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Single Idea 21485

[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / B. Nature of a State / 1. Purpose of a State ]

Full Idea

The state is essentially no more than an institution for the protection of the whole against attacks from without, and the protection of its individual members from attacks by one another.

Gist of Idea

The state only exists to defend citizens, from exterior threats, and from one another

Source

Arthur Schopenhauer (Parerga and Paralipomena [1851], IX:123)

Book Ref

Schopenhauer,Arthur: 'Essays and Aphorisms [from Pand P]', ed/tr. Hollingdale,R.J. [Penguin 1970], p.149

A Reaction

He then has a swipe at Hegel for his inflated idea of the importance of the state. Schopenhauer is close to Hobbes on this one.

The 24 ideas from 'Parerga and Paralipomena'

21474 Metaphysics studies the inexplicable ends of explanation [Schopenhauer]
21473 All knowledge and explanation rests on the inexplicable [Schopenhauer]
21476 A priori propositions are those we could never be seriously motivated to challenge [Schopenhauer]
21475 All of our concepts are borrowed from perceptual knowledge [Schopenhauer]
21372 Aesthetics concerns how we can take pleasure in an object, with no reference to the will [Schopenhauer]
21477 We don't control our own thinking [Schopenhauer]
21478 Half our thinking is unconscious, and we reach conclusions while unaware of premises [Schopenhauer]
21479 Knowledge is not power! Ignorant people possess supreme authority [Schopenhauer]
21480 Boredom is only felt by those clever enough to need activity [Schopenhauer]
21470 For me the objective thing-in-itself is the will [Schopenhauer]
21485 The state only exists to defend citizens, from exterior threats, and from one another [Schopenhauer]
21486 Poverty and slavery are virtually two words for the same thing [Schopenhauer]
21487 The freedom of the press to sell poison outweighs its usefulness [Schopenhauer]
21482 The five Chinese virtues: pity, justice, politeness, wisdom, honesty [Schopenhauer]
21481 Buddhists wisely start with the cardinal vices [Schopenhauer]
21483 Man is essentially a dreadful wild animal [Schopenhauer]
21484 A man's character can be learned from a single characteristic action [Schopenhauer]
21469 Human life is a mistake, shown by boredom, which is direct awareness of the fact [Schopenhauer]
21466 Pleasure is weaker, and pain stronger, than we expect [Schopenhauer]
21467 Would humanity still exist if sex wasn't both desired and pleasurable? [Schopenhauer]
21468 The Creator created the possibilities for worlds, so should have made a better one than this possible [Schopenhauer]
21471 If suicide was quick and easy, most people would have done it by now [Schopenhauer]
21488 The beautiful is a perception of Plato's Forms, which eliminates the will [Schopenhauer]
21472 Only religion introduces serious issues to uneducated people [Schopenhauer]