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"What an incredibly weird way of looking at one's life." Perhaps so, but there are millions who actually think that way—but that's not to say there aren't othe
by hilbert42 3y ago
"What an incredibly weird way of looking at one's life."
Perhaps so, but there are millions who actually think that way—but that's not to say there aren't others who think like you.
Moreover, such thinking about the obligations a citizens has to society and vice versa has been at the center of social contract theory (and practice) for hundreds of years. Thomas Hobbes wrote about the social contract in the mid 17th Century in his Leviathan, Rousseau in 1762 in The Social Contract —which was influential in the French Revolution, and that's just for starters.
Explain how I owe anything to anyone."
There's a whole branch of philosophy and political science based around that notion. Here, I couldn't even get to first base to explain why as there is so much stuff to cover.
- vbi8iBEX 3y ago> There's a whole branch of philosophy and political science based around that notion. Here, I couldn't even get to first base to explain why as there is so much stuff to cover. As an individual human being I reject all of it. See the rest of my comments to really understand where I'm coming from. No one owes society their creations. Edit - Since we're citing philosophy, see: Ayn Rand.
- hilbert42 3y ago"see: Ayn Rand." I'd have bet on that if it weren't a certainty—no good if bookies' odds were only even money. :-) Hayek, von Mises and Friedman were friends I assume?
- w4ffl35 3y agoObjectively though: no one owes anything to society. I can take my education and my creative works to my grave and the Universe doesn't care. Your original argument was from a moral high-ground that doesn't exist. > I'd have bet on that if it weren't a certainty—no good if bookies' odds were only even money. :-) I held these beliefs long before reading anything by Rand.
- hilbert42 3y ago"I held these beliefs long before reading anything by Rand." Right. I've not only read several of Rand's books but I still have my decades-old copy of Atlas Shrugged. She didn't change my mind but she enlightened me about people like you think. It's strange how people with such opposite and irreconcilable views can actually live in society and yet, somehow, it still manages to function.