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I really don't see
the point to all this contract theory.
First of all, I will bet you
anything that when each philosopher examines
the initial position and comes to a conclusion
about what contract people in that initial
position would make, it just happens to be a
contract that supports his political
philosophy. Do you think it just happens that
liberal John Rawls finds a contract that leads
to more benefits for the poor? Or that
libertarian Jan Narveson finds a contract that
supports libertarian principles? Not on your
life. Everybody finds what they want in
contract theory.
And secondly, what
difference does it make? Suppose Loren Lomasky
is right and people in some imaginary initial
state would agree to libertarian principles.
So what? We don't live in a world in which
those principles have been followed. We live
in a world in which a half dozen European
powers stole two whole continents from their
inhabitants in the 16th century. We live in a
world in which Soviet communism redistributed
the wealth of a gigantic empire in the 20th
century. How are we supposed to deal with
that? Are we just supposed to say that
everybody can keep the property they have and
we will move forward from here? That's morally
crazy. If anything, we would be driven to some
sort of welfare state just to make up for the
crimes of the past.
My point is that I don't see
how contract theory helps us at all.
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