Contractarianism

By Freeman, Samuel

The idea that political relations originate in contract or agreement has been applied in several ways. In Plato’s Republic Glaucon suggests that justice is but a pact among ...

Future generations, obligations to

By De-Shalit, Avner

There are at least three different views concerning obligations to future generations. One is that morality does not apply here, future generations not being in any reciprocal relationship ...

Astell, Mary (1666–1731)

By O'Neill, Eileen

Best known for her proposal to establish a women’s college, Astell published on a variety of other topics: religious dissent, the social contract, the marriage contract, epistemic issues, ...

Conservatism

By O’Hear, Anthony

Conservatism is an approach to human affairs which mistrusts both a priori reasoning and revolution, preferring to put its trust in experience and in the gradual improvement of ...

Obligation, political

By Simmons, A. John

The problem of political obligation has been one of the central concerns of political philosophy throughout the history of the subject. Political obligations are the moral obligations of ...

Rationality, practical

By Hampton, Jean

Whereas theoretical reason is that form of reason that is authoritative over belief, practical reason is that form of reason that applies, in some way, to action: by ...

Justice, international

By Barry, Brian; Matravers, Matt

Although it has been denied (by, for example, F.A. Hayek 1976) that the concept of distributive justice has application within states, it is not controversial that there can ...

Beccaria, Cesare Bonesana (1738–94)

By Bellamy, Richard

Best known for writing Dei Delitti e delle Pene (On Crimes and Punishments), Beccaria was a leading figure of the Milanese Enlightenment who also wrote about political economy ...

Ideals

By Rosati, Connie S.

Ideals are models of excellence. They can be moral or nonmoral, and either ‘substantive’ or ‘deliberative’. Substantive ideals present models of excellence against which things in a relevant ...

Absolutism

By Pagden, Anthony

The term ‘absolutism’ describes a form of government in which the authority of the ruler is subject to no theoretical or legal constraints. In the language of Roman ...

Feminist ethics

By Tong, Rosemarie

Critics greet feminist ethics with suspicion, alleging that it is biased towards the interests of women. Feminist ethicists reply that it is traditional ethics which is biased. As ...

Filmer, Sir Robert (1588–1653)

By Sommerville, Johann P.

Filmer was one of the most important political thinkers in seventeenth-century England, and the author of Patriarcha. Locke replied to this and other works by Filmer in the ...

Maistre, Joseph de (1753–1821)

By Lebrun, Richard A.

Count Joseph de Maistre was a major theorist of the Counter-Enlightenment, whose writings inspired generations of French Catholic royalists and stimulated thinkers diverse as Saint- Simon, Auguste Comte ...

Slavery

By Esquith, Stephen L.; Smith, Nicholas D.

The moral, economic and political value of slavery has been hotly disputed by philosophers from ancient times. It was defended as an institution by Plato and Aristotle, but ...

Mendelssohn, Moses (1729–86)

By Arkush, Allan

A Jewish disciple of Leibniz and Wolff, Mendelssohn strove throughout his life to uphold and strengthen their rationalist metaphysics while sustaining his ancestral religion. His most important philosophic ...

Moral justification

By Scanlon, T.M.

Questions of justification arise in moral philosophy in at least three ways. The first concerns the way in which particular moral claims, such as claims about right and ...

Global justice, recent work on

By Caney, Simon

Until recently the prevailing view among many political philosophers was that global justice required that states honour each other’s independence, keep their treaties, and comply with the rules ...

Kantian ethics

By O'Neill, Onora

Kantian ethics originates in the ethical writings of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), which remain the most influential attempt to vindicate universal ethical principles that respect the dignity and equality ...

Kantian ethics

Kantian ethics originates in the ethical writings of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), which remain the most influential attempt to vindicate universal ethical principles that respect the dignity and equality ...

Social choice

By Hamlin, Alan

Social choice theory is the branch of economics concerned with the relationships between individual values, preferences and rights and collective decision making and evaluation. Social choice theory therefore ...

Political philosophy, history of

By Hampsher-Monk, Iain

The history of political philosophy attempts to yield a connected account of past speculation on the character of human association at its most inclusive level. ‘History’ or ‘philosophy’ ...

General will

By Nicholson, Peter P.

The fundamental claim for general will is that the members of a political community, as members, share a public or general interest or good which is for the ...

Animals and ethics

By Rachels, James

Does morality require that we respect the lives and interests of nonhuman animals? The traditional doctrine was that animals were made for human use, and so we may ...

Business ethics

Business ethics is the application of ethical theories to activity within and between commercial enterprises, and between commercial enterprises and their broader environment. It is a wide range ...

Corporations and justice

By Hughes, Robert; Strudler, Alan

For the past half century, there has been a large controversy within academic business ethics, in legal scholarship, and in the larger public about the role that corporations ...