Social Organization and Political Power: Plato, Hobbes, Locke, and Smith
Two Models of Basic Social Organization
- Primitive tribal societies: A small number of members employ a subsistence economy.
- Modern societies with states: Institutions have political power, and there are distinct groups according to their functions, privileges, or economic power.
Legitimate Political Power According to Two Types of Criteria
- According to their origin: In the Middle Ages, it was often considered that legitimate power came from God.
- As a function of development: For Plato, the goal of
Empiricism: David Hume’s Theory of Knowledge
Empiricism:
Empiricism: Opposed to rationalism, but agrees that ideas are the object of knowledge. Experience is the source, criterion, validity, and limit of knowledge. The model is physical, using the inductive method to gain knowledge from experience.
David Hume:
David Hume: A more radical empiricist. His treatise on human nature researches human sentiment, and works on religion. Objective: The Science of Human Nature: Based on the idea that all other sciences are related to the powers of humans.
Read MorePhilosophical Views of Humanity: Socrates to Aristotle
Conceptions of Humanity
Socrates was the first philosopher to attempt to objectively describe the human condition, including ethical concerns such as good and fairness. He argued that anyone accused in a trial could emerge victorious, even if guilty, but that it is wrong to do so if one knows they are guilty of the charges. Socrates distinguished between good and bad, but acknowledged the difficulty in defining them. The Sophists, particularly Protagoras, described the human condition subjectively.
Read MoreKantianism, Personalism, and Mind-Brain Theories
Kantianism and Personalism
Kantianism is a concept that illustrates the origin of songs. A person is free to enrich the people, and being independent means being free of it. The absolute values of the people: the account is not practical, useful, or beneficial, nor does it have the same objectives. A person is said to be Kantian.
Personalism is a movement that takes the human being as its central focus. This philosophy reminds us of the relationship between the elements that make up each person. Mounier’
Read MoreHuman Communication, Language, and Symbolism
Myths and Science in Tribal Cultures
“The myth itself is the science of tribal peoples, who do not really know how to produce.”
No, this is not accurate in any way. First, myths are not science. Science asks about how things happen, whereas myths wonder about the meaning of those things. In other words, myths are not science but philosophy, a ‘narrated’ philosophy.
Tribal people have their own science, just as we have our myths. Their science has nothing to do with how natural phenomena are produced,
Read MoreStrategies of Social Control and Scientific Revolutions
Noam Chomsky: Strategies of Social Control
1. The Strategy of Distraction: The basic element of social control is the strategy of distraction, which is to divert public attention from important issues and changes determined by the political and economic elites through the technique of flooding or a continuous flood of distractions and trivial information. This strategy is also essential to keep the public interested in essential knowledge in the areas of science, economics, psychology, neurobiology,
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