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[quote user="ToxicAssets"] Any theory you want. I'm denouncing any notion of a contract envolving society as whole as nonsense. [/quote] Well, Locke's and Hobbes' theories, for instance, build from individuals in a state of nature. So what specifically do you find troublesome with their conceptions of the social contract.
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[quote user="Autolykos"] [quote user="National Acrobat"]I agree with all of that, but that doesn't mean you have to play dumb [sic] to the intentional lethality of guns vs swimming pools.[/quote] Just what difference must intentional lethality make? [/quote] It does't have to make any difference. However, people who support
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[quote user="Autolykos"] Still waiting for a response from you here, National Acrobat. What are you afraid of? [/quote] Strange post. I don't know what you're waiting for. I supported my contention. It's time for you agree to the conditions I laid out.
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[quote user="Autolykos"] Substantiate this. I don't necessarily agree with any or all of it. [/quote] I don't care if you agree with it or not
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[quote user="Anenome"] Common understandings can be initiated by voluntary agreement. You don't need a political institution. [/quote] First thing, you’ve disregarded the conception of politics I’ve put forward, substituting your own and reading into my post what you want. I’m assuming you’re using the Oppenheimer
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[quote user="Autolykos"] Prove it. I'm not even going to be polite to you. Again, prove it. [/quote] You said above (and below incidentally) that I believe that bureaucratic discretion can fill in the gaps between regulations making all aspects of life subject to some form of bureaucratic discretion. I’ve said clearly this is not
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[quote user="ToxicAssets"] Of course "signing a contract" is just a metonym for the establishment of a ruled relationship. No one needs to sign a piece of paper, but the point is that the parts of the relationship must exist and they must understand the terms and they must accept the terms, whether they have been expressed in paper
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[quote user="Anenome"] How do you define 'political institution' in this context? I've done a lot of thinking and development on the idea of exactly that, what a society without political institutions would look like, ie: a free society, and I think it's not only possible, it's doable in reality. You can have voluntary
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[quote user="Torsten"] Institutions are relationships between individuals and/or groups that have been internalized creating a certain amount of stability. Political institutions are those relationships through which people exercise agency over certain articulated common understandings. In any society these will exist. And since they are relational
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[quote user="Autolykos"] [quote user="National Acrobat"] I have a gut feeling we mean different things by political institutions. What is a political institutions to you?[/quote] In this case, I mean whatever you mean. [/quote] Complex social interactions require common understandings that provide the identities, interests, and preferences