PLSC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Thought Experiment
Document Summary
A thought experiment to understand how human society has evolved to their current condition. We need to go back more in time to observe the natural man. We can"t acquire property or us industry in the state of nature. Hobbes and locke were wrong in their understandings of the state of nature. Humans are naturally sensitive and compassionate beings. Yet it is destroyed by the passions we gain once we enter in civil society. Yet the duty of the state should not be to protect property, but to mitigate the harshest effects of economic inequalities. Human as a bare animal existence and preservation. The first recognition of superiority over animals. First examples of primitive collective action: target-oriented (hunting) and short term. Long term commitments: families and first examples of distinction. The first type of property: a kind of property . Development of new sentiments: first domestic division of labor, leisure times and conveniences.
