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A Blog Exclusive: Psychology of Socialism, Communism, and Capitalism

Eureka! I’ve just invented a new field of study: Psychology of Socialism and Communism.

Hypothesis time!

According to Freud, we are to “work and to love.” Yet, there are many who snarl at both. Disenchanted, possibly, by being overworked and underloved, they became jaded.

Rest is important. States other than love are important.

Recall the film “Wall-E?” Those people didn’t work and didn’t love–at all. What, plausibly, came of that? Well: obesity, stupidity, loneliness.

Contrarywise, we do also know that overwork and overlove (eg., codependency) can have those same effects.

Mixed market capitalism strikes a balance, freeing us to work and to love without going to extremes.

In socialism and communism, we’d become Wall-E characters with no way out because we’d all be dumb. The same holds true for unfettered capitalism.

Philosophy Coursework Ideas

Love, Marriage and Philosophy – Upper Level Undergraduate Course

In this course we will examine the works and personal lives of John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor, John Paul Sartre and Simone De Beauvior. We will take a close look at how these thinkers–two of them British and two of them French (both of them couples)–lived, thought, worked, did philosophy and how their work has influenced contemporary culture. We will look at how different yet similar forms of relationships shaped the course of Modern History. We will discuss singular texts associated with each thinker and discuss these texts.

TEXT IDEAS

The Second Sex – Simone De Beauvior

On Liberty – J.S. Mill

No Exit – John Paul Sartre

On the Subjection of Women – J.S. Mill

Sex and Social Justice – Martha Nussbaum

Introduction to Philosophy Topic Ideas

  1. Epistemology and Knowing
  2. Science, Math and Logic
  3. Metaphysics and Being
  4. Phenomenology and Ontology
  5. Ethics
  6. Social and Political Philosophy
  7. Aesthetics