation?

Bias- people have natural biases

Belief change- belief can but don’t change their beliefs

What can we do about the problem of the irrationality explanation?

Understanding- gain awareness of problem

Identification- identify cases where political dispute is likely to occur

Acknowledge- other’s irrationality

Carefully- when presenting evidence

What are the three main claims in Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience?

Revolution- individuals have a right to revolt against the government

Indifference- Indifference to injustice makes one complicit in that injustice

Duty- individuals have a responsibility to resist injustice

What does Thoreau say about the responsibility of the individual against injustice?

Neighbor case- if you are cheated out of something by your neighbor, you’ll attempt to resolve it. Do the same for the government. reaffirms “revolution”

Identify a case of civil disobedience?

Rosa Parks

Four features of civil disobedience?

Conscientiousness

Communicative

Demonstrate protest

Persuade lawmakers to make changes

Detail about conscientiousness and communication?

Conscientiousness- sincere (well-intentioned), serious (engaging with the reality of the stakes so not for fun), consistent

Communication- dialogue (the state invites one into a moral dialogue, individual must effectively communicate their complaint)

What does it mean for the aim of civil disobedience to be “forward-looking”?

Reform- reform existing law

Internalization - reasons for condemning law are internalized by others

What are some controversial forms of civil disobedience?

Violence - destroy property, self-harm, coercion

Publicity

Boycotts

Inconvenience based - roadblocks, sit-ins

What are the two main claims that Goldman makes about anarchism and collective consciousness?

Anarchism does not lead to violence; violence arises as a result of frustration in social conditions.

Consciousness can be understood as a social unit.

Objective Vs. Participatory stances and how is Goldman’s stance objective?

Objective- the psychology; bad social conditions lead to violence

Participatory- the idea that someone is less responsible because of their social conditions

When is killing permissible?

Non-aggressor: the killer is not the agressor (self-defense)

Imminence: the threat is immanent, making one liable to be killed

Necessity: there was no other choice

What is the special immunity thesis and what is the moral parity thesis?

Special immunity thesis: government agents enjoy special immunity, which citizens lack

Moral parity thesis: if you can kill a citizen, you can kill a government agent, they should be treated equally in terms of morality.

What are the arguments in favor of special immunity and what are Brennan’s objections?

1. Legitimacy entails authority: objection- you can have one without the other, conceptually distinct

2. Government has authority alone: objection- no one believes this

3. General authority entails specific authority: objection- some instances of specific authority appear unjust e.g. Guantanamo, cannabis prohibition

4. Democratic process establishes authority: objection- counterexamples, Afghanistan, U.S. invasion of Iraq, Guantanamo

According to Brennan, why can’t democratic processes establish authority?

Process of deliberation or decision-making gives authoritative and special immunity to government.

What is the difference between legitimacy and authority?

Legitimacy- right or moral permissibility to coerce, e.g. laws and policies

Authority- the duty to obey e.g. not engage in CD

What are special obligations of law enforcement?

Unique- the position you occupy has specific duties

Additive- as well as existing moral obligations

What are two problems with the professional integrity approach to policing?

Ambiguity- not clear what a police officer is supposed to do

Insufficient- whatever they are supposed to do, doesn’t entail any moral obligations

What are Monaghan’s account of special moral obligations?

Unique ability- one can uniquely help (helping a drowning child)

Causal responsibility- one bears responsibility (you pushed the child)

Voluntariness- you agreed to help

Why do police satisfy the criteria for special moral obligations?

Monopoly on coercion- only government can police, no private policing (unique ability and causal responsibility)

Oath- police agree to serve and protect

Special duties for High ranking Officers?

Testimony- give unique voice to public policy

Epistemic- be in position to know relevant facts

Cultural- rid agency of bad apples

Special duties for Low ranking officers?

Duty to disregard law

Duty to protect property

Objections/replies to Monaghan?

Moral knowledge is unreasonable or hard- reply: No, it is not, we expect it of doctors, lawyers and businessmen. Why not cops?

Competing obligations (Nuremberg defense) - reply: It matters whether the orders are just, laws and orders can be unjust.

What is liberalism?

Individual rights

Moral equality of persons

Limited government

Opposition to unnecessary coercion

Differences: Nationalism Vs Cosmopolitanism?

Nationalism- state or nation-state realizes our particular duties to citizens. Preference of their nation and their citizens to others.

Cosmopolitanism- anything could realize our universal moral duties. Sacrifice for greater good.

What are the three arguments for open borders and Miller’s response to them?

Right to exit: if people have a state guaranteed right to exit, then people must have a right to enter, otherwise the right would lack substance. REPLY: One has a right to go somewhere that meets basic needs, not anywhere.

Freedom of movement- If one can freely move from A to B, why not from A to C? REPLY: Basic vs Bare freedom, instrumental vs intrinsic. Food and water vs marriage.

Distributive justice- people don’t choose where they are born, and we have a duty to help those in need. REPLY: equality means respecting people’s basic needs, and other countries can/should help.

Bare vs Basic freedom?

Bare- at most instrumentally valuable e.g. Aston Martin

Basic- inherently and instrumentally valuable e.g. food and water

What are Miller’s two justifications for immigration restrictions?

Culture- A nation has an interest in preserving its culture.

Population- Countries have a right to restrict membership, especially when resources are scarce

Conditions for ethical immigration?

Refugees: duty to aid people who flee from persecution or violence.

Discrimination; evaluate benefits, migrater’s claim to move

Some additional arguments & objections NOT discussed by Miller?

Protectionism- citizens have a right to be spared costs of (a) housing, (b) competitive labor- Reply: Deny the costs(a), or deny the right (b)

Welfare & Insurance- states cannot distribute these at current rates- Reply: then don’t distribute them

Self-determination- states have freedom of association, which entitles one the right to exclude. Reply: not clear whether there are group rights and interests, even so, marriage and work are counterintuitive exclusions.

Ideal theorizing and it’s 2 features?

Perfection theory- utopianism and end-state theory

Strict compliance- people act in strict compliance with the law