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Estrangement and Unity

Estrangement and Unity. Are Human Beings Estranged in Essence?. Is it possible to reconcile racial differences? Harmony and integration or uneasiness and suspicion? Individuality versus community Hobbes – psychological individualism – ontological separation as part of materialist philosophy

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Estrangement and Unity

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  1. Estrangement and Unity

  2. Are Human Beings Estranged in Essence? • Is it possible to reconcile racial differences? Harmony and integration or uneasiness and suspicion? • Individuality versus community • Hobbes – psychological individualism – ontological separation as part of materialist philosophy • Aristotle – man is a political animal and only a beast or a god can live outside the bounds of society

  3. If human beings are not estranged in essence, why are there so many divisions and conflicts among them? • St Augustine – Original Sin – human will – unbridgeable state without Grace - Conservative • Rousseau – Institutions of property and centralized power – humans can overcome this estrangement - Radical

  4. Can Estrangement Be Overcome through Reason? • “Come, let us reason together” – the motto of the West • Can reason subordinate the superior? – Callicles and Thrasymachus • Reason as the basis of community – Plato – the Stoics • Edmund Burke – Customs, prejudice and traditions are superior to reason – estrangement is overcome through adherence to ancient customs, traditions, and institutions

  5. Can Estrangement Be Overcome through Reason? • Moral absolutism versus moral relativism • Uniformity versus organic unity • Radicalism versus conservatism • Feminism embraces intuition above rationality – the specific versus the universal

  6. Is Religion in Some Form Needed for Overcoming Estrangement? • The power of humanism and the rejection of religion • Unity among human beings depends upon unity with the divine – Classical and Christian philosophy • Platonic-Stoic bridge with the divine relies on human initiative • Christianity – seeks God’s action to bridge a gap unbridgeable by human efforts

  7. Is Religion in Some Form Needed for Overcoming Estrangement? • Fyodor Dostoevsky contrasts man-god and God-man • The man-god will not be compassionate but will be perverse and destructive • The God-man/Christ – Divine companionship saves us from this dark abyss – rejection of Christ sends us to our doom

  8. Should All People’s Be United in a Single Global Society? • Small Is Beautiful – Athens – Rousseau • Universal Empire – Romans – Christians – Mongols • Nation- State – Modern Solution – GWF Hegel

  9. Should All Class Distinctions Be Abolished? • Radical – Marx • Conservative – Burke • Liberal – Roosevelt and Kennedy

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