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Memories of the 28th Century

Miscellaneous thoughts about miscellaneous matters

  1. Rule of Law

    by , 12-29-2019 at 04:06 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    If you want a world of savagery where the law of the jungle is paramount, then is for you, but if you have an interest in living in a civil society with complicated interactions with other humans, then more laws are required.

    There are some people who doubt the validity of Hobbes' Theory of Social Contract. They think that they want no government at all. There are places in the world where there is no effective government, no government other than criminal gangs; those are dangerous ...
  2. The Ideal of Government

    by , 08-11-2018 at 02:52 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    Thomas Hobbes was right. On a fundamental level government is an agreement among the governed to cede some of their personal rights and autonomy in exchange for government providing a framework within which the people governed can more readily and safely carry of heir lives than they could without government. The government provides rules and basic services, such as roads and such, and the people governed pay for the services with a small and equitable service fee called taxes.

    In ...
  3. Rewriting the Social Contract

    by , 08-23-2016 at 02:16 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    “Social Contract theory, nearly as old as philosophy itself, is the view that persons' moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live.” From the article on “Social Contract theory” in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.iep.utm.edu/soc-cont/


    The idea to Social Contract doesn’t often come to mind, but it’s there in the background most of the time, but it has come up a few times ...