Needs and interests

By Weale, Albert

To have an interest in something is to have a stake in how that thing goes. Needs can be thought of as interests instrumental to a specified purpose, ...

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 ...

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. ...

Sustainability

By Holland, Alan

Sustainability is a property of any activity, practice, process or institution that has the capacity to be continued in more or less the same way indefinitely. The concept ...

Moral standing

By Kuflik, Arthur

Towards whom is it appropriate to direct fundamental moral consideration? This is the question of moral standing. Many different answers have been offered: all and only those creatures ...

Democracy

Democracy means rule by the people, as contrasted with rule by a special person or group. It is a system of decision making in which everyone who belongs ...

Democracy

By Harrison, Ross

Democracy means rule by the people, as contrasted with rule by a special person or group. It is a system of decision making in which everyone who belongs ...

Edwards, Jonathan (1703–58)

By Wainwright, William J.

Jonathan Edwards’ work as a whole is an elaboration of two themes – God’s absolute sovereignty and the beauty of his holiness. God’s sovereignty is articulated in several ...

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 ...

Desert and merit

By Miller, David

The ideas of desert and merit are fundamental to the way we normally think about our personal relationships and our social institutions. We believe that people who perform ...

Genetic modification

By Newson, Ainsley J.; Wrigley, Anthony

Genetic modification in humans, non-human animals, and plants gives rise to a range of philosophical and ethical issues. There are a range of techniques and applications for genetic ...

Nāgārjuna (c. AD 150–200)

By Siderits, Mark

Nāgārjuna was the first Buddhist philosopher to articulate and seek to defend the claim that all things are empty, that is, devoid of their own essential nature. A ...

Power

By Green, Leslie

The general notion of power involves the capacity to produce or prevent change. In social and political philosophy, narrower conceptions of power specify the nature of these changes. ...

Applied ethics

By Almond, Brenda

Applied ethics is marked out from ethics in general by its special focus on issues of practical concern. It therefore includes medical ethics, environmental ethics, and evaluation of ...

Applied ethics

Applied ethics is marked out from ethics in general by its special focus on issues of practical concern. It is concerned with ethical issues in various fields of ...

Cavell, Stanley (1926–)

By Mulhall, Stephen

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Stanley Cavell has held the Walter M. Cabot Chair in Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University since 1963. The range, ...

Cavell, Stanley (1926–)

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Stanley Cavell held the Walter M. Cabot Chair in Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University from 1963 until his retirement ...

Ethics and Literature

By Mulhall, Stephen

Moral philosophers typically assume that literary texts have no significance for ethical reflection beyond providing one possible source of examples of moral problems. This is in line with ...

Political philosophy

By Miller, David

Political philosophy can be defined as philosophical reflection on how best to arrange our collective life - our political institutions and our social practices, such as our economic ...

Pragmatism

By Rorty, Richard

Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition founded by three American philosophers: Charles Sanders Peirce, William James and John Dewey. Starting from Alexander Bain’s definition of belief as a rule ...

Welfare

By Weale, Albert

Notions of welfare occur widely in political philosophy and political argument. For example, utilitarianism is a social ethic that may be interpreted as giving a pre-eminent place to ...

Reproduction and ethics

By Mertes, Heidi

The ethics of reproduction is concerned with outlining and critically analysing the moral pitfalls and opportunities surrounding reproductive decision-making by prospective parents, health care professionals and policy makers. ...

Human nature

By Shapiro, Ian

Every political philosophy takes for granted a view of human nature, and every view of human nature is controversial. Political philosophers have responded to this conundrum in a ...

Inviolability

By Kamm, Frances

Inviolability is a status an entity has when it is impermissible to harm it in certain respects. Inviolability can come in degrees and vary with the characteristics of ...

Green political philosophy

All the major political philosophies have been born of crisis. Green political philosophy is no exception to this general rule. It has emerged from that interconnected series of ...