Artificial Agent, aka Martijn, from answers-in-reason.com, discusses Black Lives matter in what is going to be at least a 2 parter. Tonight we discuss what racism is and start to get into systemic racism. AA & Black Lives Matter While I had preferred to jump right into the BLM platform, it makes more sense to first review the concept of racism, seeing as the platform of BLM refers to racism quite a lot but doesn’t explicitly tell us what racism…
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In our last episode of political ethics, at least for this season, we discuss political ideologies and how we would run political systems within our own country could we go for a total reform….
Trump. No, this isn’t a Trump article, nor am I going to spend too much time ‘bashing’ him. Rather, he is our starting point for today. You see, some people still think he’s a unique character. An aberration. I disagree. I think he’s more of a symptom of the times. Of our political dialogue. And therein, I will argue, lies the problem. I will not ‘bash’ or unduly criticize anyone or anything in this article. It is, for me, a…
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What is Justice? (e.g. is it simply fairness?) Cardinal Virtue / First Virtue of Social institutions Kantian Justice – The preservation of human dignity, respecting a person as ends in themselves rather than a means to an end. Rawlsian Justice (aka Distributive Justice) – The fair and equal distribution of goodsThis includes more than just physical goods Rights Protections Education Platonic Justice – The idea that three parts of society, workers, leaders, guardians, work together in order to produce a…
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What is Legitimacy In simplest terms this is a justification of validity, but how does that apply to politics? Theories of Legitimacy There is no legitimacy: political Legitimacy implies the right to use violence and the idea that some are worth more than others. This is immoral and untrue and thus itself illegitimate. Legitimacy by force and power: those who have the force to secure power, acquire thereby the right to do so. Legitimacy from the economy: those that control…
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Obligation – Political Philosophy Chapter 2 We continue our second multi-chapter epiosode with a walk down Obligation. At the start we say we are going to be covering legitimacy and obligation, however we ran out of time, so will be covering off legitimacy next week. So what’s in this weeks episode? The key aspects, but not the entite conversation, includes: What is Obligation? Obligation, in the simplest terms, is an act or course of action to which a person is…
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What is Political Ethics? We ask the question tonight, ‘What is Political Ethics’ and discuss topics such as: Why is Morality important (to all parties) Legitimacy (covered in a later chapter) Perception of Voters Do all parties act in accordance with their moral compass at all times? We also cover off our what chapters to expect in the future, which includes: Obligation Legitimacy Justice Freedom Legislation Ideologies…
On the fifth of May, 1789, in France there was the start of an influential political process. It was on this day that King Louis XVI ordered a gathering of the “Assemblé Nationale”, and at that time rare meeting of the three different classes (nobility, clergy and citizenry) of Parliament, to discuss an impending bankruptcy of the French state. One day later, the third class, the citizenry who – despite being the largest class – had never been influential, announced…
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Atheism is not a religion. It is just a position on one topic. Whilst the term is polysemous, in some way shape or form it is a negation of the theistic claim. This article hopes to examine how atheism is used as a political tool, and how some atheists have turned it into an ideology. Bear in mind, I am an atheist, and respect most of our readership are also atheists. There will be certain elements of this article that…
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Sticks. In the Fresh AiR Podcast, S01 E01, I referred to religion as just “one of many sticks we use to beat each other upside the head”. I also named a few other sticks, like race, wealth and class. On Twitter I had a discussion with one of the podcasts listeners about these sticks and whether or not we should endeavour to remove them completely. Because of this discussion, which was in the limited nature of the Twitter format, I…
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