Assignment #5: Anarchism

 1. Begin reading the SEP article on philosophical (theoretical) anarchism.

A couple of brief intros to anarchism:

Crash Course

Prof Wolff

Assignment #4: Socialism

 1. Read: " Socialism" from the SEP. Begin another S&R.

Just for fun: follow Paul Street's column, "This week in Fascism."

https://substack.com/@paulstreet/note/p-217467847?r=6qhhyz

Outline of points to consider (in order of their exposition):

1. How the "relations of production" control the "forces of production" (labor + means of production/resources)

2. 5 features of capitalism.

3. "minimal socialism" (change to first condition). Q: would that result in replacement of capital accumulation (condition 5) with production for needs?

4. Socialist (normative) principles. Concept of "radical democracy" and Marx's (communistic) dictum: "from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs."

DI Ideals

5. Exploitation of labor: technical or normative? 4 accounts of normativity (unequal exchange; labor entitlement; luck-egalitarian; power asymmetry).

6. Capitalist domination and interference in people's freedom ("private property by one person presupposes non-ownership on the part of other persons" Marx). Control over labor, production decisions/processes, media, political parties. Solution: radical democracy again. See Marx quote p. 6.

7. Absent effective/real freedom, self-realization impossible (hence "alienation") See Marx quote, p. 8. Problem of paternalistic imposition if full self-and other-realization is pursued.

Types of alienation:

a. from the products of our labor

b. from the laboring process

c. from our "species-being"

d. from each other

video 

8. Capitalist inefficiency: profit maximization and economic crises; underproduction of public goods; overconsumption of natural resources; negative externalities (pollution); costs of defending private ownership of capital. Alternative account of "efficiency" that takes into account expanding "leisure time"/quality of life/environment. 

9. Liberal (freedom-centered) notions of equality/egalitarianism suffer from lack of concern for solidarity/social goods (eg., freedom of occupational choice could reinforce inequalities or neglect social goods).

DII Institutions (Socialist Institutional Designs)

1. Central planning (eliminate private property in the means of production as well as markets)

Problems: Information shortages; incentive and innovation deficits; concentration of political/economic power

2. Participatory planning

Replaces central planning with democratic/widespread political/economic participation

3. Market Socialism

Video: Richard Wolff on MS

a. Economic democracy model: worker-controlled cooperatives + public banks + government employment. Probs: inequality between competitive enterprises, inefficiency.

b. Carensian model: capitalist markets persist, while after tax income equalized, and system rests on sense of duty (abilities/needs).

c. Coupon market model: single generation shares in stock market equalized and provided to each adult. 

3. Reform model (capitalist markets + welfare state): unemployment benefits, health care, education, pensions, unions. Problems: capital flight; inequality; oligarchic control of the state. Responses: mixed economies, progressive taxation, greater democratic participation, international agreements re capital movement.

DIII. Feasibility of transition to socialism

1. Marx: Contribution Principle, then Abilities/Needs Principle. Dictatorship ("dictatur" in German) along with the state eventually "withering away".

2. Wright: a. smashing, b. taming, c. escaping, d. eroding capitalism

3. Other concerns: a. race, sex, class intersection, b. national or international?

Assignment #3: Capitalism

1. Read: "Capitalism" from the SEP.

2. Begin the process of writing an S&R for this article.

Just for "fun":

End times Tech

Assignment #2: Liberalism (updated)

1. Read 'liberalism" from the SEP. Review (if necessary) handout S&R. Compose a complete "S&R" for this article. We will share elements of our S&Rs in class on Monday. S&Rs can be typed or hand-written. I will collect S&Rs when we have completed our discussions of the article (sometime next week).

Useful summary of Liberalism:

What Was Liberalism? #1 Ideology & Violence | Philosophy Tube

S&P is a normative discipline that presupposes a variety of moral/ethical positions.  Here's a brief discussion of the three basic positions:

Three Moral Theories | Good Food: Ethics and Politics of Food | Linguistics and Philosophy | MIT OpenCourseWare

Assignment #1: Basic Elements of Logic; Syllabus; Handouts, and Liberalism

Welcome to Social and Political Philosophy.

Things to do:

1. Review the basic elements of logic (sections 1-6 will suffice; Note: this brief logical excursion is in preparation for future writing tasks involving critical reasoning):

c01.pdf (umass.edu)

2. Read the syllabus and begin reviewing handouts CPE, S&R, CR1-3; raise any questions in our next class.

3. When the time is right, we'll begin with the review of 'liberalism" from the SEP.

Just for fun: peruse Karl Marx's poetry.

Even more Marxist fun:

11th thesis of "11 theses on Feuerbach:"

Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.

The critique of religion:

Marx's famous suggestion that religion is the "opium" of the people is no mere condemnation of the impulse to find comfort in otherworldly entities and places. Rather, he both condemns religion (as a condition that requires illusions) and congratulates it (as a protest against and expression of real suffering that can offer a glimpse into the "heart of a heartless world"). In the end, however, religion-qua-opiate simply masks symptoms of -- and hence reinforces -- the underlying social/political/earthly disease. From "Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right":

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions.

The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.

Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.

It is, therefore, the task of history, once the other-world of truth has vanished, to establish the truth of this world. It is the immediate task of philosophy, which is in the service of history, to unmask self-estrangement in its unholy forms once the holy form of human self-estrangement has been unmasked.

Thus, the criticism of Heaven turns into the criticism of Earth, the criticism of religion into the criticism of law, and the criticism of theology into the criticism of politics.