I'm in debate at my high school and I need to find some philosophies on society. Can anyone help me?

Answer 1

Platon has written a lot about the ideal society
Cicero De res publica
Augustinus De civitate dei (pretty much a religious answer to Cicero)
modern society is pretty well portrayed and defended by :
Karl Popper : The Open Society and its enemies

I would recommend the last one, tis easier to read (since quite new)
Popper also reviews other theories on society in that book, such as Hegels and Platons.

I found a website with a long summary on that book, it's a bit difficult to navigate (starts with the 11th chapter),links to different chapters are at the bottom :
http://alsblog.wordpress.com/2006/08/07/the-open-society-condensed-chapter-11

I would not recommend Descartes or Socrates, since we need
philosophers wo worked on political philosophy for this one, and both have rather worked on other fields.

The following link leads to a good but somewhat short overview on philosophers :
http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/index.htm

some more helpful links:
http://www.philosophynow.org/issue46/46steinbauer.htm
http://academics.vmi.edu/psy_dr/political_philosophy.htm

Hope it helps

Answer 2

There's the ecclesiastical outlook (my personal outlook) that nothing is new and that nothing is ever productive. It's all just a spiral downward toward the inevitable end. People try to make their society make sense by "chasing after the wind", but it doesn't change the end result of death and entropy.

The addenum to this is that you can strive after eternal things and find new meaning, but that first paragraph is the basis of the philosophy.

Be sure to check out the big names in philosophy. Socrates, Descartes, etc.

Answer 3

Check out Studs Terkel:
http://www.studsterkel.org/

Answer 4

Try Ayn Rand.

Answer 5

No......