Universal Minimum Ethics and Political Philosophy

Posted on Mar 5, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Universal Minimum Ethics

Universal minimum ethics:

  • Make people’s moral values, which are conditioned by the specific circumstances in which they live.
  • Agree on minimums to specify their objectives.
  • Fundamental and universal respect arises because of different cultural contexts.
  • The nuances of one and the same humanity must be understood.

Ethics and Politics

Politics is, or should be, all the actions, means, and tools a company uses to achieve its ideals. Ethics and politics should be closely united. From modernity, we begin to see a separation between public and private. For this reason, the relationship between ethics becomes apolitical and problematic.

Concept and Purpose of Political Philosophy

Today, a distinction is made between:

  • Political science: Its job is to describe, explain, and predict political phenomena.
  • Political philosophy: Its primary responsibility is to establish a rational basis for the order that is set as the State. Its aim must be for it to become just.

The Need for the Existence of the State

It is generally accepted that the State, as a form of social organization, has existed since ancient times.

  • Anarchist theories are in favor of abolishing the State and replacing it with a free association of individuals. Their position is based on the defense of the radical freedom of the individual.
  • Marxism defends an extinction of the State. The government’s role would be substituted by the administration of things and the direction of the production processes. The State is not abolished, but disappears.

Antiquity: The Organic Design

  • Man is a rational being.
  • Ethics naturally leads to politics.
  • The State has an ethical character. Its aim is rather for the community: the happiness of the people.
  • The State is superior to the individual.
  • The State is an organic whole, and individuals are its parts.

Modernity: Classic Contractarianism

From the 17th century, the historical context changes:

  • The role of reason is increasingly prominent.
  • Religious pluralism.
  • The separation between Church and State is increasingly important.

A period called Modernity opens. Political philosophy seeks new rationales to explain the origin of the State and its main purpose. The ideas that most philosophers defend are:

  • It is part of a new conception of man, in which this is a social being by convention, not by nature.
  • Highlights the importance of individual moral freedom.
  • Intellectually differs between ethics and law.
  • Remains an individualist conception of the state.
  • The state must submit to the law, which is the guarantee of its organization and functioning.

Classical contractarian theories have as a starting point a hypothetical idea of the state of nature. Depending on the characteristics of the social contract, different political systems emerge. Classical contractarian thinkers base different political systems, depending on the type of contract proposed and the polity they support.

20th Century Political Philosophy: Neocontractualism

Neocontractualism no longer seeks to determine the origin of the State, but to establish which conditions are needed to speak of a fair State or the legitimacy of the State.