Ariadne's Thread on Property
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  Fred Speaking

Speaker I like the contractarian tradition. It has an enormous advantage over any other approach that I know of because it provides a good answer to the question "Why ought we to do X?" for a secular culture. The answer is simply "Because reasonable, prudent people would agree to it" or some more complex variation on that theme.

If you look back on all of modern moral philosophy, the fundamental problem is to provide a foundation for moral obligation. For me personally it is enough to believe that God has created a moral law for mankind. But for those who reject God, it is difficult to find a persuasive justification for obligation. Science can't do it. Hume taught us that when he said that we cannot derive ought from is. So where does obligation come from? That's where contractarianism comes in. Most of us feel that a free agreement to follow a rule generates an obligation to follow that rule.



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