1. The Role of Government Hobbes
Justice only exists though government
Life without government is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”
Thoreau: “That government is best which governs least”

2. Political Philosophies
Justification of government
The nature of justice
The individual versus the state
Civil disobedience

3. Anarchism Naive anarchism: people can live in peace without government
Militant anarchism: government is unjustified and must be overthrown
Theoretical anarchism: government has no legitimate authority, but may be necessary

4. Robert Paul Wolff's In Defense of Anarchism
Authority means the right to command and to be obeyed
An autonomous person makes moral decisions and lives by them
An autonomous person cannot recognize an outside authority, such as the state

5. Social Contract Theory
Hobbes’ Leviathan
Human nature is warlike
Peace is achieved by forming contracts
Locke’s An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government
Some rights are inalienable
Governments exist to protect our rights

6. The Question of Justice
Retributive justice: the proper allotment of punishment proportionate to the severity of a crime
Distributive justice: the proper distribution of benefits and burdens

7. Justice as Merit
Justice means people get what they are due according to their merit
Plato
Meritocracy: political power is proportional to merit
Democracy is equivalent to mob rule
Intellectual elite should rule society
The Republic

8. Justice as Conformity to Natural Law
Natural law transcends human conventions
All morally aware people can recognize natural law
Aquinas’ Summa Theologica

9. Justice as Social Utility: John Stuart Mill
Principle of utility: a just society will minimize social harms and maximize social benefits
Utilitarianism
People maintain many conflicting theories of justice
Utility should be the deciding factor

10. Justice as Fairness: John Rawls
People possessing merit are just lucky and should not be rewarded
Criticism of utilitarianism: majority should not win at expense of minority
Justice is accepted only if it is seen as fair

11. Rawls’ A Theory of Justice
Original Position: what if we could create our own society?
Veil of ignorance: no one would know one’s social position in advance
Principles of justice
Equal liberty
Fair equality of opportunity

12. A Feminist Critique of Rawls
Susan Moller Okin
Justice, Gender, and the Family
Rawls fails to address gender inequality
What if those on the original position don’t know what sex they will be?

13. The Individual and the State
Extreme positions
Anarchism
Absolute totalitarianism
Moderate positions
Individualism
Collectivism

14. Classical Liberalism Freedom of the individual
John Stuart Mill: On Liberty
Power is only justifiable when used to prevent harm to others
People must be free to seek happiness by their own methods

15. Marxism Economics is the root of human existence
Class struggle is constant through history
Capitalism exploits the workers
History is a dialectical process
Capitalism will undermine itself and lead to communism

16. Marx’s Communist Manifesto
Society is based on the struggle of bourgeoisie and proletariat
Calls for abolition of private property
Philosophies are shaped by material existence
Proletariat must wrest all capital from the bourgeoisie

17. Civil Disobedience
An illegal action performed for the purpose of making a moral protest
Must be public
Protesters generally should be willing to accept consequences
Generally nonviolent

18. The Case against Civil Disobedience
A violation of the social contract
Majority rule
Ends that do not justify the means
Other alternatives

19. Plato's Crito Disobeying the law is exchanging evil for evil
A state cannot exist if the laws have no power
By living in a place we agree to abide by its laws

20. The Case for Civil Disobedience
Preservation of moral integrity
The duty to combat immorality
A means of social progress
No practical alternative
Government may exceed its authority

21. Mohandas K. Gandhi Opposed discriminatory laws
Helped end British governance of India
Nonviolent resistance - satyagraha

22. Gandhi’s Young India
If a leader is unjust, the subjects have a duty to disobey
Imprisonment is better than freedom won through acceptance of injustice
Civil Disobedience must never descend into general lawlessness

23. Martin Luther King Jr.
Helped overturn segregation laws and pass the Civil Rights Act
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Direct action is used to force negotiation
An unjust law violates the moral law or law of God