POL101Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Teleology, For Marx, Social Fact
Document Summary
Teleology the philosophical study of design and purpose. A view of history that perceives it as building towards something and culminating a result. For marx, communism was the final stage of historical process. Democracy is the highest point of human political organization; the endpoint of history. Democracy is good, widespread, here to stay. Kaplan"s argument (was democracy just a moment) reading analysis. Democracies are value neutral they are a set of institutions that translate the will of the majority into political policy. People are just as posed to elect a bad as they are good (hitler and mussolini) There is no mechanism in democracy itself that repels a bad outcome . Kaplan works with a minimal definition of democracy, the least you can get away with and still call it a democracy, a thin definition, nothing but election for him . A majority of the population has a right to vote. Able to express a real preference at the polls.
