Apr 07, · Pros and cons of the political system in your country. Political socialization essay. Usually, socialization topics cover various aspects of society and life. These topics can be connected with peoples or particular groups of people regarding the political context. You may try writing a political cartoon essay, too. If you’re a fan Discuss the impact of the digital age on the social, economic and political life of society today. The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age) is a period in human history characterized by the shift from traditional industry that the industrial revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based on information computerization Jul 28, · The conception of the autonomous person plays a variety of roles in various constructions of liberal political theory (for recent discussion, see, e.g., Coburn , Christman and the essays in Christman and Anderson, eds. )
Autonomy in Moral and Political Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Examination of the concept of autonomy also figures centrally in debates over education policy, biomedical ethics, political socialization essays, various legal freedoms and rights such as freedom of speech and the right to privacyas well as moral and political theory more broadly.
In the realm of moral theory, seeing autonomy as a central value can be contrasted with alternative frameworks such an ethic of care, political socialization essays, utilitarianism of some kinds, and an ethic of virtue. Autonomy has traditionally been thought to connote independence and hence to reflect assumptions of individualism in both moral thinking and designations of political status.
For this reason, certain philosophical movements, political socialization essays, such as certain strains of feminism, have resisted seeing autonomy as a value Jaggarpolitical socialization essays, chap. However, in recent decades, theorists have increasingly tried to structure the concept so as to sever its ties to this brand of individualism. In all such discussions the concept of autonomy is the focus of much controversy and debate, disputes which focus attention on the political socialization essays of moral and political philosophy and the Political socialization essays conception of the person more generally.
In the western tradition, the view that individual autonomy is a basic moral and political value is very much a modern development. For historical discussions of autonomy, see SchneewindSwain and Rosich As such, it bears the weight of the controversies that this legacy has attracted, political socialization essays.
The idea that moral principles and obligations, as well as the legitimacy of political authority, should be grounded in the self-governing individual, considered apart from various contingencies of place, culture, and social relations, invites skeptics from several quarters. Autonomy, then, is very much at the vortex of the complex re consideration of modernity. Autonomy in this sense seems an irrefutable value, especially since its opposite — being guided by forces external to the self and which one cannot authentically embrace — seems to mark the height of oppression.
But specifying more precisely the conditions of autonomy inevitably sparks controversy and invites skepticism about the claim that autonomy is an unqualified value for all people. Autonomy plays various roles in theoretical accounts of persons, conceptions of moral obligation and responsibility, the justification of social policies and in numerous aspects of political theory. It forms the core of the Kantian conception of practical reason see, e.
g, KorsgaardHill and, relatedly, connects to questions of moral responsibility see Wolff12— It is also seen as the aspect of persons that prevents or ought to prevent paternalistic interventions in their lives Dworkin— It plays a role in education theory and policy, political socialization essays, on some views specifying the core goal of liberal education generally GutmannCuypers and Haji ; political socialization essays discussion, see Brighouse65— Veltman and Piper Several distinctions must be made to zero in on the kind of autonomy that is of greatest interest to moral and political theory.
Personal or individual autonomy should also be distinguished from freedomalthough again, there are many renderings of these concepts, and certainly some conceptions of positive freedom will be equivalent to what is often meant by autonomy Berlin— Autonomy concerns the independence and authenticity of the desires values, emotions, etc. that move one to act in the first place. Some distinguish autonomy from freedom by insisting that freedom concerns particular acts while autonomy is a more global notion, referring to states of a person Dworkinpolitical socialization essays, 13—15, 19— But autonomy can be used to refer both to the global condition autonomous personhood and as a more local notion autonomous relative to a particular trait, motive, political socialization essays, value, or social condition.
Addicted smokers for political socialization essays are autonomous persons in a general sense but for some helplessly unable to control their behavior regarding this one activity Christman13—14; cf. Meyers66— In addition, we must keep separate the idea of basic autonomy, the minimal status of being responsible, independent and able to speak for oneself, from ideal autonomy, an achievement political socialization essays serves as a goal to which we might aspire and according to which a person is maximally authentic and free of manipulative, self-distorting influences.
Any plausible conceptualization of basic autonomy must, among other things, imply that most adults who are not suffering from debilitating pathologies or are under oppressive and constricting conditions count as autonomous. Autonomy as an ideal, on the other hand, political socialization essays, may well be enjoyed by very few if any individuals, for it functions as a goal to be attained.
The reason to construe basic autonomy broadly enough to include most adults is political socialization essays autonomy connects with other status designators which apply or, it is claimed, should apply in this sweeping manner. Autonomy is connected, for example, to moral and legal responsibility, on some views e. Lacking autonomy, as young children do, political socialization essays a condition which allows or invites sympathy, care, paternalism and possibly pity.
The variety of contexts in which the concept of autonomy functions has suggested to many that there are simply a number of different conceptions, and that the word simply refers to different political socialization essays in each of those contexts Arpaly Others have claimed that while there may be a single over-arching concept of autonomy, we should think in terms of separable dimensions of it rather than an all or nothing idea Mackenzei and Killmister One might argue that central to all of these uses is a conception of the person able to act, reflect, and choose on the basis of political socialization essays that are somehow her own authentic in some sense.
However, the ability to rule oneself will lie at the core of the concept, since a full account of that capability will surely entail the freedom from external manipulation characteristic of independence.
Indeed, it could be claimed that independence per se has no fixed meaning or necessary connection with self-government unless we know what kinds of independence is required for self-rule cf. Focusing, then, on the requirements of self rule, it can be claimed that to govern oneself one must be in a position to act competently based on desires values, political socialization essays, conditions, etc.
This picks out the two families of conditions often proffered in conceptions of autonomy: competency conditions and authenticity conditions.
Competency includes various capacities for rational thought, self-control, and freedom from debilitating pathologies, systematic self-deception, and so on. Different accounts include different conditions: see, political socialization essays, for example, BerofskyR, political socialization essays. YoungHaworthMeyers The most influential models of authenticity in this vein claim that autonomy requires second-order identification with first order desires, political socialization essays.
This overall approach to autonomy has been very influential, and several writers have developed variations of it and defended it against objections. Either one identifies with an aspect of oneself in the sense of simply acknowledging it without judgment or one identifies with a desire in an aspirational, approving sense of that term. But approving of a trait is also problematic as a requirement of autonomy, for there are many perfectly authentic aspects of myself ones for which I can and should be held fully responsible for example which I do not fully approve of.
WatsonBerofsky99— Political socialization essays model stresses internal self-reflection and procedural independence. However, the view includes no stipulations about the content of the desires, values, and so on, in virtue of which one is considered autonomous, specifically there is no requirement that one act from desires independently of others. Some writers have insisted that the autonomous person must enjoy substantive independence as well as procedural independence e.
Meyers This claim, however, threatens to rob the attribution of autonomy of any claim to value neutrality it may otherwise carry, for if, conceptually, one is not autonomous when one freely, rationally, without manipulation chooses political socialization essays enter conditions of severely limited choice, then the concept is reserved to only those lifestyles and value pursuits that are seen as acceptable from a particular political or theoretical point of view.
I will return to this line of thought in a moment. One variation on the internal self-reflection model focuses on the importance of the personal history of the agent as an element of her autonomy ChristmanMele ; cf.
also Raz On these views, the question of whether a person is autonomous at a time depends on the processes by which she came to be the way she is.
This locates autonomy in the general capacity to respond to reasons, and not, for example, in acts of internal self-identification. However, even in these accounts, the capacity to think critically and reflectively is necessary for autonomy political socialization essays one of the competences in question, even though the reflective thought required need not refer to external values or ideals Berofskych.
Further difficulties have been raised with the requirement of second order self-appraisal for autonomy. For it is unclear that such higher level judgments have any greater claim political socialization essays authenticity than their first order cousins. Clearly if a person is manipulated or oppressed and hence non-autonomousit could well be that the reflective judgments she makes about herself are just as tainted by that oppression as are her ground-level decisions ThalbergFriedmanMeyers25—41, Noggleand often our second order reflective political socialization essays are merely rationalizations and acts of self-deception rather than true and settled aspects of our character for general discussion see the essays in Veltman and Piper This has led to the charge that models of autonomy which demand second-order endorsement merely introduce an infinite regress: for second-level judgments must be tested for their authenticity in the same way as first order desires are, but if that is so, then ever higher levels of endorsement would be called for.
Various responses to this problem have been made, for the most part involving the addition of conditions concerning the manner in which such reflection must be made, for example that it must be free of certain distorting factors itself, political socialization essays, it must reflect an adequate causal history, political socialization essays, and the like Christmanpolitical socialization essays, Mele Other aspects of the inner reflection model should be noted.
As just mentioned, political socialization essays, this view of autonomy is often stated as requiring critical self reflection see, e. But an overly narrow concentration on rational assessment exposes such conceptions to charges of hyper political socialization essays, painting a picture of the autonomous person as a cold, detached calculator see Meyers— For parallel reasons, some theorists have noted that concentration on only desires as the focal point of autonomy is overly narrow, as people can fail to exhibit self-government relative to a wide range of political socialization essays characteristics, such as values, physical traits, relations to others, and so on see Double For Kant, political socialization essays, the self-imposition of universal moral law is the ground of both moral obligation generally and the respect others owe to us and we owe ourselves.
In short, practical reason — our ability to use reasons to choose our own actions — presupposes that we understand ourselves as free, political socialization essays. Freedom means lacking barriers to our action that are in any way external to our will, though it also requires that we utilize a law to guide our decisions, a law that can come to us only by an act of our own will for further discussion see Hill ; for doubts about this reading, see Kleingeld and Willaschek This self-imposition of the moral law is autonomy.
And since this law must have no content provided by sense or desire, or any other contingent aspect of our situation, it must be universal. Hence we have the first formulation of the Categorical Imperative, that by virtue of our being autonomous we must act only on those maxims that we can consistently will as a universal law. The story continues, however: for the claim is that this capacity to impose upon ourselves the moral law is the ultimate source of all moral value — for to value anything instrumentally or intrinsically implies the ability to make value judgments generally, the most fundamental of which is the determination of what is morally valuable.
Some theorists who are not self-described Kantians have made this inference central to their views of autonomy.
Paul Benson, for example, has argued that being autonomous implies a political socialization essays of self-worth in that we must be in a position to trust our decision-making capacities to put ourselves in a position of responsibility Benson ; cf. also Grovierpolitical socialization essays, Lehrerand Westlund But the Kantian position is that such self-regard is not a contingent psychological fact about us, but an unavoidable implication of the exercise of practical reason cf.
Taylor So we owe to ourselves moral respect in virtue of our autonomy. But insofar as this capacity depends in no way on anything particular or contingent about ourselves, we owe similar respect to all other persons in virtue of their capacity.
Hence via the second formulation political socialization essays the Categorical Imperativewe are obliged to act out of fundamental respect for other persons in virtue of their autonomy. In this way, autonomy serves as both a model of practical reason in the determination of moral obligation and as the feature of other persons deserving moral respect from us.
For further discussion, see Immanual Kant and moral philosophy. Recent discussions of Kantian autonomy have downplayed the transcendental nature of practical reason in this account see, for example, Herman and Hill For example, Christine Korsgaard follows Kant in seeing our capacity for self-reflection as both the object of respect and the seat of normativity generally. But unlike Kant, Korsgaard argues that we have different practical identities that are the source of our normative commitments, political socialization essays not political socialization essays of them are of fundamental moral worth.
But the most general of political socialization essays identities — that which makes us political socialization essays of a kingdom of ends — is our moral identity, which yields universal duties and obligations independent of contingent factors.
Autonomy is the source of all obligations, whether moral or non-moral, since it is the capacity to impose upon ourselves, by virtue of our practical identities, obligations to act Korsgaard I mention two here, political socialization essays, as they connect with issues concerning autonomy in social and political theory. The first concerns the way in which autonomy-based moral theory grounds obligation in our cognitive abilities rather than in our emotions and affective connections see, e.
The claim is that Kantian morality leaves too little room for the kinds of emotional reactions that are constitutive of moral response in many situations: the obligations of parents for example concern not only what political socialization essays do but the passions and care they bring forth in doing it. To view obligation as arising from autonomy but understanding autonomy in a purely cognitive manner makes such an account vulnerable to this kind of charge.
The Kantian model of such a self is of a pure cognizer — a reflective agent engaged in practical reason. But also involved in decision-making are our passions — emotions, desires, felt commitments, senses of attraction and aversion, political socialization essays, alienation and comfort. These are both the objects of our judgement and partly constitutive of them — to passionately embrace an option is different from cooly determining it to be best.
Judgment is involved with all such passions when decisions are made. And political socialization essays judgment need not be understood apart from them, but as an ability to political socialization essays in those actions whose passionate and reasoned support we muster up, political socialization essays.
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Political Culture of Pakistan, political developments and the Role of civil and military Bureaucracy, Judiciary, feudalism, Dynastic Politics, Political Parties and Interest Groups, elections and Voting Behavior, Religion and Politics, Ethnicity and National Integration Jul 28, · The conception of the autonomous person plays a variety of roles in various constructions of liberal political theory (for recent discussion, see, e.g., Coburn , Christman and the essays in Christman and Anderson, eds. ) Discuss the impact of the digital age on the social, economic and political life of societies today Modernism is a philosophical movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
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