Questions tagged [social-critique]

23 questions
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Are the unexamined lives of others worth examining?

Socrates continually admonished his interlocutors to become more introspective, arguing passionately for self-examination: The unexamined life is not worth living. But an examined life is painful, and necessitates an involvement with real…
Joseph Weissman
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If the "right to life" is denied in abortion, isn't it also denied in the use of the death penalty?

Many people who support death penalty are also against abortion, and vice-versa. What is the moral difference between the two? In both cases, isn't the "right to life" of another being violated? What are the major ethical or philosophical positions…
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Is social status a real thing?

Is social status a real thing? Why is it real? Particularly, since some people may claim a status system of a different kind, but then again some may (through argumentation) recognize same status systems, then can social status systems be held as…
mavavilj
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Is there something "morally weird" about social media sites with downvote functions?

I was thinking of the democracy-theoretic reason for the function here or on Reddit (the main examples I can think of at the moment), but then I remembered: When we vote for political officers, we tally upvotes only; it's not like the US president,…
Kristian Berry
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Why do we naturally regard the unfamiliar as ridiculous?

(Since there is no Psychology.SE, Ph.SE seemed like the best place to ask this question.) I have noticed that when a person is presented with an unfamiliar idea, the default reaction is often to regard it as ridiculous. Why is that? Random example…
Jas 3.1
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What is the relationship between the rhizome and the body without organs?

I am in the middle of A Thousand Plateaus and considering the relationship between rhizome and body without organs. One thought I had is that they both take part in the constitution of relationships between ideas, society, groups; but neither are…
4
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What topics of philosophy should I study to understand the dialectics of societies?

I am new to this site, it will be really helpful if you can help me with tags. I live in an area which is a socially, morally and intellectually very backward part of the world, although materially it is average. I am interested in Philosophy and…
Ben
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What are the philosophical roots of the current American parenting style?

A light hearted question: As a parent of two young children, I struggle with the current mainstream American parenting and educational style which is typically parodied (rightfully so) as the "Everyone gets a medal" approach to child rearing. Some…
Alexander S King
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Would it be immoral to duplicate food to resolve world hunger, if food and recipes were copyrighted?

In today's world, copyrighted digital content is considered illegal by most nation's law, and immoral by some as stealing. Digital Content is duplicated through millions of 1's and 0's. There is no loss in cost when someone duplicates Digital goods.…
3
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Is there a fundamental difference between hypothetical explanations in sociology and natural sciences?

According to Explanandum and Explanans on Wikipedia: An explanandum (a Latin term) is a sentence describing a phenomenon that is to be explained, and the explanans are the sentences adduced as explanations of that phenomenon. It seems to me…
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US and Europe social differences based on philosophical views

(English is not my native language so I probably won't be able correctly to express the question... please bear with me). From time to time, I've heard or read that some of the social differences one can see between Western Europe and the USA can…
user180940
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Should we place our own good before our nation's good?

I'm currently writing a screenplay, and one of the philosophical themes arises out of a very specific conflict, with I call: INDIVIDUAL BENEFIT vs STATE BENEFIT. One of the characters sacrifices everything for the good of the state. You can think…
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What is the relationship between conceptual engineering and social change?

I am currently doing research on the relationship between projects in conceptual engineering and actual, realized, social change. Of primary interest to me is how, for instance, Haslanger's revisionary accounts of race and gender may help in…
Mr. Zed
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Name of French Social Scientist and Theory where life has five domains

I read of a french social scientist who believed life could be separated into five spheres, in which so many "points" (so much time) could be spent into each. From what I vaguely remember, the categories were government, social life, hobbies,…
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How to be a good critic?

How can we be a good critic when facing people's rigid beliefs? I'm interested in how to attack (logically) their dogmatic beliefs to have a "good" influence on their minds, because if we just attack them, maybe they won't continue to listen to our…
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