Modern Political Philosophy Research Articles

Hobbes and the Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns - Devin Stauffer: Hobbes's Kingdom of Light: A Study of the Foundations of Modern Political Philosophy. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. Pp. 336.)

Hobbes and the Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns - Devin Stauffer: Hobbes's Kingdom of Light: A Study of the Foundations of Modern Political Philosophy. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. Pp. 336.)

Hobbes: Prophet of the Enlightenment or Justice of the Peace? - Devin Stauffer: Hobbes's Kingdom of Light: A Study of the Foundations of Modern Political Philosophy. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. Pp. 336.)

Hobbes: Prophet of the Enlightenment or Justice of the Peace? - Devin Stauffer: Hobbes's Kingdom of Light: A Study of the Foundations of Modern Political Philosophy. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. Pp. 336.)

Hobbes, Aristotle, and the Politics of Metaphysics - Devin Stauffer: Hobbes's Kingdom of Light: A Study of the Foundations of Modern Political Philosophy. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. Pp. 336.)

Hobbes, Aristotle, and the Politics of Metaphysics - Devin Stauffer: Hobbes's Kingdom of Light: A Study of the Foundations of Modern Political Philosophy. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. Pp. 336.)

La herencia Ockhamista en la filosofía política y jurídica moderna

El presente artículo trata de mostrar y demostrar la influencia del voluntarismo tardo-medieval –tanto en su versión escotista como principalmente en la ockhamista– en la filosofía política y jurídica moderna. Parte exponiendo en forma sintética los principios fundamentales de la filosofía de Ockham para luego analizar algunas de sus consecuencias, entre las que destacan el contingentismo de la ley y el individualismo metodológico.

CONTRACTUALISTIC MEASUREMENTS OF THE GENDER: POSSIBILITIES AND BORDERS

Purpose. The purpose of the study is critical reconstruction of gender issues within the framework of modern political philosophy and political anthropology, in-depth reflection of the phenomena of justice, identity, human dignity in the aspect of their gender measurements and the search for the answer to the fundamental question for leading gender discourses: is freedom and justice, in fact, possible only together with stresses, a feeling of one’s sense-rooted belonging to one or another community? Theoretical basis. The supplement of the phenomenological and transcendental methodology by the method of contractualism directs the study of the topic specified in the article’s title into a new direction, and reflects its essential measurements and aspects. Understanding gender as an important philosophical and anthropological problem and a complex "social construct" precisely within the framework of the latest critical and self-critical versions of the theory of social contract reveal fruitful perspectives for political philosophy and anthropology. Originality. The study of the phenomena of "recognition" (A. Honneth) of "gender justice" (N. Fraser), "moral sense" (E. Tugendhat) outlines the possibilities and sense of filling the principle of social contract with a specific theoretical and practical content, substantiates the need to expand the philosophical and anthropological interpretation space of gender issues. Conclusions. Significance of the gender community for the sociocultural and existential identity of the individual enables (through organic, life-world belonging to a certain tradition and culture) his/her security and the ability to adequately orient in difficult life situations. However, the main purpose of human life is the ability to self-identity, even after profound changes in the structure of personality that arise in difficult situations of contempt and injustice.

Responsibility and Rights

AbstractA new era of responsibility seems poised to overshadow the human rights discourse in international law. On the one hand, introducing the perspective of responsibility must result in an added value when compared to the former predominant approach. In fact, some justifications are inconsistent, and the most radical interpretations jeopardize the very core of the modern theory of social and legal order—namely, the centrality of the individual. On the other hand, the incorporation of responsibility into the discourse on rights may help to overcome some of its most evident shortcomings. Nonetheless, despite some positive outcomes which the new attention on responsibility may bring about, the concept is flawed by at least two major deficits. First, the reference to responsibility tends to presuppose the possibility of taking the position of a privileged observer. This implicitly rejects the idea that the moral and legal community is essentially constituted by human individuals who freely recognize each other as equal members and rightful holders of entitlements. The second deficit is instead related to the intrinsically particularistic character of responsibility, which makes it rather difficult to apply to the field of international law and relations. An analysis shows that we are confronted with a conflict: while responsibility can, in fact, be assumed to bring an added value, the costs for this are exceedingly high, because they amount to no less than the abandonment of the core concept of modern moral and political philosophy. By recurring to the communicative paradigm of rationality and social order, a possible solution is outlined according to which responsibility is reinterpreted in the sense of a time, space, composition, and content-related expansion of mutual recognition.

Response to Ethnic and Racial Studies interlocutors

ABSTRACTThis symposium on my book, The Specter of Race: How Discrimination Haunts Western Democracy (Princeton, 2018) provides an opportunity to engage specialists in classical and modern political theory and philosophy, comparative racial and ethnic politics, and political sociology who have provided commentary on different aspects of the two overarching arguments intertwined in The Specter of Race; how students of democracy have largely ignored how racial and ethno-national hierarchy has been historically tethered to its practice , and how students of comparative politics have, for the most part, ignored how these hierarchies have informed the very development of modern democracies.

EVOLUTION OF DEVELOPMENT AND PECULIARITIES OF THE METHODOLOGY OF INSTITUTIONAL APPROACH TO STUDY OF SOCIAL LIFE

Introduction: At the current stage of development of world scientific thought among researchers, the popularity of institutional methods of social cognition is growing. The institutional approach is seen as an instrument for identifying and analyzing the main elements, signs, correlations within certain social entities. Investigation of external and internal factors of the formation and development of the social whole requires the study of the features of its internal structure, functional activity, etc. Aim and tasks: The purpose of the article is to define and substantiate the theoretical and methodological foundations of the institutional approach, as well as its role in the development of world sociological thought. Research methods: The analysis of the peculiarities of the institutionalization of social life is based on the principles of the integrated application of methodological approaches and methods of socio-philosophical research. Research results: In modern scientific thought, the institutional approach has gone through a number of stages, has a prevailing system of categories, and in its basis are the aggregate knowledge of social sciences. The institutional approach involves shifting the focus from the individual to the institutions, considering the latter as a unit of analysis as certain meaningful sources; social behavior of people is considered in close connection with the existing system of social-normative acts and institutions, the need for which is due to natural historical development. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, institutionalism began to emerge as the principle of scientific research. An important place in the development of the concept of a social institution is the structural and functional theory of T. Parsons, who views society as a system of social relations and social institutions. A functional aspect in the understanding of social institutions is developed by N. Lumann. In the conceptual boundaries of the theory of systems, in his opinion, institutes perform the function of unloading and at the same time stabilize the expectations of the behavior of individuals. As for the normative approach, here social institutions are interpreted as a system of rules, codes, meanings. This approach is presented in the modern political philosophy of the West in the works of J. Rowles in the theory of justice, P. Ricker – in the phenomenology of self, J. Garbermas – in the communicative theory. Discussion: In the mid-1980 s, there emerged a "new institutionalism" based on the principle of "methodological individualism," which recognizes the actual actors of the social process as individuals, and not groups and organizations (J.G. Marsh, J.P. Olsen, D.N. North, R. Patnam, K. Shepsley, D.White, E. Ostrom, O.Williamson, J. Hodgson). Within the framework of the neo-institutional approach several scientific directions have emerged: historical, sociological, from the point of view of the theory of rational choice (in economic and political sciences), semiotic. Conclusions: Modern institutional theory is represented by three main areas: socio-psychological, socio-legal and conjunctural-statistical (empirical and prognostic) institutionalism. Today, institutionalism is one of the most popular and popular approaches to world scientific thought. In Ukrainian sociology, the institutional theory owes its development to foreign concepts, which in the future were adapted, developed, supplemented by native scientists.

VOLVER A LOS ORÍGENES: LA SOBERANÍA, UN CONCEPTO FUNDAMENTAL PARA COMPRENDER EL DERECHO PÚBLICO

Confronted with a social crisis and violence associated with inherited lack of political unity in the feudal universe, since its inception modern political philosophy focused on the conceptual consolidation of State’s sovereignty: the only way to ensure the safety of individuals and peace. However, liberalism and concern for ensuring the rights of individuals against the State is also a distinguishing feature of modern political thought. These two contradictory trends are present in the birth and development of contemporary Public Law. The intention of this study is to return to the origins of the concept of sovereignty in modern political philosophy to encompass not only a key element of Public Law, but also to establish possibilities for a fresh look on the contemporary debate on a constituent power

The Naturall Condition of Mankind

Upon what empirical basis did Hobbes make his claims about the ‘state of nature’? He looked to ‘the savage people in many places of America’ (Hobbes, 1976: 187). Most people now recognize Hobbes’s assertions about Native Americans as racist. And yet, as Widerquist and McCall argue in their book Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy, the myth that life outside the state is unbearable and that life under the state is better remains the essential premise of two of the most influential Western political philosophies in the modern world – social contract theory (contractarianism) and property rights theory (propertarianism). Critiques of these philosophies are not new. But what is new, and exciting, about this book is that a political philosopher (Karl Widerquist) enlists an anthropologist (Grant S. McCall) to systematically debunk this founding myth on the basis of empirical evidence. Despite some confusion about the book's aims, the lack of attention to women and the risk of epistemic injustice, the results are fascinating and, I will argue, should prompt a methodological crisis for some schools of political philosophy.

Theory & Analysis of Contemporary Political Philosophy

Here we will discuss about many viewpoints of modern political philosophy. Many modern political philosophers of modern time will be discussed here. Here some philosophers are also economists, scholars and so on. Here the history of political philosophy will be discussed. The origin of this period and long silence of the history are described.

Interview

Stanley and Min discuss how propaganda works in liberal democratic societies. Stanley observes that the inability to address the crisis of liberal democracies can be partially explained by contemporary political philosophy’s penchant for idealized theorizing about norms of justice over transitions from injustice to justice. Whereas ancient and modern political philosophers took seriously propaganda and demagoguery of the elites and populists, contemporary political philosophers have tended to theorize about the idealized structures of justice. This leads to a lack of theoretical constructs and explanatory tools by which we can theorize about real-life political problems, such as mass incarceration. Starting with this premise, Stanley provides an explanation of how propaganda works and the mechanisms that enable propaganda. Stanley further theorizes the pernicious effects that elitism, populism, authoritarianism, and “post-truth” have on democratic politics.

Philosophy of Justice in the Context of Ukraine

This article investigates one of the major problems of modern political philosophy – the problem of justice in its fundamentally important methodological measurement in the Context of Ukraine. It’s consistently shown that justice belongs to a prominent place among the moral and social values: particularly its people owe to each other, because it is the scale, which measured freedom, equality and human rights.For this purpose it is analyzed the relationship and difference of methodological changes in grasping the concept of justice in the works of K-O-Apel, J.Habermas, O.Höffe, R.Forst. It was found that Habermas interprets a new essence of solidarity and justice as normative principles of a democratic state where the requirement of respect for the dignity of each based on the acceptance of the inviolability of his body, life and property. It is proved that O.Höffe draws attention to the need of fundamental changes in the understanding of social justice, emphasizing the pre-modern, paternalistic sense of distributive models. Іn the writings of R.Frost social justice gain a political dimension, just as political or social relationship can exist only in case of their full justification, respect for human dignity. In the latest theories of justice is said that the victim of injustice is firstly the one who is ignored both in the process of manufacturing and distribution of public goods. To conclude: only the justice of exchange permits us to solve the immediate, practical dilemma: should one hand over a part of one’s freedom to social, state, authoritative structures, or be independent of them and be unable to resort to their assistance in case of emergency. People, perforce, mutually abandon part of their freedom as legal agents in order to enjoy their right for freedom. If this abandonment is universal, such exchange may be considered just.
 By insisting that everything individual is also social because it requires and is embedded into social context, R.Forst presents intersubjectivity as a fundamental dimension of human existence that shows itself in our ability to self-determination, i.e. freedom, but within the limits of human community. Also his point is that our obligations are no less rooted in our existence than our rights, and law has no priority over good and depends on moral good as a defining factor of justice.

Tradycja republikańska i jej znaczenie dla współczesnej edukacji obywatelskiej

The idea of republicanism derived from antiquity, inter alia , from Aristotle and Cicero, was developed in the modern political philosophy of such great thinkers as Machiavelli and Rousseau, and it proceeds contemporary thanks to, inter alia , Arendt, Skinner and Pettit, but without chances to become a dominant stream; republicanism is sometimes also treated only as a specific adjustment of liberalism. The most significant elements of the Republican tradition are: an aspiration to create a powerful state, emphasis on the importance of common good and the responsibility of citizens for shaping their republic. The implementation of the idea of republicanism provides an opportunity for functioning not merely the procedural democracy but also the substantive one, and in such a way it appreciates civil society. Therefore, the great importance is ascribed to civic education which is mostly focused on a formation of so-called “Republican virtues” such as respect for the law, social commitment, debate skills, courage to proclaim own opinions, honour, diligence and the like. The civic education might best be implemented in an informal way, through participation in the various institutions typical for civil society.

Концептуализация понятия «гибридная война» в социально-философских исследованиях

The article attempts to conceptualize the notion of “hybrid warfare”, popular in modern political science and philosophy, through analyzing the theories of Frank Hoffman, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, and Carl Schmitt. In response to the debates over the appropriateness of using the term “hybrid warfare” and attempts to attribute the quality of “hybridity” to all wars in the history of mankind, the author suggests legitimizing the concept of “hybrid warfare” in relation to the military conflicts of our age. The author proposes that the following elements give the war the quality of hybridity: asymmetry in the use of military and information attacks, transition of warfare from a battlefield to the symbolic order and the large scale of participation of network guerrillas.

Virginia: un soggetto politico per la tragedia tra Sei e Settecento

The paper takes into account several tragedies based on the Roman subject – drawn by Titus Livius – of Appio and Virginia, composed in English, French and Italian between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in order to show how the subject's progressive refinement allows the dramatists to cope with essential matters of the Early modern political philosophy, from the relationship between the sovereign and the law to the gap between public and private happiness. The analysis aims to prove that, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the subject of Virginia becomes an unavoidable passage for dramatist interested in representing political tragedies.

What a Renewed Federalism Means for Libraries

AbstractIn a time when funding for the sole federal library program is under threat and state and local library funding are under intense revenue pressure, it is important to understand the role that the governmental philosophy of political actors will play in public and tax policy decisions. From the Trump administration to Congress, a coherent and cohesive set of federalist and libertarian approaches will frame the policy and funding debates about the role, scope, and funding of government. This article examines emerging federal policy and budget priorities through the lens of modern political philosophies to discuss how public, school, and academic library communities should anticipate and react to developments.

Responsibility and Rights

A new era of responsibility seems poised to overshadow the human rights discourse in international law. To be justified, however, introducing the perspective of responsibility must result in an added value if compared to the former predominant approach. In fact, however, some justifications are inconsistent and the most radical interpretations jeopardize the very core of the modern theory of social and legal order, namely the centrality of the individual. On the other hand, the incorporation of responsibility into the discourse on rights may help to overcome some of its most evident shortcomings. Nonetheless, despite some positive outcomes which the new attention on responsibility may bring about, the concept is flawed by at least two major deficits. First, the reference to responsibility tends to presuppose the possibility of taking the position of a privileged observer. This implicitly rejects the idea that the moral and legal community is essentially constituted by human individuals who freely recognize each other as equal members and rightful holders of entitlements. The second deficit is instead related to the intrinsically particularistic character of responsibility, which makes it rather difficult to apply to the field of international law and relations. An analysis shows that we are confronted with a conflict: while responsibility can, in fact, be assumed to bring an added value, the costs for this are exceedingly high, since they amount to no less than the abandonment of the core concept of modern moral and political philosophy. By recurring to the communicative paradigm of rationality and social order, a possible solution is outlined according to which responsibility is re-interpreted in the sense of a time-, space-, composition- and content-related expansion of mutual recognition.

Правительство и государство: два типа мышления

The opposition between the State and the Government is traditionally considered as one of the principal problems of the Modern Political Philosophy. The Government in this pair usually means the natural Institution that grows from the nature self of the human society, which requires an administration. The classical example of such nations which have a Government instead of the State, according to the author, is the United States and Great Britain. In the first case, the real Sovereign is the People, in the second — the Crown. In compliance with it, the State is the artificial organism, which appeared for the first time in Europe in the middle of XVII century. The author analyses the Government and the State as two diverse modes of thinking the Political things. He deduces the Government’s logic from the Roman civitas, while the State’s logic, according to him, is the heir of the Greek polis, as Aristotle described it. The author emphasises that the Government usually practices the natural religion, whereas the State creates its own, political one. In its higher form, such religion has only one superior god, and this is the State itself (Thomas Hobbes defined the State as a “mortal god”).

Trzy modele obywatelstwa a edukacja publiczna

Citizenship is commonly considered to be synonymous with the state membership and rights related to the state membership. However, modern political philosophy presents at least two contradictory visions of citizenship: the liberal and the communitarian. The first one sees society as an aggregate of autonomous subjects. The second one- tends to view it as a community. These visions result in different shapes of state organisation and of course different models of public education. While liberal vision of public education emphasises subject’s self-determination, tolerance, and free market skills; republicanism regards public education as a tool for inculcating public virtues, traditions and building sense of belonging. In the paper strong and weak points of both liberal and republican visions of citizenship and models stemming from them are commented. The author presents also the third model of citizenship – so called – low-level communitarianism that represents the demand to exempt some members of a community from state-established education.