4 ms·
I would call that a state; why is it not a state?
by foobarbazqux 13y ago
I would call that a state; why is it not a state?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- baddox 13y agoTo clarify: you call territorialism in the animal kingdom a state?
- foobarbazqux 13y agoSure, why not? Humans are animals, after all.
- baddox 13y agoI would prefer a more specific definition that would match more closely to people's intuition about what is and isn't a state, and also allows for discussion about what the state should and shouldn't do. If we define "state" as to include animals protecting their territory, I don't see how the term will be very useful in any discussion.
- kaonashi 13y agoI think it's a specific rejection of the notion that there ever existed a time before governments. Governments existed, in some form, the moment particles started interacting.
- foobarbazqux 13y agoI hadn't thought of it in those terms but I like that understanding of governments. A cell is a state, its laws are its DNA, and its borders are its membrane; and not just metaphorically speaking.
- foobarbazqux 13y agoOne useful reason to define states as such is because it's a definition that draws on the natural world. If states are only natural, and inevitable, then we don't have to argue about whether they are fundamentally good or bad. What is your definition of a state?
- iopq 13y agoa state has to: 1) tax people who live there 2) threaten people who don't pay with force otherwise, it has no resources of its own, so it doesn't exist as an entity
- foobarbazqux 13y agoHow is this not the case in the residential pride of lions where the 5-6 lionesses do the hunting for the 1-2 male lion leaders? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion#Group_organization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion#Group_organization