Freedom's Philosopher Blogspot

 In the next two blogs I will introduce several philosophical concepts intended to elucidate the nature and nurture organizational leadership theory: organizations, political organizations, hierarchies, leaders/followers, dominance/submission, and totalitarian/democratic regimes. PART I. will explain the basics of organizational leadership theory. PART II. I will then apply that body of theory to evaluate the leadership of Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy and in the context of Russia's bombing of Ukraine.  T here are m any animal species that naturally collectively "organize themselves" hierarchically, based on  leadership  and  followership.    All organizations serve ends or purposes, therefore, we evaluate them based on how  effective  those organizations are at achieving those specified goals, and how  efficient  those organizations are at fulfilling them. Similarly, organizational hierarchies are organized bas...

  Recent events in Ukraine underscore the importance of Leadership Theory in making sense of the ever-changing landscape of leader-follower relationships. First of all, it is essential that we acknowledge that there are two forms of "sociopolitical integration:" Vertical Integration and Horizontal Integration.  Both organizational schemas are are found throughout nature. Vertical Integration is evident in sociopolitical contexts where organizations are that organized top to bottom, where one leader (or a few leaders) exercise power from the top down. Followers embrace leaders for a variety of reasons. Transactional leaders rise to power and maintain power via bribery: If you support me I will give you X... Positive Leader-follower Transactions usually involve sharing power and/or resources (usually money). Negative Leader-Follower Transactions involve threats: If you do not support me I will harm you and/or your followers. Thus, longstanding political leaders like Putin ...

        I have written several blogs on "Just War Theory."  (https://freedomsphilosopher.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-ethics-of-war.html).  In light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, I thought it would be useful to explore the larger questions of whether human leadership and human warfare are natural behaviors passed on to subsequent generations through our genetic inheritance; or whether those behaviors are learned and therefore passed on over time via teaching and learning (culture). And, in light of those findings, I will speculate whether the quest for global peace a realistic sociopolitical goal.            Like all human institutions, the history of human warfare reveals varying degrees of cultural evolution, devolution, and/or stability over time. We know that warlike behavior has taken place throughout much of human history. There is evidence that groups of Hunters and Gatherers rarely (if ev...

  What light can an old philosopher, like myself, shed upon a global event such as the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin and the Russian Army? Most philosophers begin by identifying key concepts that shape human political behavior, such as: leadership, followership, military invasion, industry, politics, defense, external intervention, economic sanctions, and national and global media responses. Let's start with the puzzle of leadership and followership. How does an aspiring leader, like Putin, rise to power in Russia and maintain that power, without inspiring political opposition? Evolutionary Politics (as an academic discipline) acknowledges several facts. First, worldwide, the overwhelming majority of high-level political leaders, corporate leaders, and military leaders are all older men. Soldiers who follow military leaders are mostly young men, who need a reliable paycheck to support their families. Historically, soldiers are either drafted (involuntarily) or enlist (volun...

A while back (long before the Covid 19 pandemic)  Richard Brody argued  that there are two kinds of viruses: " Viruses of the Body " and " Viruses of the Mind ."    Both are contagious and subject to evolutionary change over time, based on variation and natural selection under various environmental conditions. "Viruses of the Body" spread from individual bodies to populations of individual bodies. In contrast, " Viruses of the Mind"  spread  within individual minds, and eventually infect collective minds, or cultures. The contagion rate of both kinds of viruses can be calculated in terms of the percentage of the population infected at any given time and/or place. And the mortality rate of both can be calculated based on the percentage of deaths caused by that that infection at any given time/place.  Mortality rates vary relative to the overall health of those individuals who are infected. Moreover, the contagion rate and mortality rate of both Vi...

                                                                                                                                                               This is a complex philosophical and legal analysis of the concepts of “fair opportunity” and “responsibility.” It’s architecture builds upon a host of other moral/legal terms such as: normative competence, cognitive competence, culpability, duress, and provocation. Although we can be held responsible for both praiseworthy and blameworthy actions, this book focused on blameworthy, thus, it is intended to elucidate primarily actions undert...