Final Research Paper
This is the third and final stage of the paper. Building on the work completed thus far (topic summary, outline, and annotated bibliography), complete a 5-8 page paper that answers the following prompts on your chosen topic:
- Describe the ethical issue and why it is important.
- What did at least 3 philosophers say about it in your research?
- What do you personally think about it? (Be sure to state the reasons for your position.)
The final paper should adhere to the following:
Must identify the issue in applied ethics.
Must provide relevant background or factual data, enough for someone unfamiliar with the topic to gain a sense of clarity on the issue.
Must discuss the ideas of at least three philosophers on the chosen topic.
You should also give some sense of balance by summarizing opposing views–in other words, what do the people who support this issue have to say about it, and what is the position of those opposing it?
Weigh in with your conclusions. For example, you might want to support a ban on foie gras (goose liver) in Chicago restaurants based on the sentience of animals (their ability to feel pain) and on the fact that geese are force-fed nutrients using controversial methods. Or, for example, if you are writing about end-of-life issues, you may want to argue for laws that allow euthanasia based on a person’s right or autonomy to make end-of-life.
Early Philosopher’s View on Ideal State and Communism
Introduction
A social theorist seeks to recognize the essential traits and boundaries of social instruments or the shape of capitalist production. The finest figures in Greek philosophy, and mainly Greek political theory, are Plato and Aristotle. He attended Plato’s Academy, which became then taken into consideration as a university, for nearly twenty years. Aristotle agreed with lots of Plato’s ideas, particularly his imagination and prescient of the suitable state. He rejected Plato’s thought of communism, nevertheless. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to begin with posted The Communist Manifesto in 1848. It promoted the concept that capitalism will unavoidably self-destruct and get replaced via way of means of socialism and, ultimately, communism. This concept served as the inspiration for the current communist motion as we comprehend it today.
Political thoughts from the philosophers
Aristotle
According to Aristotle, a town’s identification is rooted in its charter and that citizenship is related to preserving the public workplace and shelling out justice. A town cannot be held answerable for its sports previous to a revolution because its identification adjustments whilst the citizenship and charter are altered. There are six one-of-a-kind forms of constitutions, 3 of that are proper, and 3 that are unjust. A charter is truthful if it advantages every person within the town, and it’s far unfair if it simply favors the powerful. When one character holds energy, a charter is both a monarchy and a tyranny relying on the ruler’s ethical character. When a small elite holds energy, a charter is both an aristocracy and an oligarchy, relying on how proper or evil the rulers are. A charter is a polity whilst the human beings are in energy, and democracy whilst they are not. Aristotle has the same opinion that granting whole energy to both the governing frame and the legal guidelines can also additionally permit abuses of energy, however, he additionally contends that a polity is possibly least possibly to be corrupted whilst the legal guidelines are given more authority than the governing frame. He shows the distributive justice principle, which states that one type of citizen has to get advantages in one-of-a-kind ways, in step with the contributions they make to the welfare of the state.
Karl Marx
Karl Marx became a political logician who created enduring ideologies. He became the primary logician to mix the various socialist philosophical thoughts right into a unified worldview and an emotional foundation of struggle. Marx divided 19th-century capitalism into medical socialism or communism alongside Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), with whom he maintained unmatched cooperation. Marxism is each a critique of capitalism and a sensible or real undertaking of it. Marxism is a manner of thinking, fixed principles, and a working-elegance movement. Marx’s theories have been now no longer original, however, he significantly accelerated and systematized in advance concepts, combining them in clean and beneficial ways. He attempted to reveal that a socialist timetable had to be primarily based totally on an essential appraisal of the present-day machine of manufacturing and trade and a methodical interpretation of social evaluations. His intention became to illustrate how a socialist society is probably installed on a capitalist foundation. Marx defined socialism as being primarily based totally on science.
Plato
Plato’s philosophy is characterized through means of using dialectic, a technique of dialogue concerning ever-deeper insights into the character of reality, and in a way of cognitive optimism, a religion within side the capacity of human thoughts to find out the fact and to apply this fact to the morally upright and rational control of human affairs. According to Plato, society can also additionally reconcile the competing pursuits of its many segments. His quality, maximum ethical, and righteous political shape create a harmonious society wherein every character can thrive without sacrificing the pursuits of different members. He contends that without virtue, such order cannot be theoretically created or nearly implemented. It may be argued that political philosophy changed into Plato’s number one preoccupation, despite the truth that most effective the Republic, the Statesman, the Laws, and some shorter dialogues appeared as solely political works of the Greek philosopher. The number one goal of political philosophy continues to be often regarded within side the English-speaking world, wherein analytic philosophy from the 20th century has had an influence, on conceptual evaluation and the rationalization of political ideas. Thus, conceptual evaluation is an intellectual purge that clarifies a concept’s meaning. As a result, it has a wealthy record and changed into first mentioned in Platonic debates. The study of Vatai, states that (2014), Socrates attempts to outline and provide an explanation for many ideas in “early” conversations, even though the effects are usually inconclusive. Contrary to what is miles for sure analytic philosophers, conceptual evaluation is a primary step for Plato in place of a result in itself (Mukherjee, & Ramaswamy, 2011). The subsequent step is a vital evaluation of ideals, figuring out which of the contradictory theories is real and that’s false. The most vital political choices, in Plato’s view, are deciding between peace and struggle and the perfect political device. He thinks that the general public must now no longer be relied upon completely to make such choices because it often lacks enough imagination and is prescient and learns from ancient failures most effectively after the truth. According to his political theory, defining ideas is an essential step earlier than comparing ideals, and the suitable ideals then offer a method to the query of what the quality political device is. The framework of Plato’s Republic makes the development from conceptual evaluation via notion appraisal to the quality of political association pretty evident.
Philosophers on communism
Aristotle
Most observers have put Aristotle’s reviews of Plato’s Republic and Laws withinside the second book of his Politics to be unpersuasive. They seem to overlook the mark, boost greater questions than they answer, skew the facts, or be aware of petty details. As a critique of Plato, Aristotle is “puzzlingly hostile,” “obtuse,” and “pretty perverse,” in keeping with one translator (Barker, E. (2012). Even as many trusts this assessment, few spotlight the repercussions. One of the few times withinside the Aristotelian corpus in which we additionally see the philosopher’s unique works being criticized is in that feedback. They function as a check case to look at how honest Aristotle is whilst he transmits and reviews different people’s ideas. Since he may be established whilst he does this with Plato, we have to count on that he’s going to do the identical with different thinkers who cannot be examined. It is not sensible to emphasize the significance of this locating for our have a look at the Pre-Socratics, for example, because Aristotle is normally the maximum dependable source. Therefore, a radical re-examination of those chapters from Politics is important. I have to confine my judgments of not unusual place ladies and children withinside the Republic to suit the to-be had space. The majority of students argue that Aristotle has simply misinterpreted Socrates’ use of the phrase harmony by converting it from oneness withinside the experience of sentiment to oneness withinside the experience of numerical harmony.
Many commentators agree that Aristotle misunderstands Socrates’ method through harmony due to his intentional brevity in this passage. However, if one reads Aristotle’s reasoning as I have recommended one should, in mild of his feedback in the division, this belief can be quite simply avoided because he explicitly states that Socrates’ supposition cannot be separated in that place, he then criticizes this omission through outlining the outcomes of failing to make an important distinction. The essential critique of that is that it quantities to not nothing greater than whining from Aristotle. Socrates believes that what subjects are whether or not every citizen gets identical empathy and hobby from every different, now no longer the phrases they use to consult one another, such as “mine,” “our,” or different terms. However, this complaint ignores the factors made by Aristotle and Socrates. As the muse for his argument to Glaucon that their communist town may be the maximum cohesive and as a result the best, Socrates locations wonderful significance in the phrases “all pronouncing mine and now no longer mine together.” The argument will fail if the basis carries a fallacy, as Aristotle claims it does. According to some, the fallacy is primarily based totally on an ambiguity within side the phrase “all.” Socrates’ case has to first be supplied which allows you to recognize how this can be the case. It is formalizable in this way, unity is most powerful when every person says “mine” and “now no longer mine” at the identical time. Everybody says “mine” and “now no longer mine” at an identical time within the communist town. Therefore, the communist town is the best town due to the fact its miles in which harmony is maximum prevalent.
Plato
Undoubtedly, Plato’s concept of communism is observed in his concept of fairness. Without communism, and his concepts, there could be a war of ideologies and pastimes among motive and appetite. The basis of Plato’s communism is the concept that man’s interest could be diverted from his duties to society through his possessions, familial commitments, and private pastimes. He firmly believed that his circle of relatives and assets are constantly limitations to a commoner’s potential to carry out his obligations, now no longer only for a truth seeker monarch (Ebenstein, & Ebenstein, 2000). Plato claimed that neither assets nor familial ties need to receive any acknowledgment in a great society due to the fact they are regarded to be the principal reasons for war. To counteract the effects, the shape of communism of own circle of relatives and assets became vital to Plato’s layout of the best kingdom. Plato became adamant that the most dangerous political state of affairs became whilst there has been monetary inequality among a kingdom’s citizens. The Greeks’ extensively held and candid mind that monetary elements play a giant function in figuring out political behavior and celebration affiliations had been in large part liable for this belief. Long earlier than Plato wrote The Republic, Euripides had set up 3 lessons for citizens: the vein affluent, who are continuously insatiably hungry for more, the poor, who’ve not nothing and are fed on through envy, and finally the center class, that is an effective institution of fellows who protect the kingdom. Greeks described an oligarchical kingdom as one wherein the rich and people with inherited assets had been in charge. In contrast, democratic states had been run through and for the people. Several individuals lacked each asset and inherited birth. The Greeks had long believed that those monetary divisions had been the inspiration for their political structures.
Marx
This new philosophy turned into proposed withinside the Communist Manifesto with the help of using the German truth seeker and economist Karl Marx, referred to as the “Father of Communism,” and Friedrich Engels in 1848. The manifesto underlined the importance of sophistication struggle in all preceding societies in addition to the perilous instability that capitalism produced. The manifesto now no longer explicitly lays out commands for setting up a communist government, even though it did define a few necessities for a communist society (Goodin, Pettit, & Pogge, 2012). Instead, it turned into in large part an evaluation of the historic situations that made a communist machine vital and counseled the machine’s last goals. Marx turned into a way lengthy earlier than a central authority placed his theories to the test, however, his works, in conjunction with a burgeoning disaffected operating magnificence throughout Europe, had an instantaneous effect on modern commercial employees who went directly to discover the present-day labor motion. Marx meant for communism to be a worldwide motion that sparked and expanded the inevitable operating-magnificence revolutions that could arise in the course of the capitalist globe. These uprisings had already started in France at the start of 1848, even though the book had not been released. As they determined upper-magnificence residents the bourgeois, as Marx noted them withinside the Manifesto residing lives of luxury, the brand-new city operating magnificence, who needed to undergo appalling residing and operating situations in the course of Europe, grew weary in their very own life of poverty. Even after the 1848 uprisings failed, the standards of communism persevered to have a great attraction to the revolutionaries. Frustrated decrease in magnificence employees and peasants clung directly to the reminiscence of the 1848 revolutionaries and communist doctrine over the subsequent many decades, awaiting the right time to capitalize.
Conclusion
Two contrasting thoughts approximately the nation, justice, and political involvement are supplied in Aristotle’s Politics and Plato’s Republic (Mukherjee, & Ramaswamy, 2011). The Greek philosophers had many factors of confrontation and took various procedures to the identical concepts. Plato cannot believe Aristotle’s assertions that each government is natural and that everybody can take elements in politics to maintain his very own philosophy on nation and politics as described in Republic. The study of Szaif, states that (2018), Marx advanced his idea of history, which he noticed as a complex collection of sophisticated conflicts that could inescapably bring about the proletariat overthrowing the bourgeoisie that’s the ruling magnificence over the running classes.
References
Barker, E. (2012). The political thought of Plato and Aristotle. Courier Corporation
Ebenstein, W., & Ebenstein, A. O. (2000). Great political thinkers: Plato to the present. Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Mukherjee, S., & Ramaswamy, S. (2011). A history of political thought: Plato to Marx. PHIL Learning Pvt. Ltd.
Goodin, R. E., Pettit, P., & Pogge, T. W. (2012). A companion to contemporary political philosophy (Vol. 105). John Wiley & Sons.
Vatai, F. (2014). Intellectuals in Politics in the Greek World (Routledge Revivals): From Early Times to the Hellenistic Age. Routledge.
Szaif, J. (2018). ‘Plato and Aristotle on Truth and Falsehood’ in Michael Glanzberg. The Oxford Handbook of Truth, Oxford Handbooks.
