Combining Texts

Ideas for 'works', 'Equality' and 'Of the original contract'

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2 ideas

24. Political Theory / A. Basis of a State / 3. Natural Values / b. Natural equality
People must have agreed to authority, because they are naturally equal, prior to education [Hume]
     Full Idea: When we consider how nearly equal all men are in their bodily force, and even in their mental powers and faculties, till cultivated by education, ...then nothing but their own consent could at first associate them together, and subject them to authority.
     From: David Hume (Of the original contract [1741], p.276)
     A reaction: This doesn't sound very convincing. Some people are much better suited than others to training and education. Men vary enormously in size.
24. Political Theory / A. Basis of a State / 4. Original Position / c. Difference principle
An egalitarian system must give priority to those with the worst prospects in life [Nagel]
     Full Idea: What makes a system egalitarian is the priority it gives to the claims of those whose overall life prospects put them at the bottom.
     From: Thomas Nagel (Equality [1977], §6)