What is Real?: Reality as a Social Construction
Realists agree with anti-realists that much of reality is a social construction--money, marriage, government, language. But realists also believe there has to be a world that's independent of our representation of how things are. In contrast, anti-r...
The Power of the State
Philosopher John Searle argues that the power of the state is created by the fact that people are willing to accept it. He goes on to say that this is true with all of our social institutions. As an example, he mentions money, noting that if people ...
The Justification of the State
Philosopher John Searle rejects the idea of having to justify "the state" because he says we are not only biological "beasts" but social beasts as well, and can't live without some kind of institutional structure. He does say that there is nothing w...