ABSTRACT

Taken in broad strokes, social philosophy concerns the relationship between the individual and the collective. Some of the questions that fit under this rubric are metaphysical, concerning what might be styled as issues of ontological priority. Are societies reducible to human individuals who might, in principle at least, exist asocially? Or are societies essential contributors to the character of individual human selves, who could not-even in principle-live as persons without the support of a robust social context? Some of social philosophy's questions are more straightforwardly ethical, typically concerning matters of justice. What may individuals expect from the societies of which they are part, and what may those societies expect from them?