← Philosophy syllabus

SAPhilosophy

Political Philosophy

4 dot points across 4 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How should the benefits and burdens of social cooperation be distributed across a society?

Compare Rawls's justice as fairness with Nozick's entitlement theory and evaluate patterned versus historical principles of distribution
Distributive justice asks how goods should be shared. Rawls argues from a hypothetical original position to principles favouring the worst off, while Nozick defends a historical entitlement theory that treats redistribution as a violation of rights.
6 min answer →

What makes political authority legitimate and a society just?

Evaluate social contract theories and competing conceptions of distributive justice
Political philosophy asks what justifies state authority and what a just distribution looks like. Social contract theorists from Hobbes to Rawls give rival accounts, challenged by Nozick's entitlement theory and communitarian critiques.
6 min answer →

What is the proper limit of the power society may legitimately exercise over the individual?

Explain Mill's harm principle and the distinction between negative and positive liberty and evaluate limits on individual freedom
Mill's harm principle holds that the only legitimate ground for restricting a person's liberty is to prevent harm to others. Berlin's distinction between negative and positive liberty deepens the debate about what freedom really requires.
6 min answer →

What gives the state the right to rule, and do citizens have a genuine moral duty to obey the law?

Evaluate theories of political legitimacy and political obligation including consent, fairness and the challenge of philosophical anarchism
Political authority is the state's claimed right to rule and the citizen's supposed duty to obey. Theories ground this in consent, fairness or natural duty, while philosophical anarchists argue no such general duty can be justified.
6 min answer →