 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Humanities
- ISSN: 2155-7993
- Journal of Modern Education Review
Political Means and Political Liberalism as “Basic Law”: A Developed Reminder Suited to the Crisis
Dimitris Kioukias
(Hellenic Open University, Greece)
Abstract: Social Science provides tools of theorizing about social phenomena and social scientists try to select the appropriate tools for each empirical case.
The recent Greek economic crisis seems to be a multi-faced phenomenon as suggested by scientists, journalists, columnists and other social commentators. In this paper we focus on two particular aspects of it: A. The political means normally used to handle complicated situations, some of which are institutional, while some others are informal. B. The related issue of liberal politics and what liberalism has originally been.
The first question will be tackled through a resort to particular aspects of Machiavellian thought, some of which are quite thoughtful, while some others are treated by the author with a certain degree of skepticism. The debate constructed here will be closed with references to some Enlightenment authors, e.g., Descartes, Hume, Kant. The second question aims to develop a re-definition of liberalism, from the point of view of the above discussion, i.e., appropriate political means. It will be shown that liberalism was meant to be a humanizing tool especially as regards penal sentences and, as we argue, a “basic law” for human beings and their basic freedoms.
A final section is being added to help relate theoretical points to the Greek economic crisis. Some relevant social science questions are tackled in the footnotes section.
Key words: postmodernism, new realism, political means, fortune, Greek crisis
