Social philosophy
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Social philosophy is the philosophical study of interesting questions about social behavior (typically, of humans). Social philosophy addresses a wide range of subjects, from individual meanings to legitimacy of laws, from the social contract to criteria for revolution, from the functions of everyday actions to the effects of science on culture, from changes in human demographics to the collective order of a wasp's nest. It is a wide field with many subdisciplines.
Social philosophy attempts to understand the patterns and nuances, changes and tendencies of societies. There is a considerable overlap between the questions addressed by social philosophy and ethics.
One form of social philosophy is political philosophy, which is largely concerned with the societies of state and government.
Social philosophy, ethics, and political philosophy all share intimate connections with other disciplines in the social sciences.
Some of the topics deal with by social philosophy are:
- individualism
- crowds
- philosophy of law
- property
- rights
- authority
- free will
- ideologies
- cultural criticism
- semiotics