The Metaphysics of Philosophy, Knowledge and Morality Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Social contract

No-one has been able to demonstrate that society is based on some implicit agreement (a.k.a. a Social Contract) or that society is controlled by an oppressive central power that the individual must be freed from. It’s impossible to demonstrate either, probably because real societies show a mixture of both aspects. A large part of the population tends to agree on a number of fundamental issues, and they base their government on that understanding. Also, a large part of the population will always disagree with the central power, whatever it’s based on.

The difference between less advanced societies and more advanced ones is that less advanced societies use a lot of force against those who disagree, while more advanced societies have more sophisticated ways of handling disagreement. In kingdoms, caliphates and the like it’s a crime to disagree with the ruler or to go against conventions, regardless of whether your deviance is harmful and whether you turn out to be right in the long run. In democracies dissidence and deviance are crimes only when they damage other people, and the individual gets a lot of incentives to play along with others, as opposed brutal punishment for being different. However, no society ever allows people to do whatever they please, regardless of the consequences.

Example: in a liberal democracy, you are free to campaign for gay marriage, you can walk naked in the street, but you can’t call a government office and say you’ve planted a bomb as a hoax. They won’t be amused and you’ll go to jail, even though your deviance didn’t hurt anyone. Also, you won’t be arrested for conspiring to rob a bank unless you act. You’re innocent until found guilty. However, you’ll be arrested for conspiring to murder the president even if you don’t act, and you’re assumed guilty until you “prove” your innocence. Thirdly, you can’t actively disagree with speed limits, tax laws or no-discrimination hiring laws, otherwise you’ll be punished severely. Even though it’s impossible to show that not paying your taxes damages anyone, that exceeding the speed limit hurt anyone unless you caused an accident, and that you hurt anyone by hiring whoever you want to hire. Even the most liberal of democracies is inconsistent in many ways.