Social and Political Philosophy:
What is the Best Society?
• The area of Philosophy that examines theories
of how and why societies operate is Social
Philosophy.
• An adjunct of Social Philosophy is Political
Philosophy, which focuses on states, political
systems, and human rights.
What is a Society? What is a State?
• ____________________________: A set of
individuals and/or institutions in relations
governed by practical interdependence,
convention, and perhaps law.
• State: The political organization of a body of
people for the __________________________
of order within its territory by coercion.
• Societies, then, are groups of individuals
working together, in some form.
• The state is a legalistic expression of this
organization, with the ability to coerce (force)
the compliance of individuals to this
organization to maintain order.
• This force keeps the society functioning by
regulating the relations between the
individuals and institutions. This use of force,
either agreed to by the individuals in the state
or imposed upon them, is the law, the basic
rules governing how society operates.
• As societies evolved and grew larger and more
complex, the need for rules to more efficiently
organize larger social units also evolved,
leading to such forms of government as:
– _____________________ (rule by a king or
queen)
– oligarchy (rule by a small group)
– empire (rule of one group over others)
– _______________________ (religious
government)
– democracy (the people rule themselves)
• The terms we use for these types of
government are derived from Ancient Greek,
because the theory of government we use
derives from them.
• A variety of prefixes are added to the suffix
– archy, meaning a form of rule or government such
as
•
•
•
•
mono (one)
olig (few)
theo (god)
__________________________ (people)
• In Social and Political Philosophy, one of the
main questions is how society should be
organized.
• What is the ideal form of government and
society?
What is the Best Society?
• utopia (Greek meaning, not any place): the term
is now used to describe any vision of an
________________________________________
_______________
• There have been innumerable utopias proposed,
including many visions for future societies.
• The literal meaning of the term is appropriate, as
utopia is less a destination than a direction, as
the ideal society will never be realized.
• However, people will continue to construct
societies and states that reflect their vision of the
ideal.
• The examples that follow are a few of the more
famous utopian social visions.
• The opposite of utopia is
_________________________, the most
undesirable society. Of course, one philosopher's
utopia may well be another's dystopia.
Plato's Republic
• In the ____________________________, the
character Socrates discusses various examples of
just societies.
• Through this character, Plato proposed an ideal
state designed to maximize social harmony and
reduce conflict. Plato was
________________________________________
having seen that if not exercised responsibly it
could lead to corruption and tyranny, as it had in
his city of Athens in the 5th century.
• Athens had a system of direct democracy, in
which every citizen was entitled to attend the
legislature and vote on every measure
proposed. The assembly was enormous and
could not even conduct business without a
minimum of 6000 citizens present!
• Anyone skilled in oratory, the art of making
clever speeches, could sway the crowd, in a
manner similar to today's politicians who look
good on TV.
• One of the criticisms of this form of
democracy is that it was too democratic, did
not protect the rights of individuals against
the masses, and represented a "tyranny of the
majority".
• Plato proposed a system that would correct this
and ensure harmony and peace. Society would
be strictly organized; each citizen would belong
to one of ___________________ social classes:
• ________________________, who ruled the state for
the benefit of all;
• _________________________who would defend the
state and enforce the rules; and
• ________________________, who would supply the
needs of the others and enjoy the benefits of society.
• In Plato's republic, there would be no private
property and all goods would be owned in
common.
• This would eliminate the corrupting effects of
material possessions and the desire to have
more, and would eliminate the differences
between rich and poor, since everyone would
be economically equal.
• Each person would know his/her role in
society.
• The family would not exist as a social unit and
children would be nurtured and educated by
the state to maximize their talents and for the
specific role they would have, based on their
individual characteristics.
• Plato's political theory of the tri-partite state is
based on his notion of the tri-partite human soul,
with its ruling elements.
– Guardians represent _______________________, the
highest element;
– soldiers are _________________________,
aggressive and passionate;
– workers are ruled by _________________________,
by the desire to have and make.
• In his theory of the human soul, Plato argues
that reason needs to rule the other two,
which are necessary to a healthy balance, in
order to control and harness their ability,
which, if left unchecked, will cause chaos.
• In this utopia, everyone would be happy,
because everyone would be doing what
he/she was best suited to do.
• Because ruling is a complex and difficult task,
only the best and brightest children would be
educated to become guardians.
• Their ___________________________ would
lead them to become philosopher__________________________, dedicated to
ensuring justice for all.
• Naturally, the guardians would be accountable
to themselves alone, since only they were
capable of ruling wisely or understanding
what they were doing. They would have
absolute power and would control every
aspect of life.
• This would include censoring art and
literature, selective breeding of workers to
produce the best workers, and deciding who
would be educated as a guardian.
• The workers would be controlled by the noble lie
of religion, in which the guardians would claim
that the gods had mixed a precious metal in each
person's soul, that is, gold for the guardians,
silver for the soldiers, and bronze for the workers.
By appealing to the gods and the natural order of
things, the workers would be content with their
place in society, even though the guardians were
aware it was a lie.
• Contrary to the standard of the time, which was
staunchly misogynistic (woman-hating) Plato
believed that women would be as suited to being
guardians as men.
• Plato's utopian republic has been criticized for
its ___________________________________
basis, and it has been often cited as an
inspiration for totalitarian forms of
government such as fascism and communism.
• The Republic itself raises concerns about how
to curtail the
_____________________________________
________ of the guardians.
Aristotle: The Politics
• Aristotle, not surprisingly, differs from Plato in his approach
to political organization.
• Just as Aristotle argues that the best life for each person to
live should be based on their individual strengths, the best
political system for each state will be based on the needs of
the state.
• Thus, he does not propose one utopian system, as does
Plato, but a
________________________________________________
___________. His work, The Politics is more a study of
political systems and their theories than a proposal of a
utopia.
• Aristotle was not so
___________________________on
democracy as Plato, but was concerned about
its excesses, particularly with an uninformed
or uninvolved populace.
• Aristotle argued that while individuals might
be unwise, as a group, they possessed a sort
of wisdom.
• The range of opinions would lead to a
“___________________________________"
of wisdom, which would allow them, as a
group, to make good decisions.
• However, there could be "too much
democracy" and Aristotle favoured a system
mixing oligarchy and democracy, with each
working to balance out the other and keep
things working smoothly to benefit all.
Thomas More: Utopia
• Thomas More is best remembered for being
beheaded by King Henry VIII for refusing to
acknowledge the legitimacy of Henry's
marriage.
• He wrote__________________________at a
time (1516) when the Christian church was in
the midst of the crisis of the Reformation
brought about by Martin Luther's new
Protestant concept of salvation
• In Utopia, More used the story of a
shipwrecked traveller as means to explore
notions of how society should operate.
• "Utopia" has been described as a "Christian
communist" state, because there would be no
ownership of private property and society
would be organized along Christian lines.
• With no private property, there would be no rich
or poor, hence no class conflict. Equality was
taken to an _________________________:
Everyone would dress identically, all houses
would be the same (and people would swap
them at regular intervals to discourage notions of
"mine-ness"), each town would be identical, and
everyone would work exactly six hours a day.
• The ruler would be elected, based on merit, and
removed when not ruling properly.
• ____________________________ was part of
Utopian society, slaves being criminals serving
out sentences for breaking any of the many,
many rules of Utopia, their sentence being to
perform any undesirable jobs in society (for
example, slaughtering animals)
• Religious differences would be tolerated, but
_____________________________________
__________ by death. More felt you could not
trust someone who did not believe in God of
concepts of Christian justice to be found in
the afterlife.
• Any criticism of the social and political order,
likewise, would not be tolerated, it too would
lead to death.
• While impressively just, More's Utopia has
been criticized both for encouraging
totalitarianism and authoritarianism and for
promoting an incredibly dull place to live.