Tuesday June 18, general final year students take the baccalaureate philosophy test. Here is the answer key to one of the two proposed dissertation topics, produced by philosophy professor Didier Guilliomet.
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“Does the state owe us anything? »
Analysis and issues of the subject
This subject notably mobilizes the following program themes: the State, duty, justice, freedom, happiness.
It is a question of thinking about the relationship mainly between citizens – the ” We “ – with the State, in terms of duties that the latter would have towards us. However, we do not forget that the State also has duties towards foreigners, but the subject seems to focus more on the question of the rights and duties of citizens. It should also be noted that the answer is not at all obvious. American President John Fitzgerald Kennedy could thus declare: “Don’t ask yourself what your country can do for you. Ask yourself what you can do for your country » (Inaugural speech of January 20, 1961).
We can start from a definition of the State as a set of institutions organizing life in society. The State is what governs our lives. In this sense, as the State is a creation of individuals with the aim of allowing them to live well in society, it owes something to those who are at its origin: usually we think of security, freedom and justice .
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John Rawls, for example, in the Theory of justice States two principles: the first is the equal freedom of all and the second, the fact that inequalities within society also benefit the most disadvantaged – which corresponds to social justice for Rawls. There would therefore be for the citizen what we call debt rights, which allow him to claim and demand a certain number of things from the State. We can then consider that the State is at our service, that politicians are dedicated to serving the people because the State is a human creation whose aim is to enable us – the citizens – to live well in a community.
The debt, the fault and the obligations of the citizen
However, does not making the State a simple tool of common life neglect its power? The State appears to be a superior force which enforces the law by force.
The State may be a human creation, but it is also necessary to man. Men cannot survive without a State, so is it not men who owe something to the State? State action provides us with security, gives us the guarantee of not being attacked by anyone who comes along. Hence the idea of debt that can be mobilized here. The State allows us to escape from a state of war of all against all, we owe it a lot.
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