Why?

Children sometimes irritate adults by asking "why?" to something which seems obvious.

One such "obvious" assertion is the basis of the policies of most political parties, which is fairness and  equality, but why? One answer is in Mary's Magnificat in yesterday's Gospel:

"He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty."

But such sentiments are not always so obvious. For example, the Australian Peter Singer, a professor at Stanford University, maintains that rights of all species come from self awareness, so a disabled human could have less rights than a healthy animal. He proposes a cooling off period after birth, so if a homo sapiens is not sapiens enough, it can be disposed of.

Recently I have been reading a book called "Europe since 1815, vol 2 Imperialism and Militarism", with the intention of learning about the origins of World War I. However, it turned out that this volume discusses many things, such as science, medicine and the philosophical debates of the time.

It struck me that this last item about philosophy echoes down to political ideas of our time, even if most people have forgotten where they came from. Somewhere, some people must still study these debates, but I think they mostly lie under the dust of unread books.

I am still trying to work out how they apply to today's politics, but for the moment I just wanted to list some of the ideas:

(1) Romanticism:
Immanuel Kant: knowledge only comes through the senses. However, moral law exists, so there must be a god who is the origin of this law.

Hegel: history is a progress towards freedom, but freedom for the state, not the individual. The process is described by Hegelian dialectic: thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

(2) Utilitarianism:
Jeremy Bentham: "the greatest happiness for the greatest number". Good laws are those that add to the sum total of human happiness.
Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill

(3) Positivism:
Auguste Comte: the methods of science are the only path to knowledge. Invented the "science of society", sociology.

(4) Humanitarianism:
Herbert Spencer: "evolutionary materialism" Society is an organism. He coined the phrase "survival of the fittest" and applied this to the evolution of societies. Existing social institutions must not slow down the evolution to the perfect man e.g., they should not alleviate the suffering of inferior men.
God is not knowable as a positive fact.

(5) Scientific Socialism:
Karl Marx: borrowed and adapted Hegels method to "dialectical materialism". Materialistic study of history based on the methods of production and the way property is held. Change is brought about by class warfare, the bottom against the top.

(6) Philosophical Pessimism:
Arthur Schopenhauer: will dominates motivation. But it results in unquenchable thirst and unfulfilled wishes.
Friedrich Nietzsche: did not accept Schopenhauer's resignation. Will to power is expressed by the heroic man (superman), who shows courage, pride and fierceness. Victory of the fit over the unfit. Condemned the meekness of Christian virtues.