Green on Social Contract Theory

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"If political society is supposed to have originated in a pact at all, the difference between it and the preceding state of nature cannot with any plausibility be held to have been much more than a difference between a society regulated by written law and officers with defined power and one regulated by  customs and tacitly recognized authority." -- Principles of Political Obligation, p. 46

This is an important point contra those who fantasize about "doing away with politics": there is no evidence of people anywhere ever having lived in a society without politics. Today, we just have more formally organized politics extending over wider domains than in the past.

Comments

  1. Samson Corwell2:58 PM

    Which is also why "private law" and "markets in law" are pure gibberish.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Samson Corwell4:07 PM

    "Today, we just have more formally organized politics extending over wider domains than in the past."

    Does this mean that the private sphere is an illusion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. gcallah2:00 PM

      No, but it is social life seen from a partial perspective.

      Delete

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