Social and Political Philosophy

BRIEF OVERVIEW

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I. Objectives and Content

II. Outline of the Course

III. Bibliography

I. Objectives and Content

A. Why This Course?

    • To analyze the fundamental content of the common good of each type of society (family, company, political society). The common good of each type is not the mere result of individual goods. This would amount to individualism. Neither is it the mere absorption of the individual goods into some kind of global good. This would result in collectivism.
    • To analyze the assumptions and principles of behavior required to obtain those respective common goods.

B. What Will I Learn From This Course?

    • human rights
    • demands of social justice
    • characteristics of the democratic society
    • the problem of pluralism
    • foundations of law
    • relations between ethics and economics
    • nationalism
    • feminism
    • training of citizens in civic-mindedness

It is important to keep in mind that the conditions in which the common good is to be achieved depend to a great extent on the specific circumstances of each society. For this reason, it is not always possible to arrive at universally-valid assessments from the ethico-political standpoint.

This course should be studied in conjunction with the treatise on the Virtue of Justice and the Social Doctrine of the Church.

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II. Outline of the Course

I. INTRODUCTION

    1. The nature of Social and Political Philosophy
        1. The object of social and political philosophy and its relationship with ethics.
        2. The unity between the ¡§individual¡¨ and ¡§social¡¨ ethics.
        3. Its metaphysical and anthropological basis on the good and on the person.
        4. Social philosophy, sociology, political science and social doctrine of the Church.
        5. Person and society: the intersubjective meaning of human life.

BASIC PRINCIPLES

II. THE VOCATION OF MAN TO COMMUNION WITH GOD

    1. The being of man and his end
        1. The human person and his moral dimension.
        2. The relational character of the person and its relationship with the end and the morality of man.
        3. The orientation (implicit and/or explicit) to God as the principle and root of a good life.
        4. Religion and ethical life. Avowal (implicit or explicit) of God and the avowal of the duty to respect and love one¡¦s neighbor (the natural sociability of man).

III. THE COMMUNION OF MAN WITH HIS NEIGHBOR

    1. Relationships and common good
        1. The good, finality and common good.
        2. The person and intersubjectivity.
        3. The act of respecting and loving one¡¦s neighbor as a personal fulfillment of the common good.
        4. The fundamental human rights and duties: aspects and content.
        5. Attitude to non-human nature: the ecological question.
    2. The content of the common good
        1. Particular human duties and rights.
        2. The common good of the community of friendship, of the society of work, and of the political society.
        3. The common good and the diversity of existential circumstances.
        4. The problem of cultural pluralism and inculturation.
        5. Love of country and of other nations.
        6. The problem of nationalism.
        7. The present surge of racism in some sectors.
        8. The question of feminism.

SOCIAL RELATIONS

IV. FRIENDSHIP AND COMMUNITIES OF FRIENDSHIP IN ETHICAL DYNAMICS

    1. Communities of friendship and ethics
        1. The specific characteristics of ethical dynamics.
        2. Ethical formation as friendly advise.
        3. The role of the different communities of friendship: the basic educators: the family, the school, the cultural community.
        4. The role of the Church. The function of the government (political community or the State).
        5. The "socialization" of the ethical subject.
    2. Respect for life
        1. The recognition of the value of the person and of the human body.
        2. The basis of the respect for one¡¦s life and that of the others.
        3. The immorality of euthanasia, abortion and the manipulation of human life (genetic engineering).
        4. The ethical problem of war and of violence (self-defense).
        5. Roots of the "culture of death" in some sectors of contemporary society.

V. THE FAMILY

    1. Conjugal love, marriage as an institution and the family
        1. The integration of sexual affectivity with the love toward the person: conjugal love; specific characteristics.
        2. Marriage as an institution: the first perfection of conjugal love.
        3. The family as a natural society.
        4. The constitution of marriage: consent.
        5. The indissolubility of marriage.
    2. Conjugal love and procreation
        1. The good of procreation as an immanent demand of conjugal love and of marriage.
        2. Responsible parenthood in procreation; the education of children.
    3. Essential dimensions of conjugal love
        1. Inseparability between the unitive and procreative aspects of marriage.
        2. Present ethical problems concerning these aspects.

VI. PROFESSIONAL RELATIONS

    1. Man and work
        1. Work as a mode of human action.
        2. Personal and social dimensions of work.
        3. The meaning of professional work.
        4. The subjective and objective dimensions of work.
    2. The general principles of justice in professional relations
        1. The duty and the right to fulfill a professional activity.
        2. The existential meaning of the duty and the right to work well.
        3. Ethical rationality and the scientific-technical rationality in the determination of the worth of professional work
    3. The relationship between the employer and the worker
        1. The relationship between the State as an indirect employer and the citizens.
        2. The relationship between the direct employer and the dependent worker.
    4. Work and the market
        1. The economy and the market.
        2. Professional responsibility and the structures of the market.

THE POLITICAL SOCIETY

VII. PRELIMINARY CONCEPTS

    1. State and society
        1. Nature and historical forms of political society.
        2. The problem of the different political systems.
        3. Democracy and the moral values that sustain it.
        4. The neo-liberal vision of democracy.
        5. Origin and the development of the State: the birth of the absolutist State in the modern era; the transformation of the absolutist State into a constitutional and democratic State.
        6. The idea of a socialist State.
        7. The modern totalitarianisms.
        8. The crisis of the contemporary State.

VIII. EVALUATION OF THE MAIN MODERN THEORIES OF POLITICAL JUSTICE

    1. Utilitarian theories of political justice
        1. The teleological-utilitarian political paradigm.
        2. Utilitarianism and neo-utilitarianism: critique.
    2. A contractualist foundation of political justice
        1. The essential idea: the primacy of political justice over the good.
        2. Classical contractualism.
        3. The innovations of contemporary neocontractualism.
        4. Critique of neocontractualism.
    3. A personalist and metaphysical foundation of political justice
        1. Person, intersubjectivity and political society.
        2. Metaphysical teleologism (St. Thomas) and political justice.
        3. The political common good.

IX. THE ATTAINMENT OF THE POLITICAL COMMON GOOD

    1. Fundamental rights and duties
        1. The fundamental duties and rights of the citizen, integral to the political common good.
        2. Objective "pre-consensual" principles of political justice.
        3. Latter specifications of the principles of political justice through a dialogue based on truth.
        4. Moral duties of those who govern, the legislators and judges.
    2. Political responsibility and the principle of subsidiarity
        1. Ethical responsibility of institutions and freedom.
        2. The State and public morality.
        3. The ethical demands of the use of the means of communication (respect of the person and of truth).
        4. Notion and basis of the principle of subsidiarity.
        5. Its value in the attainment of the political common good.
    3. Society and education
        1. The necessity and the principal agents of the ethical-political education of the citizens.
        2. The school and educational institutions: private freedom and the juridical regulations.
        3. Duties of educators.
        4. The ethical principles of the school and the university.
    4. The juridical action of the common good of freedom
        1. General notion of a just law.
        2. General characteristics of a just law.
        3. The just law and the imposed system.
        4. The basis of penal law.
        5. The just law in an imperfect society.
        6. The ethical problem of civil disobedience, the resistance to authority and sedition.
        7. Bases of social reforms (the revolutionary ideologies, the consensus theory).

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III. Bibliography

    • Torre, Joseph de. The Roots of Society. Manila: Sinagtala, 1984.
    • John Paul II.
        • Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, nos. 1-77
        • Encyclical Laborem Exercens
        • Encyclical Centesimus Annus, nos. 30-52
        • Encyclical Veritatis Splendor, nos. 95-101
        • Letter to the Families, nos. 1-17
        • Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, nos. 68-74.

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First Version 12 December 2005

JMO Mandia, Hong Kong

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