137 ideas
18495 | The best philosophers I know are the best people I know [Heil] |
Full Idea: Philosophers are not invariably the best people, but the best philosophers I know are the best people I know. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], Pref) | |
A reaction: How very nicely expressed. I have often thought the same about lovers of literature, but been horribly disappointed by some of them. On the whole I have found philosophy-lovers to be slightly superior to literature-lovers! |
7893 | Our life is the creation of our mind [Anon (Dham)] |
Full Idea: What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind. | |
From: Anon (Dham) (The DhammaPada [c.250 BCE], §1.1) | |
A reaction: I may adopt this as a second epigraph for the database. This idea records the subjective view, which now comes up against evolutionary psychology. Maybe philosophy is opposed to science, because it is committed to exploring the subjective view? |
18494 | Using a technical vocabulary actually prevents discussion of the presuppositions [Heil] |
Full Idea: Sharing a technical vocabulary is to share a tidy collection of assumptions. Reliance on that vocabulary serves to foreclose discussion of those assumptions. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], Pref) | |
A reaction: Love it! I am endlessly frustrated by papers that launch into a discussion using a terminology that is riddled with dubious prior assumptions. And that includes common terms like 'property', as well as obscure neologisms. |
18506 | Questions of explanation should not be confused with metaphyics [Heil] |
Full Idea: There is an unfortunate tendency to conflate epistemological issues bearing on explanation with issues in metaphysics. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 01.2) | |
A reaction: This is where Heil and I part ways. I just don't believe in the utterly pure metaphysics which he thinks we can do. Our drive to explain moulds our vision of reality, say I. |
18535 | Without abstraction we couldn't think systematically [Heil] |
Full Idea: A capacity for abstraction is central to our capacity to think about the universe systematically. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 09.7) | |
A reaction: This strikes me as obvious. We pick out the similarities, and then discuss them, as separate from their bearers. We explain why things have features in common. Some would just say systematic thinking needs universals, but that's less good. |
19807 | Both nature and reason require that everything has a cause [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Under the law of reason nothing takes place without a cause, any more than under the law of nature. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.04) | |
A reaction: Is this the influence of Leibniz? Note that the principle is identified in two different areas, so in nature we may say 'everything has a cause', and in rationality we may say 'there is a reason for everything'. But are these the same? |
18534 | Truth relates truthbearers to truthmakers [Heil] |
Full Idea: Truth is a relation between a truthbearer and a truthmaker. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 08.02) | |
A reaction: This implies that all truths have truthmakers, which is fairly controversial. Heil himself denies it! |
18531 | Philosophers of the past took the truthmaking idea for granted [Heil] |
Full Idea: For millenia, philosophers operated with an implicit conception of truthmaking, a conception that remained unarticulated only because it was part of the very fabric of philosophy. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 07.2) | |
A reaction: Presumably it is an advance that we have brought it out into the open, and subjected it to critical study. Does Heil want us to return to it being unquestioned? I like truthmaking, but that can't be right. |
18509 | Not all truths need truthmakers - mathematics and logic seem to be just true [Heil] |
Full Idea: I do not subscribe to the thesis that every truth requires a truthmaker. Mathematical truths and truths of logic are compatible with any way the universe could be. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 01.5) | |
A reaction: He makes that sound like a knock-down argument, but I'm not convinced. I see logic and mathematics as growing out of nature, though that is a very unfashionable view. I'm almost ashamed of it. But I'm not giving it up. See Carrie Jenkins. |
18518 | Infinite numbers are qualitatively different - they are not just very large numbers [Heil] |
Full Idea: It is a mistake to think of an infinite number as a very large number. Infinite numbers differ qualitatively from finite numbers. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 03.5) | |
A reaction: He cites Dedekind's idea that a proper subset of an infinite number can match one-one with the number. Respectable numbers don't behave in this disgraceful fashion. This should be on the wall of every seminar on philosophy of mathematics. |
18500 | How could structures be mathematical truthmakers? Maths is just true, without truthmakers [Heil] |
Full Idea: I do not understand how structures could serve as truthmakers for mathematical truths, ...Mathematical truths are not true in virtue of any way the universe is. ...Mathematical truths hold, whatever ways the universe is. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 08.08) | |
A reaction: I like the idea of enquiring about truthmakers for mathematical truths (and my view is more empirical than Heil's), but I think it may be a misunderstanding to think that structures are intended as truthmakers. Mathematics just IS structures? |
18539 | Our categories lack the neat arrangement needed for reduction [Heil] |
Full Idea: Categories we use to describe and explain our universe do not line up in the neat way reductive schemes require. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 13.2) | |
A reaction: He takes reduction to be largely a relation between our categories, rather than between entities, so he is bound to get this result. He may be right. |
18505 | Fundamental ontology aims at the preconditions for any true theory [Heil] |
Full Idea: Fundamental ontology is in the business of telling us what the universe must be like if any theory is true. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 01.1) | |
A reaction: Heil is good at stating simple ideas simply. This seems to be a bold claim, but I think I agree with it. |
18499 | Our quantifications only reveal the truths we accept; the ontology and truthmakers are another matter [Heil] |
Full Idea: Looking at what you quantify over reveals, at most, truths to which you are committed. What the ontology is, what the truthmakers are for these truths, is another matter, one tackled, if at all, only in the pursuit of fundamental physics. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 08.08) | |
A reaction: Exactly right. Nouns don't guarantee objects, verbs don't guarantee processes. If you want to know my ontological commitments, ask me about them! Don't infer them from the sentences I hold true, because they need interpreting. |
18512 | Ontology aims to give the fundamental categories of being [Heil] |
Full Idea: The task of ontology is to spell out the fundamental categories of being. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 02.5) | |
A reaction: This is the aspiration of 'pure' metaphysics, which I don't quite believe in. There is too much convention involved, on the one hand, and physics on the other. |
18508 | Most philosophers now (absurdly) believe that relations fully exist [Heil] |
Full Idea: It is a measure of how far we have fallen that so few philosophers nowadays see any difficulty at all in the idea that relations have full ontological standing. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 01.4) | |
A reaction: We have 'fallen' because medieval metaphysicians didn't believe it. Russell seems to have started, and the tendency to derive ontology from logic has secured the belief in relations. How else can you be allowed to write aRb? I agree with Heil. |
18532 | If causal relations are power manifestations, that makes them internal relations [Heil] |
Full Idea: If causal relations are the manifesting of powers, then causal relations would appear to be a species of internal relation. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 07.4) | |
A reaction: The point being that any relations formed are entirely dependent on the internal powers of the relata. Sounds right. There are also non-causal relations, of course. |
18510 | We need properties to explain how the world works [Heil] |
Full Idea: When a tomato depresses a scale, it does so in virtue of its mass - how it is masswise - and not in virtue of its colour or shape. Were we barred from saying such things, we would be unable to formulate truths about the fundamental things. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 02.3) | |
A reaction: It doesn't follow that we have an ontological commitment to properties, but we certainly need to point out the obvious fact that things being one way rather than another makes a difference to what happens. |
18522 | Categorical properties were introduced by philosophers as actual properties, not if-then properties [Heil] |
Full Idea: Categorical properties were introduced originally by philosophers bent on distinguishing properties possessed 'categorically', that is, actually, by objects from mere if-then, conditional properties, mere potentialities. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 04.3) | |
A reaction: He cites Ryle on dispositions in support. It is questionable whether it is a clear or useful distinction. Heil says the new distinction foreclosed the older more active view of properties. |
18513 | Emergent properties will need emergent substances to bear them [Heil] |
Full Idea: If you are going to have emergent fundamental properties, you are going to need emergent fundamental substances as bearers of those properties. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 02.6) | |
A reaction: Presumably the theory of emergent properties (which I take to be nonsense, in its hardcore form) says that the substance is unchanged, but the property is new. Or else the bundle gives collective birth to a new member. Search me. |
18540 | Predicates only match properties at the level of fundamentals [Heil] |
Full Idea: Only when you get to fundamental physics, do predicates begin to line up with properties. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 13.2) | |
A reaction: A nice thought. I assume the actual properties of daily reality only connect to our predicates in very sloppy ways. I suppose our fundamental predicates have to converge on the actual properties, because the fog clears. Sort of. |
18533 | In Fa, F may not be a property of a, but a determinable, satisfied by some determinate [Heil] |
Full Idea: It may be that F applies truly to a because F is a determinable predicate satisfied by a's possession of a property answering to a determinate of that determinable predicate. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 08.01) | |
A reaction: Heil aims to break the commitment of predicates to the existence of properties. The point is that there is no property 'coloured' to correspond to 'a is coloured'. Red might be the determinate that does the job. Nice. |
18511 | Properties have causal roles which sets can't possibly have [Heil] |
Full Idea: Properties are central to the universe's causal order in a way that sets could not possibly be. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 02.3) | |
A reaction: The idea that properties actually are sets is just ridiculous. It may be that you can treat them as sets and get by quite well. The sets can be subsumed into descriptions of causal processes (or something). |
18523 | Are all properties powers, or are there also qualities, or do qualities have the powers? [Heil] |
Full Idea: Some philosophers who embrace properties as powers hold that every property is a power (Bird), or that some properties are qualities and some are powers (Ellis; Molnar). The latter include powers which are 'grounded in' qualities (Mumford). | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 04.4) | |
A reaction: I don't like Heil's emphasis on 'qualities', which seems to imply their phenomenal rather than their real aspect. I'm inclined to favour the all-powers view, but can't answer the question 'but what HAS these powers?' Stuff is intrinsically powerful. |
18524 | Properties are both qualitative and dispositional - they are powerful qualities [Heil] |
Full Idea: In my account of properties they are at once qualitative and dispositional: properties are powerful qualities. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 05.1) | |
A reaction: I have never managed to understand what Heil means by 'qualities'. Is he talking about the phenomenal aspects of powers? Does he mean categorical properties. I can't find an ontological space for his things to slot into. |
18498 | Abstract objects wouldn't be very popular without the implicit idea of truthmakers [Heil] |
Full Idea: It would be difficult to understand the popularity of 'abstract entities' - numbers, sets, propositions - in the absence of an implicit acknowledgement of the importance of truthmakers. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 08.07) | |
A reaction: I love Idea 18496, because it leads us towards a better account of modality, but dislike this one because it reveals that the truthmaking idea has led us to a very poor theory. Truthmaking is a good question, but not much of an answer? |
18507 | Substances bear properties, so must be simple, and not consist of further substances [Heil] |
Full Idea: Substances, as property bearers, must be simple; substances of necessity lack constituents that are themselves substances. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 01.3) | |
A reaction: How can he think that this is a truth of pure metaphysics? A crowd has properties because we think of it as a simple substance, not because it actually is one. Can properties have properties? Are tree and leaf both substances? |
18515 | Spatial parts are just regions, but objects depend on and are made up of substantial parts [Heil] |
Full Idea: An object is not made up of its spatial parts: spatial parts are regions of some object. ...Complex objects, wholes, are made up of, and so depend on, their substantial parts. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 03.1) | |
A reaction: Presumably objects also 'depend on' their spatial parts, so I am not convinced that we have a sharp distinction here. |
18516 | A 'gunky' universe would literally have no parts at all [Heil] |
Full Idea: Blancmange 'gunky' universes are not just universes with an endless number of parts. Rather a blancmange universe is a universe with no simple parts, no parts themselves lacking parts. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 03.3) | |
A reaction: Hm. Lewis seemed to think it was parts all the way down. Is gunk homogeneous stuff, or what is endlessly subdividable, or an infinite shrinking of parts? We demand clarity. |
18514 | Many wholes can survive replacement of their parts [Heil] |
Full Idea: A whole - or some wholes - might be thought to survive gradual replacement of its parts, perhaps, but not their elimination. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 03.1) | |
A reaction: You can't casually replace the precious golden parts of a statue with cheap lead ones. It depends on whether the parts matter. Nevertheless this is a really important idea in metaphysics. It enables the s=Ship of Theseus to survive some change. |
18517 | Dunes depend on sand grains, but line segments depend on the whole line [Heil] |
Full Idea: A sand dune depends on the individual grains of sand that make it up. In an important sense, however, a line's segments depend on the line rather than it on them. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 03.4) | |
A reaction: The illustrations are not clear cut. As you cut off segments of the line, you reduce its length. Heil is hoping for something neat here, but I don't think he has quite got. The difficulty of trying to do pure metaphysics! |
18502 | If basic physics has natures, then why not reality itself? That would then found the deepest necessities [Heil] |
Full Idea: If electrons and gravitational fields have definite natures, why not reality itself? And if reality has a nature, if this makes sense, then reality grounds the deepest necessities of all. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 08.09) | |
A reaction: Nice speculation! Scientists and verificationists seem to cry 'foul!' when philosophers offer such wild speculations, but I say that's exactly what we pay them do. I'm not sure whether I understand reality having its own nature, though! |
18496 | If possible worlds are just fictions, they can't be truthmakers for modal judgements [Heil] |
Full Idea: If the other possible worlds are merely useful fictions, we are left wondering what the truthmakers for all those modal judgements might be. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 08.07) | |
A reaction: I suddenly see that this is the train of thought that led me to believe in real powers and dispositions, and which retrospectively led me to love the truthmaker idea. Even real Lewisian worlds don't seem adequate as truthmakers here. |
7898 | The world is just the illusion of an appearance [Anon (Dham)] |
Full Idea: When a man considers this world as a bubble of froth, and as the illusion of an appearance, then the king of death has no power over him. | |
From: Anon (Dham) (The DhammaPada [c.250 BCE], §13.170) | |
A reaction: Strictly, of course, this says you can 'consider' things this way. Perhaps we could substitute 'pretends', but the world's great religions don't go in for that sort of thing. Berkeley would be shocked to learn he was approaching Buddhism. |
18525 | Mental abstraction does not make what is abstracted mind-dependent [Heil] |
Full Idea: Talk of abstraction and 'partial consideration' (Locke) does not make what is abstracted mind-dependent. In abstracting, you attend to what is there to be considered. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 05.7) | |
A reaction: Quite so. The point is to focus on aspects of reality. Does anyone seriously doubt that reality has 'aspects'? |
18504 | Only particulars exist, and generality is our mode of presentation [Heil] |
Full Idea: Existing things are particular, and generality is a feature of our ways of representing the universe. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 01.1) | |
A reaction: This is right, and expressed with beautiful simplicity. How could anyone disagree with this? But they do! |
18503 | You can think of tomatoes without grasping what they are [Heil] |
Full Idea: You can entertain thoughts of things like tomatoes without a grasp of what they are. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 08.10) | |
A reaction: Lowe seemed to think that you had to grasp the generic essence of a tomato before you could think about it, but I agree entirely with Heil. |
18537 | Linguistic thought is just as imagistic as non-linguistic thought [Heil] |
Full Idea: Thinking - ordinary conscious thinking - is imagistic. This is so for 'linguistic' or 'sentential' thoughts as well as for patently non-linguistic thoughts. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 12.10) | |
A reaction: This claim (that linguistic thought is just as imagistic as non-linguistic thought) strikes me as an excellent insight. |
18538 | Non-conscious thought may be unlike conscious thought [Heil] |
Full Idea: Non-conscious thought need not resemble conscious thought occurring out of sight. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 12.10) |
18536 | The subject-predicate form reflects reality [Heil] |
Full Idea: I like to think that the subject-predicate form reflects a fundamental division in reality. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 10.1) | |
A reaction: That is, he defends the idea that there are substances, and powerful qualities pertaining to those substances. I sympathise, but this slogan makes it too simple. |
7235 | Without freedom of will actions lack moral significance [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: If you take away all freedom of the will, you strip a man's actions of all moral significance. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.4) | |
A reaction: Rousseau is (in the context) guilty of the basic error of confusing freedom of action with freedom of the will. If the will has scope to act, it has freedom of action; if the will is not contrained in its decision by prior causes, it has freedom of will. |
18497 | Many reject 'moral realism' because they can't see any truthmakers for normative judgements [Heil] |
Full Idea: It is the difficulty in imagining what truthmakers for normative judgements might be that leads many philosophers to find 'moral realism' unappealing. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 08.07) | |
A reaction: I like that a lot. My proposal for metaethics is that it should be built on the concept of a 'value-maker' |
7894 | Hate is conquered by love [Anon (Dham)] |
Full Idea: Hate is not conquered by hate: hate is conquered by love. This is the law eternal. | |
From: Anon (Dham) (The DhammaPada [c.250 BCE], §1.5) | |
A reaction: [N.B. This thought was not invented by Jesus] The challenge to this view might be the tit-for-tat strategy of game theory, which says that hate is actually conquered by a combination of hate and love, judiciously applied. |
7899 | Even divine pleasure will not satisfy the wise, as it is insatiable, and leads to pain [Anon (Dham)] |
Full Idea: Since a shower of gold coins could not satisfy craving desires and the end of all pleasure is pain, how could a wise man find satisfaction even in the pleasures of the gods? | |
From: Anon (Dham) (The DhammaPada [c.250 BCE], §14.186) | |
A reaction: I'm never sure how so many ancient thinkers arrived at this implausible view. They seem to think that no one knows when to stop, and that every drink leads to hangover. What is actually wrong with moderate sensible pleasure? |
7896 | The foolish gradually fill with evil, like a slowly-filled water-jar [Anon (Dham)] |
Full Idea: The falling of drops of water will in time fill a water-jar. Even so the foolish man becomes full of evil, although he gather it little by little. | |
From: Anon (Dham) (The DhammaPada [c.250 BCE], §9.121) | |
A reaction: This coincides closely with Aristotle's view of moral education. Maybe a wise man can maintain one small vice. Not all slopes are slippery. |
7897 | The wise gradually fill with good, like a slowly-filled water-jar [Anon (Dham)] |
Full Idea: The falling of drops of water will in time fill a water-jar. Even so the wise man becomes full of good, although he gather it little by little. | |
From: Anon (Dham) (The DhammaPada [c.250 BCE], §9.122) | |
A reaction: Again, this is like Aristotle's proposal of how to educate people in virtue. In my experience, there is no guarantee that small acts of politeness and charity will eventually guarantee goodness of character. Thought is also needed. |
7895 | Don't befriend fools; either find superior friends, or travel alone [Anon (Dham)] |
Full Idea: If on the great journey of life a man cannot find one who is better or at least as good as himself, let him joyfully travel alone: a fool cannot help him on his journey. | |
From: Anon (Dham) (The DhammaPada [c.250 BCE], §5.61) | |
A reaction: This is a slightly disturbing aspect of Buddhism, possibly leading to contradiction. It urges friendship and love, but the finest people will have virtually no friends, and solitude is presented as a finer state than friendship. |
19791 | Natural mankind is too fragmented for states of peace, or of war and enmity [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Men are not naturally enemies, for the simple reason that men living in their original state of independence do not have sufficiently constant relationships among themselves to bring about either a state of peace or a state of war. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.4) | |
A reaction: He sees people in a state of nature as more or less solitary, and certainly in groups any more organised than a small family. One might then be in a state of permanent feud, rather than war, but without settlements people can move away. |
20501 | Rousseau assumes that laws need a people united by custom and tradition [Rousseau, by Wolff,J] |
Full Idea: Rousseau assumes that there should already be bonds of custom and tradition uniting a people before it is fit to receive laws. | |
From: report of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762]) by Jonathan Wolff - An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Rev) 3 'Rousseau' | |
A reaction: In unusual circumstances, such as the arrival of a large population at a new colony, it might be that the laws would create the missing customs and traditions. |
7237 | The act of becoming 'a people' is the real foundation of society [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The act by which people become 'a people' is the real foundation of society. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.5) | |
A reaction: The difficulty with many older countries is that it is impossible to identify such an act. Mythologies are created to fictionalise such acts; in Britain we refer back to King Alfred, and to Magna Carta. I suspect 1660 is the key year. |
19792 | To overcome obstacles, people must unite their forces into a single unified power [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Men have no other means of maintaining themselves but to form by aggregation a sum of forces that could gain the upper hand over the resistance of obstacles, so that their forces are directed by means of a single moving power and made to act in concert. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.6) | |
A reaction: I prefer the Aristotelian view, that men are naturally gregarious and social (like bees and ants), so this act of solidarity in superfluous. A human people is only broken up by violence or disaster, like kicking over an ants' nest. |
19812 | Human nature changes among a people, into a moral and partial existence [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The establisher of a people is in a position to change human nature, to transform each individual into a part of a larger whole from which the individual receives his life and being, to substitute a partial and moral existence for natural independence. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.07) | |
A reaction: The 'partial' part is obvious, in the compromises of society, but he says we only become moral in a people, and even more so when that people constitute a state. In the state of nature, morality seems to be unneeded, rather than absent. |
19814 | A state must be big enough to preserve itself, but small enough to be governable [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Like a well-formed man, there are limits to the size a state can have, so as not to be too large to be capable of being well governed, nor too small to be capable of preserving itself on its own. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.09) | |
A reaction: Geneva was his model, and it is close to the size of a Greek polis. Presumably even Scotland would be thought ungovernable, never mind the United States. Luxembourg might be his ideal nowadays. Thousands of them! |
19815 | Too much land is a struggle, producing defensive war; too little makes dependence, and offensive war [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Too much land makes its defence is onerous, its cultivation inadequate, and its yield surplus, which causes defensive wars. If there is not enough land, the state is at the discretion of its neighbours for what it needs as surplus, causing offensive wars. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.10) | |
A reaction: This sounds much too simplistic, like the causes of squabbles in a kindergarten. Certainly inequalities between nations (such as the USA and Mexico) produces frictions. Advances in agriculture technology have transformed this problem. |
19822 | If the state enlarges, the creators of the general will become less individually powerful [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The ratio of the sovereign to the subject increases in proportion to the number of citizens. The larger the state becomes, the less liberty there is. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.01) | |
A reaction: This is because we remain equally subjected to the state whatever its size, but have less power to influence if there are more citizens. In modern states we all feel pathetically powerless, because of the numbers. |
19823 | If the population is larger, the government needs to be more powerful [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: In order to be good, the government must be relatively stronger in proportion as the populace is more numerous. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.01) | |
A reaction: This could either imply a larger government, or more powerful laws for a fairly small government. Rousseau implies an almost mathematical law (of ratios) which determines the size of the government. |
7232 | Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.1) | |
A reaction: I've always liked the second sentence, though it may be wishful thinking. It is probably rather fun owning slaves. The idea that man is 'born free' strikes me as nonsense. Man is a highly social animal, which only flourishes if enmeshed in a culture. |
7234 | No man has any natural authority over his fellows [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: No man has any natural authority over his fellows. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.4) | |
A reaction: This is, of course, specifically denying that superior strength is the same as a natural right. 'Right' might be a better word than 'authority'. If strength doesn't bestow a natural right, then presumably neither does weakness. |
19816 | A state's purpose is liberty and equality - liberty for strength, and equality for liberty [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The greatest good and purpose of every legislative system boils down to liberty and equality. Liberty because dependence takes force from the body of the state, and equality because liberty cannot subsist without it. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.11) | |
A reaction: The idea of 'taking force' seems to cover the modern welfare state. Rousseau likes robustly self-sufficient citizens. To ensure equality, however, it may be necessary to restrict liberty. |
7247 | The greatest social good comes down to freedom and equality [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The greatest good of all, which ought to be the goal of every system of law, comes down to two main objects, freedom and equality. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.11) | |
A reaction: He goes on the specify the nature of the equality (Idea 7248). A rival pair of goods might be security and opportunity. On balance, I think I prefer my pair to Rousseau's. |
19838 | The measure of a successful state is increase in its population [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The government under which, without external means, without naturalisations, without colonies, the citizens become populous and multiply the most, is infallibly the best government. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.09) | |
A reaction: I'm not sure if this was true in the eighteenth century. Birth control has entirely changed the picture, since affluent people seem less inclined to breed. Presumably poverty increased famine and infant mortality. |
19848 | The sovereignty does not appoint the leaders [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The election of leaders is a function of government and not of the sovereignty. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], IV.3) | |
A reaction: The point is that the general will only establishes the form of government, and not its content. In Britain we accept leaders who are appointed by their own party, and not by the electorate. |
20567 | Rousseau insists that popular sovereignty needs a means of expressing consent [Rousseau, by Oksala] |
Full Idea: Rousseau's idea of popular sovereignty is a much more radical idea of self-government, because he insists that the consent of the people has to have a real means of expression. | |
From: report of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762]) by Johanna Oksala - Political Philosophy: all that matters Ch.5 | |
A reaction: Presumably Hobbes's 'contract' is forgotten in the mists of time, and ceases to be of any interest to a ruler (such as Charles I, who thought God must have appointed him). Perhaps Britain needs an annual ceremony reaffirming the monarch. |
19801 | Sovereignty is the exercise of the general will, which can never be delegated [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Since sovereignty is merely the exercise of the general will, it can never be alienated, and the sovereign which is only a collective being, cannot be represented by anything but itself. Power can perfectly well be transmitted, but not the will. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.01) | |
A reaction: Part of the post-Hobbesian revolution, which sees sovereignty as residing in the will or consensus of the people, rather than in a divine right, or a right of power. In 2016 this isn't going very well. A people choosing to obey is thereby dissolved. |
19805 | Just as people control their limbs, the general-will state has total control of its members [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Just as nature gives each man an absolute power over all of his members, the social compact gives the body politic an absolute over all its members, which is the power directed by the general will, and bearing the name sovereignty. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.04) | |
A reaction: A highly organic view of the state, and his favourite political metaphor. Does the metaphor include disease and madness? In the 1930s Germany went insane. The man may be happy, but are his limbs happy? If I burn my hand? Etc. |
19818 | Political laws are fundamental, as they firmly organise the state - but they could still be changed [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The laws regulating the relationship of the sovereign to the state are political laws, which are also fundamental. There is one way of organising a state, and people should stand by it. ...But a people is always in a position to change its laws. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.12) | |
A reaction: Constitutions take on a sacred and inviolable quality, but Rousseau clearly thinks 'the Sabbath is made for man'. I think the USA is crazy not to change its constitution on the subject of bearing arms. |
19790 | Force can only dominate if it is seen as a right, and obedience as a duty [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The strongest is never strong enough to be master all the time, unless he transforms force into right and obedience into duty. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.3) | |
A reaction: Presumably the people only accept force as a right and obedience as a duty if they appear to be in the people's interests - because the alternative looks worse. In other words, they are terrified. |
7233 | The social order is a sacred right, but based on covenants, not nature [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The social order is a sacred right which serves as a basis for all other rights; and as it is not a natural right, it must be one founded on covenants. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.1) | |
A reaction: I think Rousseau is offering a contradiction here, when he suggests we have a 'sacred' right, which is nevertheless only based on 'covenants'. You can't have it both ways. This is an abuse of the word 'sacred'. |
19842 | The government is instituted by a law, not by a contract [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The act that institutes the government is not a contract but a law. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.18) | |
A reaction: This is a law which implements the general will. There is nothing for citizens to make a contract with, since the sovereign is an abstraction, whereas a social contract is made between actual people. I like Rousseau's big idea. |
7239 | The social pact is the total subjection of individuals to the general will [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The essence of the social pact is that 'each one of us puts into the community his person and all his powers under the supreme direction of the general will; and as a body, we incorporate every member as an indivisible part of the whole'. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.6) | |
A reaction: This is alarmingly like totally subjecting yourself to the 'Will of God', where the big problem is a bunch of priests (or worse) insisting that they know better than you do what that Will consists of. I have no idea what the current Will of Britain is. |
19793 | We need a protective association which unites forces, but retains individual freedom [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The problem is to find a form of association which protects with all common forces the person and goods of each associate, by means of which each one, while uniting with all, nevertheless obeys only himself and remains as free as before. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.6) | |
A reaction: This is the clear purpose of Rousseau's famous concept of the General Will. The idea is that you submit to the general will because you helped formulate it, so you remain free. It is a lovely idea, but notoriously difficult to implement. |
7240 | To foreign powers a state is seen as a simple individual [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: In relation to a foreign power, the body politic is a simple entity, an individual. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.7) | |
A reaction: This is strikingly contrary to the spirit of liberalism, in which I may be appalled by the foreign policy of my own government, and protest strongly against it. Rousseau might be considered as freedom's greatest champion, and greatest enemy! |
19795 | The act of association commits citizens to the state, and the state to its citizens [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The act of association is a reciprocal commitment of public and private individuals, and each individual, contracting with himself, is under a twofold commitment, as a member of the sovereign to individuals, and as a member of the state to the sovereign. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.7) | |
A reaction: This seems to be expressed in modern terms as a mutual entailment of rights and duties. Where the traditional social contract is just between individuals, this seems to be a contract with a unified abstraction, of state commitment to citizens. |
19797 | Citizens must ultimately for forced to accept the general will (so freedom is compulsory!) [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: To avoid the general compact being an empty formula, it tacitly entails the commitment that whoever refuses to obey the general will will be forced to do so by the entire body. This means merely that he will be forced to be free. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.7) | |
A reaction: Rousseau obviously enjoyed this paradox (which sounds like US foreign policy). Apart from anarchism, any political system will need a bit of force to back it up. Should democratic voting becoming compulsory, if the turnout declines too far? |
19796 | Individual citizens still retain a private will, which may be contrary to the general will [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Each individual can, as a man, have a private will contrary to or different from the general will that he has as a citizen. His private interest can speak to him in an entirely different manner than the common interest. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.7) | |
A reaction: So why I accept the general will when these two clash (apart from threat of punishment - which may be capital if I am recalcitrant!)? Usually the general will is also for my good - but not always. Idealist love of the people? |
7244 | The general will is common interest; the will of all is the sum of individual desires [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The general will studies only common interest, while the will of all studies private interest, and is indeed no more than the sum of individual desires. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.03) | |
A reaction: This invites the obvious liberal response (given later by utilitarians: Idea 3778) that there can be no more to any great 'will' than the sum of the individuals (which leads to Margaret Thatcher's famous 'there is no such thing as society'). |
19802 | The general will is always right, but the will of all can err, because it includes private interests [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The general will is always right. ....There is often a great deal of difference between the will of all and the general will. The latter considers only the general interest, but the former considers private interest and is merely the sum of private wills. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.03) | |
A reaction: Hence in order to get an expression of the general will, voters must exclusively focus on the general good. I do that in general elections, only to find that the people around me vote for their own interests. I wish we all did the same thing. |
19803 | If the state contains associations there are fewer opinions, undermining the general will [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: If there are partial association in the state ...there are no longer as many voters as there are men, but merely as many as there are associations. The differences become less numerous and yield a result that is less general. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.03) | |
A reaction: This appears to entirely reject political parties, and similar groups, which he had seen forming in England. It goes with his interesting faith that the more separate views there are, the more the right choice will emerge. |
19804 | If a large knowledgeable population votes in isolation, their many choices will have good results [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: If, when a sufficiently informed populace deliberates, the citizens were to have no communication among themselves, the general will would always result from a large number of small differences, and the deliberations would always be good. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.03) | |
A reaction: An obvious weak point in the electorate being well informed, if someone controls the sources of information. All the optimism of the Enlightenment is in this idea - that rational beings converge of the truth. All pubs closed in the month of an election? |
19808 | The general will changes its nature when it focuses on particulars [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Just as a private will cannot represent the general will, the general will, for its part, alters its nature when it has a particular object. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.04) | |
A reaction: Is the general will, then, in danger of being much too general, because as soon as it gets close to anything practical it becomes distorted. It can design the constitution, but can it give a view on capital punishment, or is that too personal? |
7246 | The general will is always good, but sometimes misunderstood [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: By themselves the people always will what is good, but by themselves they do not always discern it. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.06) | |
A reaction: This sounds like a can of worms. It invites someone to step in as interpreter - a spin doctor, perhaps, or a newspaper proprietor. The first proposition strikes me as absurdly optimistic. Think of the people of Europe in August 1914. |
7250 | Laws are authentic acts of the general will [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The laws are nothing other than the authentic acts of the general will. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.12) | |
A reaction: I wonder how you tell whether an act of the general will is 'authentic'? Nevertheless, in a modern democracy there seems a lot of truth in it; when controversial legislation is in the offing, governments have to be very attentive to the people. |
19844 | Assemblies must always confirm the form of government, and the current administration [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The opening of assemblies, which solely aim to preserve the social treaty, should always start with two separate propositions: 1) does it please the sovereign to preserve the present form of government?, 2) ...and to preserve the present administration? | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.18) | |
A reaction: I would love it if the British people were allowed to discuss our form of government, but it now seems completely ossified. Being a monarchy, with the consequent patronage, almost guarantees this stasis. |
19846 | The more unanimous the assembly, the stronger the general will becomes [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The more harmony reigns in the assemblies, that is to say, the closer opinions come to unanimity, the more dominant too is the general will. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], IV.2) | |
A reaction: This seems important, because the general will comes in degrees. A decision from the assembly would come with an index number indicating its strength. His dream is obviously to get close to unanimity on all decisions. Maybe! Brexit 52%! |
19817 | Citizens should be independent of each other, and very dependent on the state [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Each citizen should be perfectly independent of all the others and excessively dependent on the city. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.12) | |
A reaction: Unlike many other of his pronouncements, this sounds a bit like a welfare state, though I doubt if he means that. Rousseau's state, founded by the general will, seems to have a quasi-religious quality, like a devotee's love of God. |
19840 | A citizen is a subject who is also sovereign [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The words 'subject' and 'sovereign' are identical correlatives, whose meaning is combined in the single word 'citizen'. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.13) | |
A reaction: 'Citizen' was the favourite post-revolutionary label, probably based on this remark. I've heard foreigners tease Britons for being 'subjects' of the monarch, where they are pure citizens. But we are all subject to the law, made by others. |
19839 | The flourishing of arts and letters is too much admired [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Times in which letters and arts are known to have flourished have been admired too much. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.09 n9) | |
A reaction: I assume most marxists would agree with this thought. Eighteenth century France is a good candidate for this judgement. The arts always needed patronage. |
19833 | Hereditary monarchy is easier, but can lead to dreadful monarchs [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Some crowns are hereditary. So by substituting the disadvantage of regencies for elections, an apparent tranquillity has been preferred to a wise election, the risk of having children, monsters or imbeciles for leaders is preferred to choosing good kings. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.06) | |
A reaction: Henry VI is the prime English example. The regents feuded, and then when he grew up it became obvious that he was hopeless. How many English monarchs would have been elected? But we would have missed Good Queen Bess. |
19834 | Attempts to train future kings don't usually work, and the best have been unprepared [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: A great deal of effort is made to teach young princes the art of ruling. It does not appear that this education does them any good. It would be better to teach them the art of obeying. The most celebrated kings were not brought up to reign. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.06) | |
A reaction: King Alfred is our prime example of a success, But if only we had had Charles I's late brother Henry, instead the untrained Charles. |
19798 | Ancient monarchs were kings of peoples; modern monarchs more cleverly rule a land [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Ancient monarchs called themselves King of the Persians or Scythians, regarding themselve merely as the leaders of men. Today's monarchs more shrewdly call themselves King of France or England. By holding the land, they are sure of the inhabitants. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.9) | |
A reaction: This matches the Germans being earlier defined by speaking the language, and now defined by a territory. It is more to do with the rise of the modern state than to do with the shrewdness of the monarchs. |
19831 | The highest officers under a monarchy are normally useless; the public could choose much better [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Those who attain the highest positions in monarchies are most often petty bunglers, swindlers and intriguers, whose talents serve only to display their incompetence to the public. The populace is much less often in error in its choice than the prince. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.06) | |
A reaction: Many monarchs have had famously good advisers, such as Lord Burleigh. The worst thing about bad leaders, at any level, is the bad appointments they make. |
19829 | Natural aristocracy is primitive, and hereditary is dreadful, but elective aristocracy is best [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: There are three sorts of aristocracy: natural, elective, and hereditary. The first is suited only to simple people; the third is the worst of any government. The second is the best; it is aristocracy properly so-called. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.05) | |
A reaction: This seems like the modern idea of 'meritocracy'. The Chinese civil service exams, introduced into Europe in the nineteenth century. |
7249 | Natural aristocracy is primitive, hereditary is bad, and elective aristocracy is the best [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: There are three types of aristocracy, natural, elective and hereditary. The first is suited only to primitive peoples; the third is the worst of all governments; the second is the best, and this is aristocracy in the true sense of the word. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.05) | |
A reaction: Presumably he means what we call 'meritocracy', and it seems a bit optimistic to hope that democracy will deliver that. I don't think Plato would expect a democracy to elect his Guardians. |
19830 | Large states need a nobility to fill the gap between a single prince and the people [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: With a large state in the hands of one man there is too great a distance between the prince and the people, and the state lacks cohesiveness. This requires intermediate orders of nobility to fill them. A small state is ruined by all these social levels. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.06) | |
A reaction: [compressed] This seems to be a justification for the French ancien regime. Presumably this bit was not quoted much in 1789. Why must the gap be filled by 'nobility'? What about an elected house of lords? |
19820 | The state has a legislature and an executive, just like the will and physical power in a person [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Every free action has a moral cause, the will, and a physical cause, the power to act. ...The body politic has the same moving causes, namely the legislative power, and executive power. Nothing should be done without their concurrence. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.01) | |
A reaction: [compressed] This terminology is now standard in political philosophy. An absolute monarch like Edward III presumably embodies both branches. |
19827 | Law makers and law implementers should be separate [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: It is not good for the one who makes the laws to execute them. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.04) | |
A reaction: He doesn't give his reasons here, but this piece of wisdom is widely supported. There is a problem when the executive find themselves trying to enforce bad, discredited laws. Maybe the police know best what the law should say? Or not! |
19821 | I call the executive power the 'government', which is the 'prince' - a single person, or a group [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: I call 'government' or supreme administration the legitimate exercise of executive power; I call 'prince' or magistrate the man or body charged with that administration. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.01) | |
A reaction: Whether the prince is one person or many is left up to the legislative body, which is the general will. Rousseau has no view on the matter. |
19824 | Large populations needs stronger control, which means power should be concentrated [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The government becomes slack as the magistrates are multiplied, and the more numerous the people the greater should be the increase of repressive force - ...so the number of leaders should decrease in proportion to the increase of the number of people. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.02) | |
A reaction: This bit sounds Stalinist! A vast population seems to require a dictator. When his state is Geneva-sized Rousseau seems comfortable, but his plans for bigger states are a bit disturbing. |
19826 | Democracy for small states, aristocracy for intermediate, monarchy for large [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Democratic government is suited to small states, aristocratic government to states of intermediate size, and monarchical government to large ones. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.03) | |
A reaction: Is he thinking of France for the large state? What would he have made of 1789? Does this progression go on to increase the power of the monarch as the state gets even larger, into dictatorship? |
19837 | If inhabitants are widely dispersed, organising a revolt is much more difficult [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The greater the area occupied by the same number of inhabitants, the more difficult it becomes to revolt, since concerted action cannot be taken promptly and secretly. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.09) | |
A reaction: Revolutions since then have all occurred in large cities, which have become huge. The dispersal of the rest of the population (as in Russia) doesn't matter. |
19843 | The state is not bound to leave civil authority to its leaders [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The state is no more bound to leave civil authority to its leaders than it is to leave military authority to its generals. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.18) | |
A reaction: He assumes that a meeting of the citizens can articulate a new expression of the general will, but this idea also endorses revolution, if the prince or magistrates refuse to call this national AGM. |
19825 | If the sovereign entrusts government to at least half the citizens, that is 'democracy' [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The sovereign can entrust the government to the entire people or to the majority of them. This is given the name 'democracy'. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.03) | |
A reaction: Note that democracy is here a form for the executive, not for the legislature. I take it that the general will must come close to unanimity, and a mere 51% support for fundamental legislation would never do. Increase the percentage with the importance? |
19832 | Democratic elections are dangerous intervals in government [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Elections leave dangerous intervals and are stormy. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.06) | |
A reaction: American presidential elections partially paralyse government for about nine months. In a settled democracy the process of election seems OK. The immediate aftermath can be worse. Losers may refuse to accept the result. |
7243 | Silence of the people implies their consent [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The silence of the people permits the assumption that the people consents. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.01) | |
A reaction: This seems to me a crucial principle for a democracy, because it says that the democratic way of life is much more than elections. Each citizen has a duty to bravely speak out; the more citizens willing to do this, the less bravery is required. |
7251 | The English are actually slaves in between elections [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The English people believes itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken; it is free only during the election of Members of Parliament; as soon as the Members are elected, the people is enslaved. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.15) | |
A reaction: Rousseau seems to be hoping for some sort of direct democracy. We could probably set up a direct democracy, by implementing regular voting over the internet, but I doubt if Rousseau would like that either. I certainly wouldn't. |
7238 | Minorities only accept majority-voting because of a prior unanimous agreement [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: If there were no earlier agreement, how could there be any obligation on the minority to accept the decision of the majority? The law of majority-voting rests on a covenant, implying at least one previous occasion of unanimity. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.5) | |
A reaction: In Britain this points to the Reform Acts of 1832 onwards as crucial. However, whenever democracy is newly introduced into a country (Iraq being a current spectacular case) there is usually a minority opposed to it, who are forcibly overruled. |
19828 | Democracy leads to internal strife, as people struggle to maintain or change ways of ruling [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: No government is so subject to civil wars and internal agitations as a democratic or popular one, since there is none that tends so forcefully and continuously to change its form, or that demands greater vigilance and courage to keep its form. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.05) | |
A reaction: We would like to think that a robust democracy, with a free press, can cope with all this strife and still survive. He may be thinking of the English Civil War. Democracies seem to be more conservative about the structure of government. |
19835 | When ministers change the state changes, because they always reverse policies [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Each revolution in the ministry produces a revolution in the state, since the maxim common to all ministers and nearly all kings is to do the reverse of their predecessor in everything. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.06) | |
A reaction: Most parents bring up their children by trying to correct mistakes their own parents made. British democracy is rife with this desperate need for a new government to make its mark, because they want to win the next election. |
19849 | In early theocracies the god was the king, and there were as many gods as nations [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: At first men had no other kings but gods, and no other government than a theocratic one. ....By the mere fact that a god was placed at the head of every political society, it followed that there were as many gods as there were peoples. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], IV.8) | |
A reaction: He must be thinking of the Old Testament histories here. (see Spinoza on that!). He says that the modern idea that these were all really the same god is ridiculous. |
19847 | We can never assume that the son of a slave is a slave [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: To decide that the son of a slave is born a slave is to decide that he is not a man. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], IV.2) | |
A reaction: Obviously this is because men are 'born free', though I am not clear how that maxim can be reached. I take it for granted that African slaves in the Americas found themselves born into slavery. No justification was required. |
19841 | Sometimes full liberty is only possible at the expense of some complete enslavement [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: There are some unfortunate circumstances where one's liberty can be preserved only at the expense of someone else's, and where the citizen can be perfectly free only if the slave is completely enslaved. Such was the situation in Sparta. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.15) | |
A reaction: Rousseau wrote just before the moment when it was seen that slavery in European empires might be abolished, but he was not in the forefront of thought on this one. Greek philosophy would probably never have happened without slavery. |
7242 | Appetite alone is slavery, and self-prescribed laws are freedom [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: To be governed by appetite alone is slavery, while obedience to a law one prescribes to oneself is freedom. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.8) | |
A reaction: An interesting formulation, sitting somewhere between Aristotle and Kant. The problem is to find a metaethic which will justify the prescription and nature of the self-imposed law. |
19800 | The social compact imposes conventional equality of rights on people who may start unequally [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Instead of destroying natural equality, the fundamental compact substitutes a moral and legitimate equality to any natural physical inequality. ...so that men all become equal by convention and by right. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.9) | |
A reaction: This does not pretend that equality is a natural right. The imposition of equality is virtually the main point of forming a state. Effectively, the state operates like an insurance company, treating all contributors as equal. |
7248 | No citizen should be rich enough to buy another, and none so poor as forced to sell himself [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Where wealth is concerned, no citizen should be rich enough to buy another, and none should be so poor as to be forced to sell himself. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.11) | |
A reaction: Rousseau is thinking of slavery, but this also points to prostitution as a key indicator of social equality. In Victorian Britain it seems that extensive prostituion was unavoidable; nowadays it looks more like a voluntary choice (for indigenous Britons). |
19794 | If we all give up all of our rights together to the community, we will always support one another [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The social compact reduces to a single clause, namely the total alienation of each associate, together with all of his rights, to the entire community. Since this condition is equal for everyone, no one has an interest in making it burdensome for others. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.6) | |
A reaction: He speaks elsewhere of basic natural rights which can never be alienated, such as self-defence. It is what small groups do all the time, if they start off as equals. Difficult to manage with large groups. Factions are the problem. |
7241 | In society man loses natural liberty, but gains a right to civil liberty and property [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and the absolute right to anything that tempts him; what he gains is civil liberty and the legal rights of propery in what he possesses. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.8) | |
A reaction: It is an appealing idea that the purpose of society is to increase liberty, not to restrict it. That, on the whole, is my view. American libertarianism opens up the world to gun crime, vigilantes, pornographers and bounty-hunters. |
19806 | We alienate to society only what society needs - but society judges that, not us [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Each person alienates, by the social compact, only that portion of his power, his goods, and liberty whose use is of consequence to the community; but we must also grant that only the sovereign is the judge of what is of consequence. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.04) | |
A reaction: The weakness here is how society sees its needs. He seems to assume that two societies will arrive at almost identical general wills, but Spartans, Prussians and Serbs may require the lives of your children for the state. |
19799 | Private property must always be subordinate to ownership by the whole community [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Each private individual's right to his very own store is always subordinate to the community's right to all, without which there could be neither solidity in the social fabric nor real force in the exercise of sovereignty. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.9) | |
A reaction: This may sound a bit drastic, but every country practices this principle, seen in compulsory purchase orders (e.g. to build a railway line). In liberal democracies you expect good compensation. In communist Roumania you were just moved. Also taxation. |
19819 | The state ensures liberty, so civil law separates citizens, and binds them to the state [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The relationship of members to each other should be as small as possible, and as large as possible to the entire body. ...Only the force of the state brings about the liberty of its members. From this relationship civil laws arise. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.12) | |
A reaction: I'm guessing that these laws could be said mainly to prescribe both our rights and our duties. His four types of law are political, civil, criminal, and customary. |
7245 | Natural justice, without sanctions, benefits the wicked, who exploit it [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The laws of natural justice, lacking any natural sanctions, are unavailing among men. In fact, such laws merely benefit the wicked and injure the just, since the just respect them while others do not do so in return. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.06) | |
A reaction: This seems a very accurate observation, and points us towards either contracts, or a justification of the use of force by good people. |
19809 | We accept the death penalty to prevent assassinations, so we must submit to it if necessary [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Whoever wills the end also wills the means. ...The death penalty inflicted on criminals can be viewed from more or less this point of view. It is in order to avoid being the victim of an assassin that a person consents to die, were he to become one. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.05) | |
A reaction: This seems to be roughly the spirit in which Socrates submitted to his death. I doubt whether many criminals agree with harsh punishments dished out to other criminals who get caught. |
19810 | A trial proves that a criminal has broken the social treaty, and is no longer a member of the state [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The legal proceeding and judgement are the proofs and the declaration that a criminal has broken the social treaty, and consequently that he is no longer a member of the state. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.05) | |
A reaction: This seems to be a plausible rationalisation of capital punishment, but what about lesser crimes. Is the interior of a prison a sort of temporary exile from the state? Hence the significance of whether prisoners are allowed to vote. But 19811. |
19811 | Only people who are actually dangerous should be executed, even as an example [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: There is no wicked man who could not be made good for something. One has the right to put to death, even as an example, only someone who cannot be preserved without danger. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.05) | |
A reaction: This formulation implies that we could execute a dangerous person as a deterrent, even though they were not guilty of this particular crime. I suspect that Rousseau was too nice to go through with that. |
7236 | War gives no right to inflict more destruction than is necessary for victory [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: War gives no right to inflict any more destruction than is necessary for victory. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.4) | |
A reaction: This is the principle at stake in discussion of the bombing of Germany in 1942-5. We all seem to agree with this principle, and are shocked by breaches of it, but I am not sure why. Destruction must be a fundamentally bad thing - a basic value. |
23607 | Wars are between States, not people, and the individuals are enemies by accident [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: War is something that occurs not between man and man, but between States. The individuals who become involved in it are enemies only by accident. A State can have as its enemies only other States, not men at all. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], p.249), quoted by Jeff McMahan - Killing in War 2.5 | |
A reaction: This is the classic statement of the collectivist view, which goes on to assert that the morality of warfare is quite different from ordinary morality. McMahan argues against this view, very persuasively. |
19850 | By separating theological and political systems, Jesus caused divisions in the state [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: In separating the theological system from the political system, Jesus made the state to cease being united and caused internal divisions. Since this new idea of an otherwordly kingdom had never entered the heads of pagans, they saw Christians as rebels. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], IV.8) | |
A reaction: This is the sort of stuff that made Rousseau a vast number of enemies, which embittered him. It is the sort of cool assessment which became commonplace in Germany sixty year later. |
19851 | Every society has a religion as its base [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: No state has ever been founded without religion serving as its base. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], IV.8) | |
A reaction: It is not clear to me that the ancient Greek cities had religion as a 'base', though they all had a religion, and expected conformity. Religion doesn't figure much in Thucydides. Communist Russia was the first explicitly atheist state, I think. |
19852 | Civil religion needs one supreme god, an afterlife, justice, and the sanctity of the social contract [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Dogmas of civil religion should be simple. The existence of a powerful, intelligent, beneficent divinity that foresees and provides; the life to come; the happiness of the just; the punishment of the wicked; the sanctity of the social contract and laws. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], IV.8) | |
A reaction: Notice that he gratuitously makes the social contract sacred (even though it can be voluntarily abandoned, and the general will can be changed). Presumably the foundation of any society, such as the ballot box, has to be sacred. |
19853 | All religions should be tolerated, if they tolerate each other, and support citizenship [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Tolerance should be shown to all religions which tolerate other religions, so long as their dogmas contain nothing contrary to the duties of a citizen. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], IV.8) | |
A reaction: Quite a good guideline for the attitude of western countries to middle eastern religious practices which arrive in their midst. Rousseau says the state has a minimal core religion (Idea 19852), which thus tolerates most other religions. |
19836 | The amount of taxation doesn't matter, if it quickly circulates back to the citizens [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: It is not on the basis of the amount of taxation that the burden is measured, but on the basis of the path they have to travel in order to return to the hands from which they came. If circulation is prompt and regular, the amount one pays is unimportant. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.08) | |
A reaction: So the problem is when the government wants to build up a surplus, or pay off debts (or is corrupt, or even if it is suspected of corruption). |
18519 | If there were infinite electrons, they could vanish without affecting total mass-energy [Heil] |
Full Idea: In a universe containing an infinite number of electrons would mass-energy be conserved? ...Electrons could come and go without affecting the total mass-energy. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 03.6) | |
A reaction: This seems to be a very persuasive reason for doubting that the universe contains an infinite number of electrons. In fact I suspect that infinite numbers have no bearing on nature at all. (Actually, I suspect them of being fictions). |
18526 | We should focus on actual causings, rather than on laws and causal sequences [Heil] |
Full Idea: I believe our understanding of causation would benefit from a shift of attention from causal sequences and laws, to instances of causation: 'causings'. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 06.1) | |
A reaction: His aim is to get away from generalities, and focus on the actual operation of powers which is involved. He likes the case of two playing cards propped against one another. I'm on his side. Laws come last in the story, and should not come first. |
18527 | Probabilistic causation is not a weak type of cause; it is just a probability of there being a cause [Heil] |
Full Idea: The label 'probabilistic causation' is misleading. What you have is not a weakened or tentative kind of causing, but a probability of there being a cause. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 06.5) | |
A reaction: The idea of 'probabilistic causation' strikes me as an empty philosophers' concoction, so I agree with Heil. |
18520 | Electrons are treated as particles, but they lose their individuality in relations [Heil] |
Full Idea: Although it is convenient to speak of electrons as particles or elementary substances, when they enter into relations they can 'lose their individuality. Then an electron becomes a kind of 'abstract particular', a way a given system is, a mode. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 03.7) | |
A reaction: Heil rightly warns us against basing our metaphysics on disputed theories of quantum mechanics. |
18501 | Maybe the universe is fine-tuned because it had to be, despite plans by God or Nature? [Heil] |
Full Idea: Maybe the universe is fine-tuned as it is, not because things happened to fall out as they did during and immediately after the Big Bang, or because God so ordained it, but because God or the Big Bang had no choice. | |
From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 08.09) | |
A reaction: You'd be hard put to so why it had to be fine-tuned, so this seems to be a nice speculation. Unverifiable but wholly meaningful. Maybe the stuff fine-tunes itself, by mutual interaction. Or it is the result of natural selection (Lee Smolin). |
7252 | A tyrant exploits Christians because they don't value this life, and are made to be slaves [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The Christian spirit is too favourable to tyranny for tyranny not to take advantage of it. True Christians are made to be slaves; they know it and hardly care; this short life has too little value in their eyes. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], IV.8) | |
A reaction: This is strikingly close to Nietzsche's verdict on Christianity, that it is the essence of slave morality. It has certainly been my experience that Christians tend to be much more reluctant than other people to stand up to authority. |
7900 | Speak the truth, yield not to anger, give what you can to him who asks [Anon (Dham)] |
Full Idea: Speak the truth, yield not to anger, give what you can to him who asks: these three steps lead you to the gods | |
From: Anon (Dham) (The DhammaPada [c.250 BCE], §17.224) | |
A reaction: I don't recall either the Old or New Testament, or the Koran, placing great emphasis on speaking the truth. The injunction to give is not so simple. Give to greedy children, to alcoholics, to criminals, to the rich, to fools, to yourself? |