Hobbes, Smith, and modern economoics.

 



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Does the social reality imply a natural reality?

I’m very interested in understanding where the boundary between what we might consider the (or a) ‘natural’ reality and our ‘social’ reality occurs. Professor Toole offers a compelling account of how the ideology of the ruling class shapes the body of knowledge and the conceptual tools available to understand social reality. Professor Toole’s account seems to imply the impossibility of social structures as being ‘natural.’ That is, the term natural social structure or formation would be an oxymoron. She writes, “social structures are…constituted by our choices and actions,” (4) which seems to indicate that social structures are the result of human choices and actions, and so they cannot exist in the absence of them. This also seems to suggest a division between our ‘social’ reality exclusively defined by and dependent on human action and choice and a ‘natural’ reality of things not affected by humans, say the ocean and uranium. I am interested in the boundary and relationship between t...
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The Role of Ideology in Legitimization and Justification

 As I read through the Toole reading, I was especially interested in how "ideologies serve as the basis for legitimizing and justifying some behaviors" (Toole 4). This reminded me of the conversation during last week's seminar, where the topic of justification was brought up in the context of ideology. Specifically, we mentioned how even during atrocities like the Holocaust or Japanese imperialism, ideology was repeatedly touted by the government in order to justify said actions. This then leads to the logical conclusion that even in totalitarian regimes, governments still find the need to justify actions and are in some ways, still responsible to the people they rule over.  I was also interested in the idea of ideologies functioning "as a sort of myth-making" (Toole 4).  I wonder if it is only with an ideology that we can justify the actions one would usually consider abhorrent. If we extend this argument even further, one could argue that human nature is actua...
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Oh Poland, why are you the country of civil disobedience?

  As I was reading through section 55 of Rawls on civil disobedience one thing that I kept thinking of was Poland. However, not about the civil disobedience seen with individuals which happened a myriad of times in the last five years. The women strikes, the protests of law-abiding citizens about the proposed constitutional changes, mine workers, public transport workers, private firms’ owners, and many more have taken the streets of big and small cities in the past few years after a right-wing part Law and Justice gained majority in the legislative and won presidential elections. (Poland is a parliamentary republic.) That was not my main concern but rather what if it is the government that is acting in line of civil disobedience?   Rawls acknowledges that we must have a democratic society and we do have a democratic society in Poland with citizens who “recognize and accept the legitimacy of the constitution.” I would rather say that is the government that does not acknowledge...
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