form of action. Violence is seen under certain circumstances as the only way to set the scales of justice right again. Violence being instrumental by nature is rational to the extent that it is effective in reaching the end that must justify it‚ (Arendt 1970: 79). At the end of Antigone‚ Creon’s family gets destroyed but this is justified because he cares for his city. Antigone’s act of violence toward Creon
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When Hannah Arendt completed her work The Origins of Totalitarianism‚ she essentially took a historical approach for her analysis. The stories of Nazism and Stalinism exhibited the power of reorienting the mass for political purpose. However‚ her work foreshadowed what happened 15 years later in China -- The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The key elements reappeared and constituted another experiment of pushing the regime to be totalitarian. I argue that the influence of mass and the strategy
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Hannah Arendt‚ one of the most influential political theorists of the twentieth century‚ published a book in 1958 titled The Human Condition. In this book‚ Arendt discusses many ways in which she views the human condition‚ but more specifically she discusses its relation to labor and work. She characterizes labor and work as essential aspects of the human condition. Arendt goes on to specify these two aspects in the sense of the public realm versus the private realm‚ as well as in terms of the social
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Rawls’ Maximin Principle: Is It Really The Most Rational Solution? Political philosophy aims to reflect the normative and conceptual dimensions of political life. American philosopher John Rawls is widely recognized as one of the leading political philosophers of the twentieth century. His A Theory of Justice (1971) is one of the primary texts in political philosophy and proposes two principles of justice. The first‚ the liberty principle‚ defines basic liberties and the second‚ the difference
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Margaret Canovan argued that Hannah Arendt failed to realize that political opinions too have drawbacks. According to Arendt‚ different people have different opinions and claims that one political opinion can bring an enhancement on another. Based on this assumption‚ she adopted Kant’s notion of “judgement‚” that is‚ “to think for the sake of general” into her political thinking. But Habermas rejected her ideas on the ground that it is “monologic.” She seems to have left no room for “rational truth”
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John Rawls and Utilitarianism Heath C. Hoculock The social contract theory of John Rawls challenges utilitarianism by pointing out the impracticality of the theory. Mainly‚ in a society of utilitarians‚ a citizens rights could be completely ignored if injustice to this one citizen would benefit the rest of society. Rawls believes that a social contract theory‚ similar those proposed by Hobbes‚ Locke‚ and Rousseau‚ would be a more logical solution to the question of fairness in any government
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outcomes. Rawls states that social justice is a type of fairness‚ where the social cooperation appropriately distributes the burdens and benefits of society (1999: 4). Rawls aims to do this using the theoretical device of the Original Position. The intention of the thought experiment is to establish rules for the basic structure of society that would create a fairer society and advance the interests of the mutually disinterested parties involved. The conclusion about social justice that Rawls comes to
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political theory over the past 50 years‚ and John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice (1971) is widely seen as the most important attempt during that period to articulate a set of institutions and distributional outcomes that rational individuals would see as legitimate. Rawls’ seminal work has spawned a veritable critical industry since its publication (Miller‚ 1999). His elaboration of his project and restatement of his theory of “justice as fairness” (Rawls‚ 2001) promise to sustain interest in his ideas
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Rawls Theory of Justice A contemporary philosopher‚ John Rawls (1921-2002)‚ is noted for his contributions to political and moral philosophy. In particular‚ Rawls ’ discussion about justice introduced five important concepts into discourse‚ including: the two principles of justice‚ the “original position” and “veil of ignorance”. Rawls most famous work is‚ A Theory of Justice (1971) gives an introduction to this body of thought and he emphasises the importance justice has on governing and organising
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The conventional accounts of Justice normally begin by stating a fundamental rule of Aristotle – Justice is to treat equals equally and unequals unequally‚ and that unequal treatment should be in proportion to the inequality. In everyday life though‚ justice is seen as an attribute of law‚ while all laws are not necessarily just. Many great socio- political movements of the world have focused from time to time on unjust laws eg Apartheid laws in South Africa and Caste laws in India. Impartiality
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