Scott Hughes Social Philosophy Essay

752 Words2 Pages

Social philosophy concentrates on social behavior and social issues. As Scott Hughes mentions in “Social Philosophy,” individualism, social interaction, motives for behavior, society as a whole, and many other social sciences make up the entity of social philosophy. Social philosophy also correlates to other philosophical domains such as epistemology, metaphysics, morality, and political philosophy. The analysis of human behavior concentrates on elements that influence social philosophy such as the study of cognitive skills, psychology, and sociology. Social philosophy can relate to motives of one's decision making or how certain situations can make one react a certain way; it directly relates to a person's everyday life. In addition, social …show more content…

However, as Hughes mentions, social philosophy deals with more subtle forms of social interaction, authority, and conflict. To state it differently, it is legal power versus social power. For example, the influence of a governor, who has legal power, is different from that of a popular high-school student, who has social power (Hughes). Though the power of the governor and the power of the popular high-school student are on different sides of the spectrum, they affect the people around them in many ways. On the other hand, political the question, "What is the best way to live?" Political philosophy begins in ethics; Alexander Moseley’s “Political Philosophy” states that ethics relates to political philosophy in that it theorizes on the nature of reality. Furthermore, the relation between ethics and political philosophy depicts how one interacts with others. Three major concerns in political philosophy are methodological groups, rationalism, and schools of …show more content…

Today, the division revolves around the rights of the individual versus the rights of the groups. There are five schools of thought: liberalism, conservatism, socialism, anarchism, and environmentalism. Liberalism consists of two positions – classical liberalism, which is pro-individualist, and modern liberalism, which is pro-statist. Classical liberals argue that people are not born equal, and making people equal is impossible (Moseley). For example, not everyone is born with the talent to sing or the talent to act. Modern liberals think oppositely of this notion. The next school of thought – conservatism – is full of skepticism toward man's desire for power, the state, and large scale planning (Moseley). Central ownership and market socialism make up the school of thought of socialism. In central ownership, socialists demand radical redistribution of resources, particularly to the poor and to the state (Moseley). In market socialism, socialists accept a market system, but demand that the state manage certain resources (Moseley). Anarchy is a system with no authoritarian structure. Anarchists believe in universal egalitarianism; each person's values are morally and politically equal (Moseley). Finally, environmentalism concerns itself with the rights of the planet and species not including humans. In other words, humans are of secondary importance

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