ፍትህ ለሁሉም / Justice for All
The social contract was introduced by early modern thinkers—Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, Samuel Pufendorf, and John Locke the most well-known among them—as an account of two things: the historical origins of sovereign power and the moral origins of the principles that make sovereign power just and/or legitimate. It is often associated with the liberal tradition …
Sudan today has become the exemplary case of how the developed West contributes to the conditions for violent conflict and mass migration in resource-rich parts of the world. Beneath the façade of “primitive” ethnic passions exploding in the African “heart of darkness,” one can discern the unmistakable contours of global capitalism. LJUBLJANA – When one …
Hugo Grotius was a Dutch humanist and jurist whose philosophy of natural law had a major impact on the development of seventeenth century political thought and on the moral theories of the Enlightenment. Valorized by contemporary international theorists as the father of international law, his work on sovereignty, international rights of commerce and the norms …
Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) [Hugo, Huigh or Hugeianus de Groot] was a towering figure in philosophy, political theory, law and associated fields during the seventeenth century and for hundreds of years afterwards. His work ranged over a wide array of topics, though he is best known to philosophers today for his contributions to the natural law …
The main idea of the social contract tradition is that consent or agreement can justify basic social and political institutions: just societies are based on the consent of the governed, unjust societies are not. It is already known that the tradition of social contract has many forms, especially in the political philosophy of early modern …
Abstract: Protagoras’ Grand Speech is traditionally considered to articulate a contractualist approach to political existence and morality. There is, however, a newly emerging line of interpretation among scholars, which explores a naturalist layer in Protagoras’ ethical and political thought. This article aims to make a contribution to this new way of reading Protagoras’ speech, by …
Introductory yet important presentation on philosophy. Tamar is head of the philosophy department at MIT. Watch the Video
Can a war be won while a deeply buried root of hatred remains? The ongoing conflict surrounding Israel provides us with a case study. Can a war be won while a deeply buried root of hatred remains? The ongoing conflict surrounding Israel provides us with a case study. While it is possible to achieve a …
The founders’ durable compromise is still full of insight about political and human motives. Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a new book, American Federalism Today: Perspectives on Political and Economic Governance, edited by Michael J. Boskin and available from the Hoover Institution Press. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 eventually emerged …
In under a decade, violence has become a shockingly regular feature of American political life. In 2017, a left-wing extremist shot and nearly killed Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and four other people. In 2021, a mass of right-wing insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to stop the Democratic president-elect, Joe Biden, from …