Toward a Hobbesian liberal democracy through a Maslowian hierarchy of needs.

Sætra, Henrik Skaug

doi:10.1037/hum0000193

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 29 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Love does not occur in a vacuum, and our cultural and social backgrounds heavily influence how we perceive love and what we expect of love (Viik, 2020). Hobbes and Maslow, for example, clearly referred to two different things when they described love and marriage (Saetra, 2020c). In Hobbes's age, love, marriage, and conjugal affection largely related to a social arrangement important for satisfying basic needs such as the physiological and safety needs.…”

Section: Saetra / Loving Robots Changing Love: Towards a Practical De...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Loving robots changing love: Towards a practical deficiency-love

Sætra

2022

FRL

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Robots are today made not only to assist us in menial tasks and routine labour but also provide companionship and love. This has generated much academic and public interest, and people have asked whether robots can love, whether human–robot relationships are possible, and whether humans can develop loving affection for robots. These are all important questions, but I approach the issues from another perspective: can robots made for love change our very understanding of love? By treating love as a cultural and malleable phenomenon, I explore the possibility of it being changed a) to accommodate robots, and b) as a consequence of how robots love us. The first regards the quest to understand what love is and our current tendency to understand phenomena in light of the computer or computational metaphor of human beings. The second involves an examination of how robots are produced to love, and what this form of love might lead to in the wild. Rather than asking if robots can live up to human ideals, I ask if humans will live down – or it might be up – to robot ideals. Using Abraham Maslow’s distinction between being love and deficiency love as an example, I argue that love robots might take us to a place where deficiency love and a growing expectancy of one-sided worship changes the content of love as a cultural phenomenon.

show abstract

Section: Saetra / Loving Robots Changing Love: Towards a Practical De...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Loving robots changing love: Towards a practical deficiency-love

Sætra

2022

FRL

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Hobbes was a systematic theorist, who based his political philosophy on the belief that such a theory both could and should be built from a proper understanding of the smallest building blocks [1]. He was a mechanist, or even an atomist, but for all practical purposes it makes sense to consider him a methodological individualist [28]. A central feature of his philosophy is consequently that human nature plays a crucial part in any effort to understand both the dynamics of human affairs and how a state should, and must, be organized in order to account for this nature [28].…”

Section: Individuals and Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He was a mechanist, or even an atomist, but for all practical purposes it makes sense to consider him a methodological individualist [28]. A central feature of his philosophy is consequently that human nature plays a crucial part in any effort to understand both the dynamics of human affairs and how a state should, and must, be organized in order to account for this nature [28]. This focus on human nature is also a central component of classical realism in IR.…”

Section: Individuals and Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Hobbesian Argument for World Government

Sætra

2022

Philosophies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The legitimacy of government is often linked to its ability to maintain order and secure peace. Thomas Hobbes’ political philosophy provides a clear description of why government is necessary, as human nature and the structures emerging out of human social interaction are such that order and peace will not naturally emerge to a sufficient degree. Hobbes’ general argument is often accepted at the national level, but in this article, I explore why a Hobbesian argument for the international level—an argument for world government—is deducible from his philosophy. Hobbes builds his philosophy on his conception of human nature and argues that individuals’ interests and preferences should be the determinant for evaluating the value of a political entity. By emphasising these aspects of Hobbes’ theory, I argue that several contemporary phenomena suggest that a world government could be preferable to the states system. The cases used are the outbreak of war in Europe in 2022 and the continuing and accelerating environmental crisis. Through this examination, the continued relevance of Hobbes’ political philosophy is demonstrated, and according to Hobbes’ own logic, those who accept the argument should also seek to implement such a solution.

show abstract

“…In this section, we highlight the specific aspects of eupsychian education that Maslow endorsed and their contemporary status. As his ideas remain ahead of our time, such an analysis may help bring his vision of a benevolent society based on synergy (Saetra, 2020) closer to fruition.…”

Section: Toward a New Educational Agendamentioning

confidence: 99%

Educating for Eupsychia: Maslow’s Unfinished Agenda and Aldous Huxley’s Role in Its Advancement

Hoffman

Bey

2021

Journal of Humanistic Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although Abraham Maslow never specified how eupsychia (his paradigm for the best possible human society) might be achieved, he was inspired in the 1960s by Aldous Huxley’s notions that major changes in education were vital for its attainment: in Maslow’s view, spurring personality growth and fulfillment and ultimately leading to self-actualization on a societal level. In this light, Maslow’s scattered writings on the necessity for revisioning education provide meaningful direction for realizing the eupsychian ideal. Drawing particularly on his enthusiasm for revamped pedagogy as presented in Huxley’s utopian novel Island and related writings, we highlight three elements that Maslow deemed crucial: valuing children’s constitutional and temperamental differences, incorporating somatic and movement education including dance, and, related to peak experiences, fostering a sense of wonder. We also add a fourth element that Maslow was beginning to embrace at the time of his death—eudaimonic education comprising aspects such as volunteerism, mentoring, and civic engagement.

show abstract

Toward a Hobbesian liberal democracy through a Maslowian hierarchy of needs.

Cited by 4 publications

References 29 publications

Loving robots changing love: Towards a practical deficiency-love

Loving robots changing love: Towards a practical deficiency-love

A Hobbesian Argument for World Government

Educating for Eupsychia: Maslow’s Unfinished Agenda and Aldous Huxley’s Role in Its Advancement

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About