Intellectual
Posts: 21
Joined: 9/1/2012 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Kana Dude-you need to read Lord of the Flies. Since you like philosophy, how bout going back to an original, Hobbes. He famously postulated that life w/o civilization, as in the original primal nature state is solitary, lonely, nasty, brutish and short. In this state, everyone is entitled to anything and everything in the world. This in turn leads to bellum omnium contra omnes, an eternal war of all against all for survival (The modern version of this of course is Anne Rice's depiction of the world as the savage garden) In this world there can never be peace, so there can never be industry, trade, culture, arts or agriculture. Thus, in order to live life, man surrenders some of his initial rights to everything and anything-thus the social contract is formed. Well, I frankly admit that I'm not familiar with Hobbes. But from the way you are describing his theory, I'm not convinced. Life was never solitary and lonely. Apes hunt in packs, and so did the first humans. There is even evidence that the first humans performed primitive surgery on one another. If life was brutish and short, it was due to the lack of technology, not due to the lack of social contracts. Claiming that socially more advanced civilizations are also more technologically advanced is putting the cart before the horse. When a certain group of people gains a technological edge over other groups, some members within the group will become lazy and try to sponge off the system. They might aspire to professions, which are not really necessary, like bankers, lawyers, musicians. When other groups catch up, the system collapses.
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