Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The importance of rule of law
Citizenship have a positive role in the 21st century
The rule of law and its importance
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The importance of rule of law
The concept of the good society has over the years been that one supreme and ideal picture many have tried to paint. The countless number of routes to complete this picture seems to be the yardstick that has drawn the line between who is getting there and who is not. In taking strategic steps and following paths, some have taken paths that have drawn them closer to achieving a good society. Others seem to have taken a wrong turn at some point hence placing them miles away from getting their picture to look slightly like the good society.
Several pieces are considered by different people as the vital units of a good society including justice, equity, rule of law, economic opportunity, prosperity, ethical standards and good citizenship just to mention a few (Ethics Forum, 2010). Meanwhile all these units have been broken down and linked together by James O’toole in his book “The executive compass”. O’toole represents the idea of the good society utilizing the four cardinal points of a compass with points expressing community, efficiency, equality and liberty as the key constituents of a good society. For the purpose of a constructive analysis of this philosophy of the good society O’toole’s executive compass will be used as a base line and a primary reference point. O’toole agrees that there is indeed a tension between these four ideas and goes on to examine why they are the major elements out of which a well-functioning democracy might create the good society.
Liberty is considered as the prime element of a good society. The philosophy of liberty is often explained as a state of being free within society from tyrannical restrictions imposed by authority on one's actions, thought and views (Oxford Dictionaries).Thomas Hobbes, a 1...
... middle of paper ...
...wiki?JohnLocke http://mises.org/page/1425 http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/aristotle.html http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rawls/ http://philanthropy2012.hubpages.com/hub/Famous-Philosophers-what-did-Aristotle-believe http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/socialcontract/section6.rhtml http://ozgurzan.com/management/management-theories/adam-smith/ http://www.victorianweb.org/economics/division.html http://channelingreality.com/UN/Documents/Etzioni.pdfhttp://www.adamsmith.org/quotes http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/country_information/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communitarianism http://channelingreality.com/UN/Documents/Etzioni.pdf http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/the-10-largest-economies-in-the-world/ http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/education
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/10/16/quotes-on-leadership/
Thomas Paine begins his article by first exploring the differences between society and government. He explains that, “society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil.” (Frohnen 179) What he means by this is that to have society and community is a privilege, because we as humans are designed to have a need for human interaction, while government on the other hand is only a necessary evil, simply because we as humans are also designed to be inherently evil, and therefore government is a necessary evil to have in order to monitor wrongdoing, or to keep us from our own vices in other words. This emphasizes the Classical Christian Anthropological principle of duality, which is the inner struggle that we as humans have between amor sui, the love of self, and amor dei, the love of God. This struggle springs from the fact that evil is found within man, and we must mak...
However, Plato now describes the Democracy that has been implemented by the lower classes with the aim of leading onto the democratic character. With new freedom and liberty, the average individual will arran...
The society is a whole world of beauty and offers a lot for those who are open to ripe the succulent fruits in it. Good governance and the values, mold an individual; therefore, these are those who would look at the society with a positive lens and influence the society positively. There are those who would view with a negative lens but then, with time, some may be transformed and they will used their bad experiences to rescue those suffering the same or similar issues like them. These people work tirelessly to assist a suffering
...downfall.Mostly societies fall due to whoever is leading them, like in Athens they were told to retreat inside of the walls which lead to an outbreak that killed ⅓ of the city’s population.Although trying to make a “perfect” society never ends up working out, we can learn from our mistakes and always try to make ours better. As I once said, “It is not possible to create a perfect society for imperfect beings.”
Throughout history, western philosophers have vigorously attempted to define the word freedom, to little avail. This is because the word carries so many meanings in many different contexts. The consequences of these philosophers’ claims are immense: as “free” people, we like to rely on the notion of freedom, yet our judicial system relentlessly fights to explain what we can and cannot do. For instance, is screaming “bomb!” on an airplane considered one of our “freedoms?” Martin Luther, in his “Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans” asserts that people are free when their actions naturally reflect laws and morality to the point that those laws are considered unnecessary. Immanuel Kant, in his “An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?”, articulates a similar view: freedom for Kant is the ability to exercise one’s reasoning without limitation in a public sphere. A deeper reading of these two texts exposes that Kant’s and Luther’s interpretations of freedom are actually more similar than different. Indeed, they are mutually exclusive: one cannot coexist with the other and Kant’s views can even be read as a restating of Luther’s understandings.
John Mill’s On Liberty seeks to expound on how individuals and the society can exist as liberal entities without infringing on each other’s rights. Liberty is the condition of being free within the society, that is free from any form of restriction inflicted by authority. He argues that individual freedom is the basis of democracy where people exercise their own free will (Mill 2005). He also rejects the idea of social contract where individuals comply with society for them to gain social benefit (Mill 2005). It is generally thought that social development can only occur if certain constraints are placed on individual liberty. But the contrary is also true, if restriction are placed on people’s freedom, it becomes difficult for them to thrive
Since it was believed that human beings reach their highest levels of morality and virtue by participating in government, (pg. 6) it would only make sense to create a government for the people by the people. But in order to limit the government and protect the rights of citizens, the new government would have to consist of checks and balances type of system. This is the reason for the three...
Through this examination of ideas, a conclusion may be made concerning the ideal form of government to preside over society today. In his famous writing, “The Leviathan”, Thomas Hobbes explains that the natural condition of mankind is when a society lives together without the rule of a common authority or power; this creates a “dog-eat-dog” world in which the citizens live in a perpetual state of utter chaos and fear. The fears experienced by the citizens are not only of the unequal distribution of the power of others, but also fear of the loss of their own power. In Hobbes’ state of nature there is complete liberty for society in the idea that each member may do whatever he or she pleases without having to worry about infringing upon the rights of the rest of society; in other words, one is allowed to do whatever necessary to pursue their own happiness. However, there is no guarantee of safety and protection from that same power which is granted to every other member of society.... ...
From the Age of Exploration to the Revolutionary period, many factors shaped the connotation of the word liberty. Liberty is defined as, “the quality or state of being free” (Merriam-Webster). This means religious freedoms, political freedoms, social freedoms, and many freedoms we may not think of on a daily basis. Throughout history, the word liberty has developed into a word with a positive connotation as well as a word used to describe the freedom we have today. The idea of liberty developed because of, religious persecutions, restrictions, and maltreatment during the fifteenth century through the seventeenth century.
Government, according to Paine, is a means of regulating societies’ sins. By portraying “society” as a form of prosperity, the reader gains an insight into his claim. Furthermore, Paine’s interpretation of society is a means of survival, a way for people to work together and prosper. However, in order for Paine to persuade the audience he relates their reasoning. “Let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest, they will then represent the first people of any country, or of the world....
But the good men did not remain good: they began to make money out of that which was the common property of all. And to some such development we may plausibly ascribe the origin of oligarchies, since men made wealth a thing of honour. The next change was to tyrannies, and from tyrannies to democracy. For the struggle to get rich at all costs tended to reduce numbers, and so increased the power of the multitude, who rose up and formed democracies. And now that there has been a further increase in the size of states, one might say that it is hard to avoid having a democratic constitution”
If humans are naturally so good, then how could society be so evil? Hobbes would argue that society is what keeps human nature stable through the use of sovereign power, laws, and the authority to regulate people’s actions. Without society, corruption would continue and people would have absolute freedom to do what they please, which would cause more fear. According to Hobbes, "The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law; where there is no law, no injustice" (Hobbes-79).
In order to examine how each thinker views man and the freedom he should have in a political society, it is necessary to define freedom or liberty from each philosopher’s perspective. John Locke states his belief that all men exist in "a state of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and person as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave or depending upon the will of any other man." (Ebenstein 373) Locke believes that man exists in a state of nature and thus exists in a state of uncontrollable liberty, which has only the law of nature, or reason, to restrict it. (Ebenstein 374) However, Locke does state that man does not have the license to destroy himself or any other creature in his possession unless a legitimate purpose requires it. Locke emphasizes the ability and opportunity to own and profit from property as necessary for being free.
The concept of liberty stems from the system of natural law. It is highly dependent on the belief in natural law, in regards to three different aspects. First, the foundation of both concepts. The natural law has been influential in many ways, therefore concepts can be developed or derived from such a system. Secondly, the ideas found in liberty are similar to those found in the natural law in regards to the law being controlled by an entity. Finally, for protection against arbitrary offense to ensure a state of equality. This concept depends on natural law by representing similar principles on infringement of rights. Ultimately, liberty can be seen as a concept adapted from the system of natural law in order to keep the same principles and
In Plato’s “Republic”, Socrates creates an ideal society in his perspective. He contemplates what his idea of ‘justice’ is. According to Socrates, justice is the “…having and doing what is a man’s own, and belongs to him”. (Book 4 pg. 12) Justice is giving to everyone what they deserve. Socrates uses the ‘myth of the metals’ as an example to show how justice can prosper in a society, while also showing a way that democracy can be unjust.