-
Home / Politics and philosophy - like water and oil
Obama has a car czar, a food czar, a bank bailout czar, a poverty czar, bird flu czar, a czar czar... he has 37 czars in all. Interestingly enough, he doesn't have a philosophy czar. Perhaps you think that a rather funny concept. After all, who needs a philosophy czar? But why is it that philosophy doesn't play a more important role in politics? Certainly, the parties have their agendas, but those aren't the same as their philosophies. When politicians are debating laws and regulations, wouldn't it help resolve differences if they could point to the philosophical principles they are supporting? Water and oil don't mix, but why is that also true of politics and philosophy? Why does politics ignore philosophy?
FTA:
As a former cabinet minister, I know all too well that philosophy and politics don't mix much. Governments have chief economists and chief medical officers, but not chief philosophers. Of course, philosophy is not an applied discipline, like economics or medicine. But many contemporary political problems, from the legitimacy of torture to affirmative action, are initially philosophical problems. This invites us to think more deeply about the limited philosophical bent to our politics. As Sandel argues, political philosophy cannot "resolve disagreements once and for all. But it can give shape to the arguments we have, and bring moral clarity to the alternatives we confront." The great debates in political theory over the past 40 years - between the liberal John Rawls, the libertarian Robert Nozick and communitarians such as Sandel himself - have followed the same furrows as our politics: income distribution, rights and responsibilities, identity and tolerance. But it's as if the two professions have ploughed the same field while ignoring each other.
...politicians need not have a policy for everything and - radically - that government need not be unified on every issue. Where one answer cannot be found - either intellectually, or because no solution commands consensus - it may be because it simply doesn't exist. Sometimes the government should let people decide: instead of imposing answers from the top, they should work harder to let citizens devise their own answers from the bottom. This philosophical bias may be especially useful at a time of public spending restraint, suggesting that wise governments should increase spending on areas where there is agreement about their public value, such as education, and reduce it in contested areas such as industrial subsidies, leaving companies and individuals to make their own decisions with their money...
Clarifying the theory which lies behind our instincts and traditions helps us both to avoid dead ends and to decide the most promising paths on which to embark. In particular, it suggests that centre-left parties must develop a more ambitious idea of equality. Rather than focusing on equality of income or utility, we should think about what Sen calls people's capabilities: their effective freedom to achieve the goals they choose.
DISCUSS!
Original posting by Braincrave Second Life staff on Feb 2, 2011 at http://www.braincrave.com/viewblog.php?id=455
About braincrave
We all admire beauty, but the mind ultimately must be stimulated for maximum arousal. Longevity in relationships cannot occur without a meeting of the minds. And that is what Braincrave is: a dating venue where minds meet. Learn about the thoughts of your potential match on deeper topics... topics that spawn your own insights around what you think, the choices you make, and the actions you take.
We are a community of men and women who seek beauty and stimulation through our minds. We find ideas, education, and self-improvement sexy. We think intelligence is hot. But Braincrave is more than brains and I.Q. alone. We are curious. We have common sense. We value and offer wisdom. We experiment. We have great imaginations. We devour literacy. We are intellectually honest. We support and encourage each other to be better.
You might be lonely but you aren't alone.
Sep, 2017 update: Although Braincrave resulted in two confirmed marriages, the venture didn't meet financial targets. Rather than updating our outdated code base, we've removed all previous dating profiles and retained the articles that continue to generate interest. Moving to valME.io's platform supports dating profiles (which you are welcome to post) but won't allow typical date-matching functionality (e.g., location proximity, attribute similarity).
The Braincrave.com discussion group on Second Life was a twice-daily intellectual group discussions typically held at 12:00 PM SLT (PST) and 7:00 PM SLT. The discussions took place in Second Life group chat but are no longer formally scheduled or managed. The daily articles were used to encourage the discussions.
Someone's Reading
Related Posts
Latest Activity
-
braincrave posted "Dating online? Watch that ad!" in braincrave
-
Mitcheltafur commented on "An interview with David Eagleman, neuroscientist" in braincrave
-
braincrave posted "The solution to the war problem" in braincrave
-
braincrave posted "The Great Hoax of Equality" in braincrave
-
braincrave posted "Manipulating Americans is easy" in braincrave
-
braincrave posted "Irrational self-interest" in braincrave
-
braincrave posted "The age of nanotechnology" in braincrave
-
braincrave posted "TIL real-life levitation does exist" in braincrave
- More...