Hobbes was the first behaviorist in a manner of speaking, a thoroughly modern man. His ultimate aim was individual survival; and his ethic, a behaviorist ethic. And we still live under the specter.
Read More »Roger Nowosielski
Hobbes and Locke Revisited: The Foundations of the Modern Liberal State, Part VIII
At the bottom of the liberal theory, the one thing which provides it with its foundation, there lies a peculiar picture of a human, a human qua individual.
Read More »Hobbes and Locke Revisited: The Foundations of the Modern Liberal State, Part VII
It is the singular achievement of the liberal theory to have successfully merged both the political and the economic aspects of being into one indistinguishable whole.
Read More »Hobbes and Locke Revisited: The Foundations of the Modern Liberal State, Part VI
It makes all the sense in the world to contest one’s rights vis-à-vis any oppressive social or political structure; it makes no sense whatever to do so in the context of personal relations.
Read More »Hobbes and Locke Revisited: The Foundations of the Modern Liberal State, Part V
Hobbes may have been a purist compared to Locke, but he did capture better than anyone the tenor of our times: it’s all about statism; the heart of the liberal theory!
Read More »Hobbes and Locke Revisited: The Foundations of the Modern Liberal State, Part IV
Locke was a modern man in a manner of speaking. His cardinal mistake was to assume that macro events guaranteed likewise results in the realm of the individual.
Read More »Hobbes and Locke Revisited: The Foundations of the Modern Liberal State, Part III
The ownership concept extended beyond one’s entitlement to the fruits of his or her labors. The initial axiom, by virtue of its self-evident quality, had come to encompass a great many other things, such as landed property and self-ownership. The seeds which were sown became a weed.
Read More »Hobbes and Locke Revisited: The Foundations of the Modern Liberal State, Part II
Right or wrong, the association of wealth and riches with individuality continues to have a strong hold on us. The things we have, what we drive, where and how we live, the clothes we wear, they all seem to define us. Is there anything wrong with that picture?
Read More »Hobbes and Locke Revisited: The Foundations of the Modern Liberal State, Part I
MacPherson succeeded in articulating a full-blown, state of the art theory of modern day liberalism, a theory which hasn't been refuted as yet: "the political theory of possessive individualism," he called it. Its success derives from having merged the economic, market-related features of a modern-day society with the political ones.
Read More »An Ethic of Virtue and the Modern Condition, Part I
Most human relationships are in essence moral relationships. And if they’re not moral, then they’re not relationships, but mere transactions masquerading as the real.
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