What Justifies the State?: John Rawl's Theory of Justice
In the early 1970s John Rawls uses the tradition of social contract as the basis for creating an imagined group that must decide on the rules of justice behind a "veil of ignorance." It is Rawls' contention that people will generate just rules if fo...
What Justifies the State?: Social Contract Theory
Thomas Hobbes, 17th century philosopher, characterized life without government as a "war of all against all" in which life is "nasty, brutish, and short." People agree to form a government simply to protect themselves from each other. This act of co...
Are Interpretations True?: Hermeneutics
The branch of philosophy that deals with interpretation is called hermeneutics, a field that today is applied to many parts of life. Not too long ago its primary focus was on language and methods that assist us in getting at the meaning of texts. In...
Does All Knowledge Come from Experience?: Existence of an External Word...Real or Imagined?, The
Can we be certain our perceptions are backed up by an external world? Hume is skeptical. "Here experience is, and must be entirely silent." According to Hume we have no good reason for believing in the existence of an external world. We have to beli...