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 ...

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 ...

Public interest

By Weale, Albert

The concept of the public interest can be used in a wide variety of ways, and this has led many to say that it is devoid of meaning. ...

Sovereignty

By Ford, J.D.

In legal and political philosophy sovereignty is the attribute by which a person or institution exercises ultimate authority over every other person or institution in its domain. Traditionally, ...

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 ...

Agricultural ethics

By Comstock, Gary L.

Agricultural ethics is the study of moral issues raised by farming. These include: human interference with the course of nature; the effects of certain agricultural practices on present ...

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712–78)

By Dent, Nicholas

Rousseau was born in Geneva, the second son of Isaac Rousseau, watchmaker. His mother died a few days after his birth. From this obscure beginning he rose to ...

Diderot, Denis (1713–84)

By Wokler, Robert

Chief editor of the great eighteenth-century Encyclopédie (1751–72), Diderot set out a philosophy of the arts and sciences which took the progress of civilization to be a measure ...

Autonomy, ethical

By Reath, Andrews

The core idea of autonomy is that of sovereignty over oneself, self-governance or self-determination: an agent or political entity is autonomous if it is self-governing or self-determining. The ...

Representation, political

By Reeve, Andrew

Political representation – the designation of a small group of politically active citizens to serve as representatives of the political community as a whole – is a central ...

Society, concept of

By Ross, Angus

The term ‘society’ is broader than ‘human society’. Many other species are described as possessing a social way of life. Yet mere gregariousness, of the kind found in ...

Tocqueville, Alexis de (1805–59)

By Siedentop, L.A.

Tocqueville once observed that his temperament was the ‘least philosophical’ imaginable. He meant that his mind was governed by passionate commitment, a determination to defend civil and political ...

French Revolution, philosophical background and influence of

By Millhorn, Jim

The French Revolution is clearly defined as a benchmark event of the modern era. It remains the revolution by which all others are measured. Any discussion of political ...

Forgiveness and mercy

Forgiveness and mercy are regarded as virtues in many moral and religious traditions, although different traditions will emphasize different aspects. The Christian tradition, for example, tends to emphasize ...

Legitimacy

By Beetham, David

Legitimacy refers to the rightfulness of a powerholder or system of rule. The term originated in controversies over property and succession, and was used to differentiate children born ...

Republicanism

By Hanson, Russell L.

Significant divisions exist in all societies and communities of any size. The expression of these divisions in politics takes many forms, one of them republican. The hallmark of ...

Constant de Rebecque, Henri-Benjamin (1767–1830)

By Wood, Dennis

Benjamin Constant combined the activities of a religious historian, autobiographer and novelist with a career as a political theorist and politician. Constant’s intellectual outlook was shaped by French ...

Bosanquet, Bernard (1848–1923)

By Nicholson, Peter P.

One of the most prominent and prolific of the British Idealists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Bosanquet ranged across most fields of philosophy, making his ...

Cumberland, Richard (1632–1718)

By Haakonssen, Knud

Richard Cumberland developed his ideas in response to Hobbes’ Leviathan. He introduced concepts of aggregate goodness (later used in utilitarianism), of benevolence (used in moral-sense theory), of moral ...

Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe (1651–1715)

By Riley, Patrick

Fénelon is best-known for his utopian political novel Aventures de Télémaque fils d’Ulysse (Telemachus, Son of Ulysses) (1699), which contrasts the rustic simplicity of Greek antiquity with the ...

Forgiveness and mercy

By Murphy, Jeffrie G.

Forgiveness and mercy are regarded as virtues in many moral and religious traditions, although different traditions will emphasize different aspects. The Christian tradition, for example, tends to emphasize ...

Conservation, aesthetics of

The term ‘conservation’ is used, in roughly the same sense, across a wide range of applications, including nature, the environment, wildlife, ancient buildings, ruins, monuments, paintings, sculptures, and ...

Depiction

Article summary ...

Nation and nationalism

No one observing political events in the world today could deny the continuing potency of nationalism. Many of the most intractable conflicts arise when one national community tries ...

Nation and nationalism

By Miller, David

No one observing political events in the world today could deny the continuing potency of nationalism. Many of the most intractable conflicts arise when one national community tries ...