display all the ideas for this combination of philosophers
4 ideas
20288 | You can't condemn violent revolution without assessing the evils it prevents [Singer] |
Full Idea: It would be one-sided to say that violent revolution is always absolutely wrong, without taking account of the evils that the revolutionaries are trying to stop. | |
From: Peter Singer (Practical Ethics [1979], 09) | |
A reaction: This seems like common sense, but there are plenty of right-wing authoritarians who would claim that stable authority has priority over all social wrongs. I think that view is mistaken. But the problem is, how to know the future? |
21997 | In Marxism the state will be superseded [Singer] |
Full Idea: It is a famous Marxist doctrine that the state will be superseded. | |
From: Peter Singer (Marx [1980], 9) | |
A reaction: Why is that final state communism rather than anarchism? |
20287 | If 49% of the population can be wrong, so can 51% [Singer] |
Full Idea: The case for majority rule should not be overstated. No sensible democrat would claim that the majority is always right. If 49% of the population can be wrong, so can 51%. | |
From: Peter Singer (Practical Ethics [1979], 09) | |
A reaction: Well said! We can't possibly put a figure on when the majority become right. In the recent Brexit referendum hardly anyone seemed to understand the issues very well, so none of us have a clue about who was right. |
21993 | Materialist history says we are subject to incomprehensible forces [Singer] |
Full Idea: The materialist conception of history tells us that human beings are totally subject to forces they do not understand and control. | |
From: Peter Singer (Marx [1980], 6) | |
A reaction: How does Marx know the forces? An exceptionally influential idea, because it is a modern commonplace that we have very little control over our own lives (apart from right wingers asserting that 'you can have anything if you really really want it'). |