Social and Political Philosophy: State, Justice and Freedom
Social and Political Philosophy studies the state, justice and freedom. The exam tests theories of political obligation, distributive justice and liberty, with Indian and Western examples.
Core rules and concepts
- Social contract theory: Hobbes grounds authority in security, Locke in consent and natural rights, Rousseau in the general will.
- Justice: distributive (who gets what), retributive (punishment), restorative. Rawls proposes justice as fairness, using the veil of ignorance and two principles.
- Freedom: negative liberty is non-interference; positive liberty is self-mastery or collective self-rule. Mill's harm principle limits interference.
- Indian ideas: dharma as social duty, rajaniti (statecraft), swaraj (self-rule), Gandhi's swadeshi and non-violence, Ambedkar's constitutionalism and critique of caste.
Worked example
A lockdown restricts movement. Negative liberty is limited. A public-health justification appeals to harm to others and to Rawlsian fairness: rules chosen behind a veil would protect the vulnerable. The reasoning must weigh liberty against harm, not merely assert 'freedom is absolute'.
Traps
Do not equate freedom with licence. Do not reduce justice to equality; need, merit and desert also matter. Do not treat the social contract as literal history. Do not ignore caste and gender in Indian political thought.