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Political philosophy summary notes
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Summary of 31 pages for the course political philopsophy at UCT (Summarised notes)
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Topic 1: Nation State - Do We Need It?A World State
Nielsen
Argument
● to safeguard human rights & equality
● federal & democratic "cantonal" system
● Mutually beneficial cooperation
● less oppressive than current nation-state system
Counter
● logic of the Enlightenment
● utopian?
● consequentialist argument.
● deontological argument.
● Destructive dilemma
Defence
● People can come to accept world govt voluntarily & in democratic manner
Culture is Important
● Desire to retain nation state not ethnocentric chauvinism - reductive
● Value in doing things differently
● Pictures culture as an aesthetic good - reductive
● Character of state seems western - examples of Yugoslavia, Italy, Germany
● Disdaining partial attachments as sources of moral insight makes cosmopolitanism self defeating as it
ignores its own partial influences & human nature and therefore leads to the very parochialism it decries
● Even if possible seems would violate key Rs - to cultural diversity
Assuming world gov desirable - is it possible?
● Examples of 3 mentioned countries - Yugoslavia’s collapse is telling
● Problem of scale
● What about policy?
● Equality on global level?
● Redistribution globally?
, ● Freedom of movement - opportunities & fairness v straining commitments & infringe rights
● N responds - most people wont emigrate unless desperate - crisis of emigration to europe?
Patriotism to world state
● Need patriotism to be a virtue if redistribution accepted in world state
● Can patriotism transfer to global level?
● Requires thick connection between state & culture
● Dilemma: either so disintegrates would be no loyalty & cause conflict/war OR state would have to impose
mandatory patriotism
Value of state
● N says of instruments value & anarchy preferable - excludes patriotism as virtue?
Might as well choose a world state
● Even if oppressive (civil war or authoritarian) we would still be better off - nuclear threat would be less -
But nuclear threat decreased
● N’s gamble: might as well choose a world state
Might as well choose nation state
Main: Hazony
● World state or federation likely to devolve into an imperial order
● Political authority centralised & in hands of culturally distinct group
● Forced union inevitable in absence of utopian conditions (sufficiently shared political culture)
● Due to scale = cant reproduce gains of transition to nation state & undermines self-determination
● Nation state is positively better not just not worse - fosters competition = innovation & prosperity
● On consequentialist & deontological grounds nationalism is virtuous
● If world state too risky must we stick with status quo with its manifest faults?
Remaining attraction of world state
● The motivation to safeguard & promote equality & HRs.
Kantian alternative
Main: Kant
● Pacific federation / federation of peoples
● Independent nation states under international cosmopolitan constitution
● Not world state of dependent cantons
, ● Argues nations would choose this as would see ‘cosmopolitan right’ is own self-interest - would avoid
general warlike conditions currently at international level
● But again, coercive order & policing dissent - some nations likely will avoid agreements in own interests
● If kant wrong = best we can do is achieve order of nation states who make voluntary agreements but enter
neither world state nor kantian federation as both of these collapse into imperial order & therefore worse
than the status quo
● Wisdom of second best: if humans had very different psychology & cultural histories they could achieve
better but they don’t so we should accept status quo - counsel of imperfection
Cosmopolitanism
● Accepts motivation for world state but rejects it as utopian & possibly dangerous
● Proposes global justice be sought within system of nation states - westphalia system
● Reform system but not overturn or replace
● Two different strands: C about justice v Culture
● C about justice: opposes any view that restricts an adequate conception of justice ; opposed to liberal
theories
● C about culture: opposed to idea that individuals wellbeing depends on membership to cultural group
● Though the differ in content - root idea that we are citizens of world and owe allegiance to humanity
● For justice = norms of justice apply to all
● For culture = individuals can flourish by forging identities from outside cultural sources
● Moral C: fully inclusive non-perspectival impartial and universal approach to distributive justice & gives
all individuals interests equal weight
● Institutional C: advocates for restructuring of global system to bring states under supranational institutions
to fulfil cosmopolitan distribution obligations.
Basic tension
(1) strong intuition everyone matters equally; Call this equal value hypothesis - each person deserves to be treated
with equal concern & respect
(2) nation state system inhibits equal value in several ways
Moderate Cosmopolitanism
● Some preferences for ones own compatriots is justifiable, though within certain limits set by needs of
non-compatriots
● This national preference affirms special responsibilities towards co-nations
● Not dependent on global good - even if it prevents global good, we don't have duty to.
, Extreme Cosmopolitanism
● If each person matters equally then we have no justification for privileging well-being of compatriots
● Such privileging is morally arbitrary & akin to racism
● Nussbaum's Dilemma: must affirm extreme or conationals matter more.
● But according to equal vale hypothesis second horn of dilemma false
What about moderate Cosmopolitanism?
● If we accept extreme we must deny moderate
● Moderate cosmo sounds like common sense - seems an incompatibility between common sense & where
the argument leads us
● So discard common sense? (1) though friendship seen as human good doesn't mean it cant conflict ith
right. (2) less resonant relations with co-nationals than friends.
● So both right & less personally costly not to privilege co-nationals
Moderate Cosmo counter
● Don't have to accept Nussbaum's dilemma or discard common sense
● 2 Main arguments: conceptual & substantive
● Necessary & jointly sufficient
Conceptual
● Unpacks logical features of non instrumental relations
● Godwin - no magic in word my - fact that something is mine doesn't make it more valuable
● Applies to first person plural ‘our’
● Objection = If relation to X is non-instrumental then it entails special duties
● Therefore same applies to co-nationals
● Rests on logic of non-instrumental relations as entailing special responsibilities
● Deflationary argument against conceptual argument
- What if relations to co-nationals are instrumental or friend/co-national comparison is illegitimate
as not nearly as intimate
- Comparison exaggerated?
● Inflationary argument against conceptual argument
- Conceptual argument sound but underestimates its scope
- Not only citizens but people beyond borders in purely non-instrumental relations with us
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