Globalization, Ethics, and Political Philosophy Concepts
Unit 10: Globalization
Globalization is an economic process towards the establishment of transnational relations, creating a global society. Key features include:
- Consistency
- Difference
- A space for reflection
- An exaggerated perception of risk and fear
- Globalization of problems
Global Ethics
Global ethics addresses the moral problems arising from current scientific and technological development. It involves the practice of universality.
Moral Concepts
- Moral Minimum: Establishing a set of moral standards binding on all.
- Moral Maxims: Recognizing the right to difference for all members of a community.
Justice
- Justice = Judiciary: The judicial bodies.
- Justice = Under the Law: Legality.
- Justice = Moral Value or Virtue: Good.
Philosophical Perspectives
- Presocratics: Harmony.
- Sophists: Convention.
- Plato: Most important.
- Aristotle: Obedience to the law.
- Medieval Era: Divine law.
- Rawlsian: Focus on political equality.
- Walzer: Complex equality.
- Habermas and Apel: Fairness is decided based on consensus.
Problems of Globalization
- Global economic inequality
- Intensification of migratory flows
Women and Ethics
Equality between men and women is essential for justice. Feminist ethics emphasize the ethics of care.
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the presence of different cultures in one place, whether related or not.
Characteristics of Human Rights
Human rights are universal, inalienable, imprescriptible, inviolable, and absolute.
Unit 11: Political Philosophy
Historical Proposals
- Old Proposals: Aristocratic political solutions.
- The Church: Dual power (political and spiritual).
- Currency: Absolute state.
Rule of Law
- Locke: Power is distributed.
- Montesquieu: Tripartite division of power.
- Hegel: Power in the State.
- Adam Smith: Right to private property.
Socialism
Socialism emphasizes freedom, equality, and fraternity.
- Utopian Socialism: Collective ownership, capitalist solutions.
- Scientific or Marxist Socialism: State substitution of the bourgeoisie, ending class differences.
- Anarchism: Disappearance of private property.
Unit 11 (Continued): Society and Politics
Humane Society
A humane society is a grouping of human beings over a territory who share the same culture and institutions and interact with each other.
Social Groupings
- Community (Family): Group formed by individuals united by emotional ties.
- Company (Companies): Group composed of individuals with utilitarian and rational purposes.
Politics and Society
- Politics: Administrative power to permit coexistence.
- Civil Society: Complex web of individual relationships and partnerships with many different purposes.
- Civility: The virtue of citizen responsibility to live with the condition of membership in a society with shared objectives.
Theories of Society
- Naturalistic Theories: Society prior to the individual.
- Plato: Man is not self-sufficient.
- Aristotle: One who does not live in society is not a man.
- Middle Ages: Natural law.
- Modern Era: Instinct guided by interest.
- Contemporary Era: Social relations.
Contractualism
Contractualism uses a state of nature as a starting point, with the social contract being a necessary device for a legitimate political system.
- Hobbes: State of war.
- Locke: Freemen under the same natural law.
- Rousseau: Man is absolutely free.
- Neocontractualism (John Rawls): Prior consensus, principle of equality and difference.
Political Concepts
- Politics: A business conducted by members of a community designed to decide how to organize living together.
- Legality: Set of standards.
- Legitimacy: The ability of a power to be obeyed because its authority is accepted.
Features of the Modern State
The modern state exercises power over a territory, holds a monopoly on physical coercion, and manages individuals’ lives through institutions.
- State: Has effective power on the absolute and perpetual political community.
- Government: Political regime, development and implementation of policy guidelines, and the executive.