In this episode I concentrate on the notion of social or distributive justice. That is the question of how the social benefits and burdens are to be distributed amongst citizens in a given society. It is one of the fundamental principles which every society must address. The question already occupied the Greeks but I will focus on some modern views. These views attribute to the State various degrees of involvement in the settlement of social justice. I will discuss Nozick's minimal account, John Rawls's account of justice as fairness, Amartya Sen's capability approach and finally egalitarian, in particular, Marxist views of social justice.

Literature:

- R. Nozick, Anarchy, State & Utopia (1974) defends a minimal involvement of the state.

-J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice (1971) introduces the idea that justice is fairness, which is based on two fundamental principles.

-A. Sen, The Idea of Justice (2009) provides some fair criticism of Rawls and introduces an alternative approach

-M. Walzer, Spheres of Justice (1983)

In this episode I discuss freedom in a political sense, especially republican freedom. This notion was already discussed in antiquity: I begin with a quote from Cicero. But the focus is on republican freedom from the Age of Enlightenment to the present day. I look at the compatibility or incompatibility of republicanism with monarchy and distinguish republican freedom from more liberal views of freedom. I conclude with the question of civil disobedience with reference to the surprisingly modern views of

Literature:

The classic text on Republicanism is Thomas Paine: The Rights of Man (1791/2012).

Modern defences of republicanism are: Philip Petit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government (1997); F. Lovett, A General Theory of Domination and Justice (2010).

In this episode I address the question of the nature of power. A philosophical enquiry demands answers to a number of questions: How should power be characterised? Who possesses power? And under what circumstances can they resist power?

The question can be addressed from various perspectives. I discuss Nietzsche's 'will to power', Foucault's micro-conception of power and Weber's sociological account of power. A consideration of power includes an answer to the question why people tend to comply with power.

Literature:

Steven Lukes, Power (2005).

In this Episode, I define Political Philosophy as an 'investigation into the nature, causes and effects of good and bad government.' I explain what this means and argue that we need Political Philosophy because it constructs conceptual models of fundamental notions - democracy, fairness, freedom, justice - which influence the laws, rules and regulations in society. I characterise conceptual models of networks of interconnected ideas and concepts. Examples follow in the next few episodes on power, freedom, social justice, open and closed societies.

Literature:

I found the following books to be good, helpful introductions to political philosophy:

- Alan Haworth, Understanding the Political Philosophers: From Ancient to Modern Times (2003

- David Miller, Political Philosophy. A Very Short Introduction (2003)

- Jonathan Wolff, An Introduction to Political Philosophy (2022)

With books, it is often a question of taste, i.e. whether you like the style of the author.

In these podcasts I will concentrate on some topical issues in Political Philosophy, and later in the History and Philosophy of Science. Broadly speaking, Political Philosophy is a social science. So there is a natural transition from issues in Political Philosophy to topics in the Philosophy of Science.

The Introduction explains my approach to philosophy. It focuses on philosophical problems - I give some typical examples - and attempts to solve them, rather than on the ideas of the 'great thinkers'. In fact, I follow Karl Popper who described this approach as 'situational logic'. It is an assessment of respective problem situations: an analysis of the problems and attempts to solve them. (You can learn more about this approach from my intellectual biography of Karl Popper - Professional Philosopher and Public Intellectual. Springer 2022)

Episode 1 addresses three questions: What is Political Philosophy (in contrast to Political Science)? Why do we need Political Philosophy and which purpose do its findings serve.

In the following episodes I first turn to some other problems in Political Philosophy, as the description of each episode shows.

In later episodes, I will turn to some selected problems in the Philosophy of Science, and then alternate between Political Philosophy and Philosophy of Science.

Literature: Generally, you will find articles on all the topics I discuss on either the scholarly Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy or the more accessible Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.