Lecture : ETHICS and POLITICS

Content

Politics

•Politics is rarely identified with citizenship.

•Politics is derived from the Greek word polis or city-state which means a political
community whose membership is restricted mainly to its citizens.

•Aristotle described human beings as political animals.

•He meant that every human being is always born into a community that requires
interaction with fellow human agents to achieve personal fulfillment.

•No human can afford to live on his or her own.

•He also said that only beasts or gods are capable of a solitary life, and humans are
neither beasts nor gods.

Ethics and Politics

•The means to achieve and sustain the cooperation is the main task of politics.

•A well-lived life is a life fulfillment. Each fulfillment, is an outcome not of

individual efforts but of cooperative activities with other human persons.

•Attaining happiness is a group effort and is never a private enterprise.

•Being political is not simply engaging in government work or assuming public office.
It is connecting with others in pursuit of solidarity, an indispensable ingredient of
one’s humanity.

•Solidarity connotes inclusion, participation, and recognition.

•Inclusion takes place when there is room for everyone regardless of religion, cultural
background, socio-economic status, or educational and professional attainment.

•The opposite of solidarity is discrimination or disqualification of an individual from

exercising his or her rights for failing to meet some imposed criteria.
•Participation is the consequence of inclusion. This is the driving force behind social
entrepreneurship- the formula used by poverty-alleviation initiatives, such as Gawad
Kalinga, which empower people. These initiatives help by transforming individuals
from passive recipients of charity to active participants of the enterprise.

•Gawad Kalinga is an advocacy organization initially established to offer socialized

housing programs for depressed communities.

•While the government plays a significant role in politics, it is, however, wrong to
think that all political tasks belong to the government alone.

•A political system in which politics is monopolized by the government is called

dictatorial or tyrannical, similar to communist North Korea and the Philippines
during the one-man rule of Ferdinand Marcos.

•Aristocracy is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small,

privileged ruling class.