Who Were the Sea Peoples?

A commenter in another thread  claims that someone like Hobbes is talking "nonsense" with his contract theory: "They make this claim [it's not clear what "this claim" is here], but that is not what happened, and to claim it is 'as if' it happened is utter nonsense -- on par with claiming that the state of affairs [in a robbery] is 'as if' you gave me all your stuff, so I'm not a thief, and really do own these things." It strikes me that others may misunderstand Hobbes's argument in a similar fashion, and so it might be worth pulling my response to the top level. Let's begin by looking at several examples where we use "as if" that aren't nonsensical: 1) Two people meet by accident and fall in love. Later, they say, "Do you remember that night? It is as if we were meant to meet!" 2) Four bridge lovers meet by accident on a cruise. They wind up playing together the whole vacation. One of them ...

from a gun , and I can't tell a green card from a "No Negroes Wanted" sign. Or so says Bryan Caplan . Bryan asks, "What is the moral difference between Jim Crow and immigration restrictions?" He doubts that anyone can point to anything of substance. Well, try this out for starters, Bryan: Let's say I have a house. My family lives in it, as well as a couple of invited guests. If I declared that the one guy who lived with us who happened to be black had to do all of the crap jobs in the house just because he is black, I think we can all agree that would be pretty bogus. Similarly, if I tell him that he is the only person who can't go in the living room, just because he is black, my bad! But now ten people show up, uninvited, and slip into the house. I find them in the living room having a party. I tell them they not only can't be in the living room, but they can't, in fact, be in the house at all. This is most decidedly not bogus. You see, t...